The aim of this essay is to discuss various facets of homelessness and its effect on the overall operations of the country. The economy of the United States is higher than most of the other developed countries in the world but there are numerous social problems creating barriers for the overall growth of the country. Among these important barriers, the issue of homelessness has turned heads of the political leaders as this is associated with the wellbeing of the whole nation and key judgment factor how much successful they are in working for the entire population. This essay will be discussing the reasons of homelessness, its effects, and the initiatives of the governments to end homelessness in the country.
In different countries, the factors of homelessness are different as the consideration of being homeless is diverse in countries so also its legal definition (Crisis.org.uk). However, to understand the far-reaching effects of this particular issue, the definition of homelessness needs to be understood. It is the circumstance when the people do not have a permanent dwelling like any apartment or house. People in this situation cannot acquire as well as maintain a safe, secure and regular housing in any way. In addition to this, the term homelessness also includes those whose night time residence is in the homeless shelters, long term residence in the motels, domestic violence shelter, vehicle, cardboard boxes, tarpaulins, tent city, squatting and shanty towns made of rejected building materials (Endhomelessness.org).
As the crisis charity made to help the homelessness issues in the different parts of the world, home to people is not just a physical shelter but provides roots, security, identity, sense of belonging and space for emotional wellbeing (Crisis.org.uk). Therefore, homelessness is not just a physical private place for shelter but provides a psychological support for all inclusive growth. Homelessness in any place and any reason is devastating, isolating and dangerous. This emerges from many crises and is the reason for many crises. According to data, there are no perfect figure explaining the number of homeless people in the country but roughly it is 0.17% of all the population in the USA (Endhomelessness.org). This became a national issue in 1870s when many people started to live in the emerging urban areas. After the great depression of 1930s, the epidemic of poverty led to hunger and homelessness. More than two million people migrated across the country. In 1980s this number increased as the government started to cut benefits of housing and social charity funds. After 2000, the number of homeless people in the USA has been increasing each year and there is no perfect pattern for this increase but the agencies have started to publish their prediction of population destined to become homeless in the future years (Endhomelessness.org).
The reasons of homelessness have diversity as its effects. This is hard to imagine that the person goes from having a home to stay and out on the streets on the next day with a tag of being homeless. There are two most important factors behind the issue of homelessness. These are lack of affordable housing and poverty (Crisis.org.uk). These two main factors are directly connected with the political, economic, legal and social aspects. Therefore, the problem of homelessness can be defined to be the effect of unemployment, poor psychological and physical health, abuse due to drug and alcohol, gambling, relationship breakdown and sexual abuse. These reasons directly lead to face homelessness which affect the physical as well as mental health of the people. These people gradually start to suffer from menta illness, domestic violence, drug addiction and family instability (Hulse, Reynolds and Yates). The young people who are unemployed in one hand and cannot manage the rising housing costs as well as unaffordability of the rental markets lead a homeless life in the streets of the USA. In addition to this, the natural calamity like storms, flood and earthquake effect a large part of the country’s geography making people homeless without any prior understanding.
Based on the reason of being homeless, there are three types. This includes rough sleeping, statutory homelessness and hidden homelessness. Rough sleeping is the most visible type of homelessness visible type of homelessness and the image is too cleared for the people about homelessness. These people who sleep rough tends to develop different types of diseases or health issues emerging from the drug abuse or mental health problems. These people are more vulnerable in terms of violence than the general population (Endhomelessness.org). The statutory homelessness refers to not having a secured shelter for residing. The local authorities of the cities, play the duty to secure the home of a group of people which is their main homelessness duty. Each year, thousands of people apply for homelessness assistance as they suffer from insecurity and need some temporary place for shelter. In these cases, the people seek for shelter for nights only, or for winter. Due to natural calamities, thousands of people lose their home each year (Gaetz). They also may apply for woman refugees and domestic violence on the women are ever increasing and they do not get legal or financial support in their households. Another type of homelessness remains hidden from the local authorities, as these homeless do not apply for any support and stay on the streets of the cities and work for food only. However, in every types of homelessness. The people remain insecure and highly vulnerable for any type of danger and they do not connect with any type of assistance services made available by many governmental or non-governmental associations.
