Homelessness Essay: The Horror Of Being Homeless

The Horror of Being Homeless A popular misconception about homelessness is that the homeless population brought their sorrow upon themselves by abusing drugs and alcohol, uncontrollably gambling their money away, or using their money irresponsibly. This leads to people thinking they should not give away their money to the homeless, but to charities claiming to help the homeless community, but what people don’t know is that most charities often do not use the donations to help, but use them for their own advantages. Therefore, people should give money directly and unconditionally to homeless people to help them stay away from the horrible homeless shelters, overcome the reasons that caused them to be homeless, and help them find a good and

For example, in New York City, reports of unsafe conditions such as improper fire escapes, lead paint, roach and rodent infestations, mold, and fungus. Death, murder, and rape are also common in these places. Homeless women are more prone to the danger that is sexual assault in these shelters. Many homeless mothers have experienced severe physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lives. Given that homeless women are raped more than housed women, giving them money so that they afford housing would not only reduce the rates of homelessness, it would reduce sexual assault. Mothers and their children are not safe in these shelters. “Although estimating the homeless population is difficult, about 1.4 million students in the U.S. were homeless at the start of the 2013-14 school year. Children not enrolled in school, although their numbers are less easily measured, push the total number of homeless children and youth significantly higher” (Child Trends Databank). A journalist named Renee Miller went undercover in a shelter to uncover the truth about the abuse that the staff members of the shelter were inflicting on the homeless people they were sheltering. This shelter did not allow the homeless people to bring their backpacks inside when they go eat. When they go back out, their backpacks were collected by

Many of them won’t spend the money people gave them in the “wrong” way, as in spending it on drugs or alcohol and will spend it on food or shelter. Most of them do not deserve to be homeless, therefore the popular belief they are there because of what they’ve done and do not deserve one’s money is often wrong. For example, think about the popular movie entitled The Pursuit of Happyness, in which the actor Will Smith portrays a hard-working father the becomes homeless almost overnight. This movie shows that a lot of homeless people out there are homeless because of the situations they are put in, and not because of criminal acts. Homelessness is usually the result of several factors and their impacts, rather than a single cause. Economic and social issues can affect opportunities and social environments for individuals. This can cause the lack of adequate income, of access to affordable housing, and of sufficient health supports and can also cause the individual to experience discrimination. There are also the personal circumstances of the homeless person, which can include: traumatic events, a personal crisis, mental health issues, and physical health problems or disabilities. These examples show that most homeless people are not addicts nor are they criminals, and would not spend the money that someone donated to them irresponsibly. People can give the homeless people