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Homelessness In Kalamazoo

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Homelessness In Kalamazoo
Introduction
Homelessness is a part of life many are aware of and may even have witnessed or observed an individual experiencing homelessness. Homelessness crosses many social classifications including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, location, health, social status, and family status (Mizrahi & Davis, 2008). There are homeless individuals in every city across the United States. This paper will focus on the homeless population within the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Task 1: Identify Focal Community
What is known about the history of this community?
Kalamazoo is the sixth largest city in the state of Michigan with a population of over 76,041 (The United States Census Bureau, 2010-2015). According to the Kalamazoo city government …show more content…
The Kalamazoo Continuum of Care identifies homeless individuals as the following:
Individuals or families who lack a fixed, regular or adequate nighttime residence; and have a primary nighttime residence that is- a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters and transitional housing); an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodations for human beings. (City of Kalamazoo, 2014, p. 32 pa. …show more content…
The city of Kalamazoo publishes a 5-year consolidated plan that discusses the city’s housing and development needs (City of Kalamazoo, 2014). The 2014-2018 plan identified goals for the following areas of need: affordable housing, homeless assistance, neighborhood enhancement, and youth development (City of Kalamazoo, 2014).The Consolidation Plan’s priority needs summary identified emergency shelter, rapid rehousing and prevention as high priority needs for improving the issues of homelessness in Kalamazoo (City of Kalamazoo, 2014). Priority for the 2014 to 2018 Consolidation Plan was given to the re-housing model, homelessness assistance model, and homelessness prevention (City of Kalamazoo, 2014). In 2015, the Kalamazoo County Local Housing Assistance Fund Millage was approved by the citizens of Kalamazoo County (Monacelli, 2015). It is estimated that this tax millage will provide $800,000 to be used for providing temporary financial housing assistance to homeless families with children to help them obtain and maintain permanent housing (Monacelli,
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