POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS
Homelessness denotes to the action of having no home; it is not a must for one to be living in the streets for him/her to be considered homeless. People who have no rights to stay at home or in the areas where they stay are also considered homeless. Additionally, individuals who are living in unsuitable areas can also be termed as homelessness. Moreover, homelessness can be defined as the extreme type of poverty accompanied by instability of shelter, the inadequacy of the social support, health care aids and income. In the U.S, roughly 1% of the residents (two to three million) individuals experiences homelessness every day. At least eight hundred (800,000) individuals in the U.S suffer from the act of homelessness. Most of the individuals who suffer from homelessness are the homeless youths, unaccompanied run-away, single individuals and families who have children. Homelessness tends to have a significant negative impact on the victims of the situation; hence the governments from various nations need to put more emphasis on addressing the issue. The essay explores homelessness as a social problem and develops an action plan necessary to resolve the issue.
Homelessness, as various factors cause a social problem. For instance, the issue of homelessness is linked to multiple factors such as substance abuse, financial instability due to underemployment and unemployment, domestic violence and mental illness. Mostly, the issue is triggered by a combination of factors rather than a single factor (Baum, 2019). Poverty and the issue of homelessness are closely linked; research indicates that people who are often unable to cater for food, childcare, housing education and healthcare triggers people to end up making hard choices. They mostly end living in the streets.
Additionally, domestic violence contributes to the issue of domestic violence; for instance, battered women from poor backgrounds are mostly forced to select between homelessness and abusive relationships (Baum, 2019). They end up making hard choices, such as finding their ways on the streets. The other issue which causes people to end up homelessness is the issue of mental illness (Rukmana, 2020). Severe mental illness affects people ability to undertake essential tasks in their lives, such as household management and self-care (Timmer, Eitzen, & Talley, 2019). Also, mental illness often generates hostility among the victims making family members, friends and relatives desert the person. Hence the victims are left with no choice rather than running to the streets where they end up being homelessness. Research has indicated that twenty to twenty-five percent (20-25%) of the homeless population living in the united states have a mental illness.
The homelessness tends to have a significant adverse effect on the victims of the situation. Individuals who are homeless tend to suffer from various health complications such as anxiousness and depression. Homelessness means that individuals are exposed to unsanitary conditions, and cold environments in the street can cause multiple health issues to the victims such as leg ulcers, respiratory infections and frostbite (Rukmana, 2020). Also, people living in the streets are more prone to abuse, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty there have been more than six hundred cases of the attacks against those living in the streets. Homeless people living in the streets are often attacked by the use of chains, hard objects, baseball bats as well as other types of weapons. Moreover, the issue of homelessness tends to disrupt the unity of a family; streets tend to exhibit discrimination, for example, some streets do not accept girls to live in their area while others do not accept boys. Additionally, children living in the streets exhibit more significant health problems (Seastress et al.,2019). For instance, children who live in the streets record high rate of stomach problems, asthma and another form of infections compared to their agemates who are not homeless.
An Action Plan to Address the Issue of Poverty and Homelessness
The issue of poverty and homelessness has multiple adverse effects; hence government need to develop necessary strategies to address the issue.
Awareness building stage
The various causes of poverty and homelessness include; domestic violence, mental illness, foreclosure and addiction disorders. Also, the problem is caused by numerous social-economic issues such as the increased rate of under-employment and unemployment in the current society. The most affected group by the issue of homelessness are the youth, families and children from low-income families and individuals suffering from domestic violence.
Organizing Stage
Some of the various possible solutions to the issue of poverty and homelessness include the following; federal housing assistance. The government needs to develop federal housing programs to mitigate the issue of homelessness. The most extensive federal housing programs involve federal housing voucher and public housing. Additionally, the government needs to enact a coordinated approach; this approach is significant since it aids at offering services and housing to homeless individuals. The other strategy necessary to mitigate the issue of poverty and homelessness if the “housing first”, this approach encompasses moving the long-term homeless persons from the streets to subsidized houses and introducing them to the support services. Moreover, the government should enact necessary programs meant at increasing the rate of employment in society. With increased employment, people will be able to cater for their basic needs such as housing; hence there will be a reduction of the homelessness cases.
Strategies Development Stage
This stage involves the submission of the action plan to the necessary authority. It consists of convincing the essential authority the importance of executing the laid down solutions to facilitate in mitigation of the occurrence of the homelessness problem in the society. Once the necessary organization has approved the resolutions, the next stage should involve putting down the appropriate actions.
Action Stage
This stage involves putting the laid down solutions into practice. It includes a joint action between the local organizations and community-based organizations. Means to implement the solutions are developed in this stage. Government organizations develop various measures necessary to ensure the function ability of the underlined solutions and putting the solutions into practice. Government organizations should initiate the required measures to ensure the success of the various laid solutions to mitigate the issue of homelessness, for instance, by building houses to accommodate homelessness individuals.
References
Baum, A. S. (2019). A nation in denial: The truth about homelessness. Routledge.
Rukmana, D. (2020). The Causes of Homelessness and the Characteristics Associated With High Risk of Homelessness: A Review of Intercity and Intracity Homelessness Data. Housing Policy Debate, 1-18.
Seastres, R. J., Hutton, J., Zordan, R., Sundararajan, V., Kiburg, K., Mackelprang-Carter, J., & Moore, G. (2019, November). LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF HOMELESSNESS ON MORTALITY: A 15-YEAR AUSTRALIAN COHORT STUDY. In DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW (Vol. 38, pp. S93-S93). 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA: WILEY.
Timmer, D. A., Eitzen, D. S., Talley, K. D., & Eitzen, D. S. (2019). Paths to homelessness: Extreme poverty and the urban housing crisis. Routledge.