Homelessness is an ongoing social problem in the U.S. On top of being without shelter, these individuals are faced with a vast array of dangers that individuals with shelter do not face. These dangers may include exposure to inclement weather conditions, lack of health care, hate crime activity, substance abuse, and ultimately death. Acquiring homeless rates with intentions of conducting data research can be difficult being that America is a country established on pride, and one may not want to reveal that they are however in a homeless situation, and may find the questionings degrading or offensive. According to an MSNBC article, there were 744,000 homeless people…
In January 2015, over 500,000 people were homeless in the Unite States. A large part of this includes people needing help such as medical attention. Helping others can uplift ones spirits and help make the world a better place.…
My friends and I left the restaurant, laughing. It was getting dark and the city was beautifully lit. We smiled and chatted as we walked through downtown. Suddenly my eyes fell on a young woman arranging her sleeping quarters in the middle of the sidewalk. She looked barely older than me - she could have easily been a college student. The girl sat down and pulled a few dirty blankets over her body, preparing for the night’s sleep. I was staggered by the similarities between the two of us. Her face stuck in my memory as I got home and climbed into my comfortable bunk bed. People my age weren’t supposed to be homeless, were they? Where was her family, her connections? Why would she be on the streets? Were there more people like her or was she an anomaly? I realized I knew nothing about homelessness and had instead been subconsciously analyzing it with my own preconceptions as a basis. But I wasn’t the only one allowing myself to remain so misinformed. Research shows there are almost ubiquitous misconceptions concerning homelessness and the stigma against it, especially when it comes to the demographics of the homeless population, the amount of crimes…
Homeless people have the tendency to treat the streets of cities like their personal homes. It’s only natural that they do this because hey, the streets are their homes. But this becomes a problem when you are strolling the streets of your beautiful city and are overwhelmed and distressed by the horrific stench of urine and waste consume the side walk. Like I said before, the sidewalks are homeless people’s homes but when you have to hold your breath, it becomes a problem.…
Homelessness has been affecting societies despite of economic stability and the overall wealth of the nation. It is seen as a stigma and directly associated with the concept of marginalization. There are the conventional notions of people sleeping in a cardboard box or addicts concealed between the alleyways of streets. Yet the homeless include those who live in their cars, in temporary shelters, abandoned buildings, and cheap motels. They are individuals who lack sufficient resources and who can not afford adequate housing. But what defines a home? Homelessness is about more than rooflessness. A home is not just a physical…
Dorothy Day once said, “What we would like to do is change the world-make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do”; as people living in the United States where homeless can be seen on nearly every street corner, we should take a stand against this issue and do something. Just think if, in 100 years, all American citizens have a desire to help aid in some way the issue of homelessness in America.…
The United States is not the same as it used to be in my perspective. I think the people are becoming more and more divided everyday. Everyday on the news I hear of a shooting of a black kid and the African American community goes crazy and protest against the police. I think this country is falling apart. It’s just a matter of time. Then there’s the people that come in illegally. They cross the border and commit crimes. I believe it’s the corrupt politicians fault.\s.…
He walks in the door, tired and weak. He has no car, or home, and he’s walked from the complete other side of town just to get food. Starving, he orders his sandwich with the utmost politeness. His name is Frank, a homeless man that we--at Jimmy John’s--give free food to. Frank comes in very often to get food, because there’s not many other ways for him to get food because he can’t afford it himself. Frank also suffers from mental disabilities, and it is incredibly sad to see him homeless and hungry like he is. Frank can not maintain a stable job because of these mental disabilities. Instead of neglecting the homeless for not getting a job, we should be doing everything we can to help them get back on their feet.…
some of the reasons people find themselves without a roof over their heads. So with these…
media and the general public even though it continues to grow. It is estimated that more than 7…
Homelessness has declined a great amount since previous years but there are families and individuals which are on the edge of becoming homeless and it is easy to see why. Gas prices go up daily and fluctuate, groceries become more expensive without coupons, houses double in value when they aren’t even worth it, and apartment rent is becoming more expensive as well. An online article called Just Released: The State of Homelessness in America, there was a report which stated that “during a time when there was more economic growth, unemployment decreased in almost all states, and homelessness decreased as well but the number for people at risk of homelessness ‘remained at post-recession levels.’” National Alliance to End Homelessness (April 2015,…
Homelessness is defined as people who are living in places not meant for human inhabitance where they temporarily reside. Among youth in the United States, homelessness dates back as far as the country’s earliest history. Adolescents deviated and went off on their way to seek economic opportunity and adventure while the country was being expanded westward. During the 1800s, a widespread of homelessness among poor immigrant youth who were unwanted and unneeded in the workforce was taking place. Later, another wave of homeless youth was brought by The Great Depression. Because large parts of the overall population were homeless, issues related specifically to youth homelessness were ignored. In the 1960s, a new group of homeless youth were labeled “runaways”.…
According to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, "homeless youth are typically defined as unaccompanied youth between the ages of 12 and 24 who are without family support and who are living in shelters, on the streets, in cars or vacant buildings or who are "couch surfing" or living in other unstable circumstances." On any given night in the US, there is about half a million homeless individuals. 40 percent of that are homeless youth. It is important to say that exact numbers of homeless youth are hard to determine because the lack of standard methods and the mobility of the homeless population. The amount of homeless youth is staggering and heartbreaking. There are many factors that lead to homelessness, and many consequences…
(Insel) Shockingly, of the 450 million people worldwide who suffer from mental health conditions, 60 percent do not receive any form of care. Much is not the cost of care, but the loss of income due to unemployment, expenses for social supports, and a range of indirect costs due to a chronic disability that began early in life. The World Health Organization has reported that mental illnesses are the leading causes of disability adjusted life years worldwide, accounting for 37% of healthy years lost from non-communicable diseases. Depression alone accounts for one third of this disability. People who have negative views of mental health are less likely to help lift the burden of mental illness. By bringing awareness to mental illness society will be more apt to donate to better care for mentally ill individuals so funds can be put toward beneficial aspects instead of helping individuals simply survive. Creating parity between mental and physical illness allows for research, training, treatment and prevention that will lead to money saved and citizens helped. The discrepancy between the cost of mental health disorders as compared to the funding of research is startling, and is believed to be caused by the stigma associated with…
One common theme found in the mental health care industry is the deficiency of acknowledgement, in terms of overall health status and the well-being of the people involved. The consequence and cause to this is the fact that mental health research is poorly funded and developed due to politics, the economy, and stigma. Even with the limited imbursement given, money is being spent with limited value and accountability (Bhattacharya et all. 2001). Despite all this, mental health is not even considered near to the same degree as importance as physical health, so its neglectfulness results in this area of public health to be poorly studied; hence suffering people who don’t receive treatment to its full potential (World Health Organization, 2003).…