Essay Title: Reflection on Homelessness.
Homelessness is a situation whereby people lack a constant pattern of living in that they don’t have a home to shelter, mostly they shelter in churches and institutions, while others shelter in tents and vehicles. Individuals who are homeless are usually not able to access and maintain a constant, safe, secure and enough housing. They sleep in streets or private places which are not planned to be used as sleeping places for people.
It’s beyond doubt that homelessness in America is a crucial issue. In 2002,633782 citizens were found without homes. This is according to count done by the U.S department of urban development and housing.2007, is the benchmark as from the report showed 6.8% drop in homeless people. There was also a 3.7% decline in homeless families and 13.1% in unsheltered homeless population.19.1% of the people were experiencing homelessness. A number of 1.5 million children annually becomes homeless. In the year 2013, this number increased to 2.5 million. The highest number of homeless people of the age less than 18 years is experienced in Florida and California. The main reason why many youths are homeless is because they are unemployed due to under age and lack of job opportunities. Although recently there’s a decrease in number of Unemployment but still homelessness is a problem.
In U.S.A, the first occurrences of homelessness started in the years of 1960s.This were as a result of settler’s wars. The Native Americans were forcibly moved. Many went to cities around the port rendering them homeless and immigrants. From there they started moving to different cities where they were treated with hostility. Those who went to the New England, from 1960s to 1970s were required to plead with the white fathers and promise them that they will take care of themselves without being a burden to anyone. They were then allowed to stay only if only if they believed them. The physical and mental disabled, widows, alcoholics, orphans and the elders were chased away. Many of this people moved to other towns in search of home to settle. Even though there were many opportunities, they were not for everyone.
Another thing that caused a large number of people to be without homes is the policy by the federal which displaced the Native Americans mostly those the south east. They then migrated to Oklahoma. After this action, Andrew Jackson became famous leading to him being president.
People started moving into urban centers in search of employment, many of this people lacked employment and became homeless. Those who did not have homes were discriminated. This was a foolish act while dealing with homeless people. This is what happened and unfortunately it’s still happening up to now. At this same time industrial revolution emerged rendering a lot of people disabled. This people became disabled since they couldn’t and earn.
After sometime the train system started and people from people from small towns like Ohio especially the black Americans moved north. The train line expansion caused a huge impact in USA. Many of the Veterans with skills to survive and having stress caused by post traumatic disorders were the riders of the rails. Most of them were single men who were alcolic’s and had mental illness.
In the year 1882, in Network city became Sardines and children stayed in the streets. Even though the economy started growing in the 20th century and the country rocked citizens were homeless and poor. It’s in Chicago that people started to be taught on homelessness. This is where social works started. Again came the sociological movement.
At this time Alice Steinberger wrote her book “a thousand homeless men” which was largely studied. Nelson Anderson also wrote on “Chicago’s kid row in the hobo” this happened in the 1923 on Madison street.
In the year 1870s many rescue missions came into action including the Salvation Army. Other causes of homelessness are the massive flood of the Mississippi river, The Chicago fire in 1871,The 1906 San Francisco earth quake and finally the Asia tsunami. From this occurrences life never became the same again.
Homelessness is as a result of a number of causes.one of the critical causes is tragic life occurrences which include loss of close people, losing jobs, domestic violence and family disputes.
Another cause might be mental diseases and depression. Insufficient income by thee poor people is also another cause of homelessness. Still under qualifications and debts have rendered many homeless.rising unemployment, rising rents, and
federal cuts in assistance — a
confluence of factors that creates the
“captive state” of
homelessness.(Rachel and her CHildren,Jonathan Kazol)
Many of this people without homes face a lot of problems. According to ‘Rachel and her children, Jonathan Kazol’ the greatest challenge being faced by the homeless is to figure out how to get a home to call theirs. He continues to say that life is very hard for those living without a home since they suffer a lot. These people lack personal security, a quiet and private environment especially at night to sleep. They also do not have a place to store their properties and it becomes hard for them to carry everywhere they go. A great problem faced by them are health hazards resulting from unhygienic environment where they obtain, prepare and store their meals. What makes it worse is that they have reduced access to health services. These people go ahead to receive hostility from legal powers.Society often shuns the homeless, Kozol
writes, but he argues that we’re
reluctant to blame ourselves for
creating their plight.
Their situation could have been better if they could have had enough access to education. In Anna Quinten’s story published on 31st January 1998, a man and a woman have five children and they all stay in a house having two rooms inside a hotel. Here there toilets doesn’t function properly and results to unbelievable stench. This story clearly depicts an aspect of how homeless people suffer.
People who are homeless have a great impact on the whole society and the community around. Helping and maintaining this people by building them shelters, day centers and hospitals is costly and this affects the economy. Because some of this donations and services aren’t enough some of them turn out to be thieves and even gangsters in order for them to get their basic needs. This results to a threat in the security sector.
Existence of homelessness is also a threat to the environment because due to lack of resources, many of them are forced to respond to call of nature in inconvenient places. The cost of cleaning up all this mess is from the taxes and this affects the economy of a nation.
In many countries there are ongoing programs which have been put forward to help those people without homes. These programs are supported by the government, churches, charities and volunteers. Due to lack of jobs many have started begging in the streets. In most governments, this act has been ruled as illegal.
Removing the homeless from the streets is not the solution of homelessness in the society. Instead there’s need to train this people to be productive for them to sustain themselves. This will make them help themselves since they will be in access of some income. This will also result to an increase in economy as result of the taxes they will be contributing to the government.
This can be done by training them to do different kinds of jobs in order to earn some capital. In addition they should be trained on saving and investing so that they improve their living standards.
In order to end homelessness we should also campaigns to get legal and policy solutions in order for people’s homes to be protected. In America there’s a number of volunteering organizations which have come up to help them and an example is the Rescue missions and the salvation armies. This is a good start for the plight of homelessness though still much is required.
Works cited
Kozol, Jonathan Rachel and her Children New York, Random House , 2011
Intenet Cited Works
The The National Center for Family Homelessness
The History of Homelessness in America, 1640-Present
Life on the streets: Documentary to illustrate day-to-day struggles of homeless children
National Alliance to End HomelessnessNational Center for Family Homelessness
The History of Homelessness in America, 1640-Present
Life on the streets: Documentary to illustrate day-to-day struggles of homeless children
National Alliance to End Homelessness
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