As homelessness is a socio-economic issue, the government of different states in the USA have taken initiatives to mitigate the health issues of the homeless people by arranging their access for the basic nutritional needs, first aid, personal hygiene and other assorted health issues like cancer, pneumonia and several liver diseases (Heerde, Broderick and Florent). Due to homelessness, these people are compelled to spend most of their times outside. Therefore, they increased the risk for the health conditions such as frostbite, immersion foot and hypothermia. These people suffering from chronic health conditions and need proper treatment are not allowed in having health care services in many cases which increases the death ratio. The situation gets more complicated when these groups consists of the pregnant women, older adults and children. Along the need for food, they need proper treatment and support for living. Along with this the mental illness and abuse disorder in the adults create scopes for the associations to work effectively.
Along with the health issues, the government have started to take initiatives to bring changes and increase accessibility of these homeless people in the affordable housing programs. In America, these initiatives of affordable housing programs and public housing developments since nineteenth and early twentieth century (Dear and Wolch). Therefore, the Federal Housing Administration was established which started to work under the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. These programs include emergency shelters, rapid rehousing and transitional housing efforts. However, there are changes in the policies and efforts of the government as all these policies highly depend upon the change of political parties and other required factors for the national growth.
Along with the heath and financial factors, there are social issues present in the successful delivery of services to these homeless people. These social issues get engaged with the criminalization and disclination factors present in the presence of the homeless people. It has been an image associated with homelessness that these people are all criminals suffering from drug abuse. Most of them are vulnerable for the legal punishments as they do not have much political or economic support to back them up. Most of the population in the USA possess the idea that the poverty is associated with the criminalization hence these people are openly discriminated in the societies and inferior than the general people residing in the city. The government agencies or the NGOs working for the bettering the lives of these homeless people in the streets have been suffering from this type of issues as they do not get the support from the local people while serving these sections (Salvationarmy.org.au). These associations working to eradicate homelessness in the country have also faced increasing criminalization for sleeping, eating, sitting and begging in public spaces.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the issue of homelessness is present in every country and their management of this issue is different from others. In the case of America, to population is increasing each year so also the people losing home continuously. There are different reasons of homelessness and their effects are different on the successful development of the society. Therefore, the duty of the government for supplying all the needed objects to eradicate this problem is not the only thing needed but the support from the local NGOs and residents are needed so that the vulnerability of these people can be reduced in one hand and restore them in a secured place by allowing all the facilities like general public in the country.
References:
Dear, Michael J., and Jennifer R. Wolch. Landscapes of despair: From deinstitutionalization to homelessness. Vol. 823. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Endhomelessness.org. “State Of Homelessness – National Alliance To End Homelessness.” National Alliance to End Homelessness. N.p., 2018. Web. 29 Nov. 2018.
Hulse, Kath, and Judith Yates. “A private rental sector paradox: unpacking the effects of urban restructuring on housing market dynamics.” Housing studies 32.3 (2017): 253-270.
Heerde, Jessica A., and Sheryl A. Hemphill. “Sexual risk behaviors, sexual offenses, and sexual victimization among homeless youth: a systematic review of associations with substance use.” Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 17.5 (2016): 468-489.
Gaetz, Stephen. Coming of age: Reimagining the response to youth homelessness in Canada. Canadian Homelessness Research Network, 2014.
Crisis.org.uk. “Types Of Homelessness | Crisis | Together We Will End Homelessness.” Crisis. N.p., 2018. Web. 29 Nov. 2018.
Salvationarmy.org.au. “Why Are People Homeless?.” The Salvation Army. N.p., 2018. Web. 29 Nov. 2018.
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