mental illness in these women. As Angela a current resident of Valley House put it, “They [Valley House] gives you hope when you feel like there is no hope”.
Permanent housing is also the most economic solution. While it costs somewhere around $40,000 a year for a homeless person to be in the streets, permanent housing only costs $10,000 (Covert). Permanent housing is not only cost effective, it can end the vicious cycle of incarceration many people face in larger cities. As previously mentioned being homeless has basically become an illegal activity in many cities and permanent housing will end this cycle. Sharon also mentioned that with housing accountability is increased. For many homeless people they have never had anything. They have never had money to budget, a place to keep clean, a job to maintain, or anyone checking in on them. When they are placed in permanent housing, or simply transitional housing, this changes. They start to be held responsible for the things in their
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The solution was simply to give homeless people homes. The director of Utah’s homeless task force Lloyd Pendleton says that this totally changed the way the state deals with the homeless, they get them in a house, then the deal with everything else that caused them to become homeless. Pendleton told NBC, "I call them 'homeless citizens. ' They 're part of our citizenry. They 're not them and us. It 's 'we”. Its this sort of ideology that has completely changed the approach to homelessness in Utah and hopefully can spread to other parts of the country. The biggest issue with this plan however is the availability of low income housing. In Utah there was a surplus of housing, however in Boston there is a ten year waiting list to get into low income housing. Utah proves that it is one of the most effective and cheapest solutions
Imagine a man on the streets, who society has forgotten. This man emits the smell of garbage; he has not bathed in months. This man sits quietly mumbling to himself. To the outer world he is just one of the many homeless, but little does society know that this man has a mental illness as well. Homelessness and mental illness are linked. These two happenings have similar beginnings. Homelessness is influenced by drug and alcohol disuse, being homeless at a young age, money problems, and trauma symptoms. Mental illness is caused by many of the same things, but it can also happen at birth. The effects that each entity has on a person are comparable. Rehabilitation is a necessary process if a victim of homelessness and or mental illness wants to rejoin society. Homelessness and mental illness have similar, if not the same causes, effects, and rehabilitations.
The simple definition of oppression is the cruel and unfair treatment of an individual or group of people. Oppression can be systemic, meaning it is deliberate, and designed to marginalize a section of people by forever keeping on the outside of society. One such group of people who have been historically and continue to be oppressed are the homeless. According to Johnstone, Jetten, Dingle, Parsell, and Walter (2015), homeless men, women and children are denied basic civil rights even though they are members of society solely because they do not reside in a “home”. The homeless are a vulnerable and victimized population as they experience personal and economic hardship as well as discrimination and exclusion because of their housing status.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
In the word homeless there are two root words, home and less. Home is what most people would define as the place where they live, or grew up. Less, simply means not as much as. When you combine the two together homeless equals someone who grew up in a home that was held to less standards than what they would normally be held up to. For example, someone who is homeless could live in a box, it sounds terrible but unfortunately it is a part of our reality. Not everyone can afford to live in a house, pay mortgage, and all the other expenses that come with the responsibility of owning a house, or home. Today homelessness still has an affect on many people.
Presently, one of the main causes of homelessness in American is the lack of affordable housing. New York researchers claim that affordable housing is the answer to homelessness. Researcher, Mary Beth Shinn, states, ?homelessness is first and foremost a housing problem not a psychological one? (qtd. in Franklin 15.) Nearly all the families in their study became stably housed regardless of substance abuse, mental illness, physical illness or incarceration. This study indicates that homelessness is not a permanent condition. People do get themselves out of the problem when an intervention occurs to provide them with access to the housing market (NYU 2.) Without permanent housing, people are unable to keep jobs and are more likely to become ill. Permanent housing provides stability that enables them to find and retain employment with health benefits.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] used the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ definition of mental illness as “health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning” (2011). Our community is exposed to a large number of individuals with mental illness. Among those individuals are the widespread homeless populations. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development reported “twenty-five percent of the sheltered homeless report a severe mental illness (as cited in Allender, Rector and Warner 2014 p. 907).” This author found the target population to be predominantly Caucasian, Non-Hispanic, single males of thirty-one years of age and older. In reviewing the research, this author found that multiple health disparities happen in conjunction with mental health and homelessness. This includes cardiac and respiratory issues and HIV/AIDs. Without the proper healthcare services, the homeless mental health population remains vulnerable.
Encouragement from one 's community plays a significant role in the ability to overcome homelessness; without such motivation from peers, a lack of trust and confidence can occur, lowering their self-esteem and want to get out of homelessness. Through the article, Homelessness: Perception of Causes and Solutions, written by Lindsay Phillips, the study shows the way in which those within a community perceive the homeless, and their inability, or the inability they believe they possess, to benefit the community as a whole, this Phillips calling a stigma. Addressing the idea of social biases. Where those not conformed to society, seem to pose a threat to the rest, believing that without a roof over your head you 're inadequately qualified to hold a job.
Homelessness is a problem that happens in many different countries around the world. Definitions of homelessness are defined in different meanings by different people. However, the Stewart B. McKinney Act defines a homeless person as “ one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings” (McNamara 1025). It is impossible to find out exactly the number of homeless; however, the researchers can do a study to estimate that number. Based on different statistics from different researchers, the homeless population in America has been increasing as “an alarming rate” (Markos and Lima). Therefore, even though America is one of the most powerful countries in the world, homelessness, which has many common causes, has always been a big problem in society.
...ge stay longer than non-homeless people, so hospitals would get crowded and care would get more expensive, making affordable healthcare prices rise. In order to fix this issue of homelessness, the federal government and state government should allocate resources differently. Since a large number of homeless people have addiction and metal health issues, there should be more money being distributed into rehabilitation programs. The most efficient way to end homelessness is so make housing more affordable. One way to do that is to either, increase the hourly wage to match the current housing prices, or, allocate more resources toward housing subsidies for people. Then when people have homes, society should work with people to get them out of poverty by giving resources to people to get their GED’s, networking opportunities for jobs and creating inclusive communities.
With nearly 3.18 million people in the United States, there are 610.042 individuals who are homeless which calculates to about nearly one in five individuals (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014 and HUD/US, 2013). At any time situations can change that can render an individual’s homeless. There are no qualities that exempt individuals from the chances of becoming homeless. However, there are certain predispositions and characteristics that can predict the likelihood of becoming homeless. Homelessness can be contributed to a number of situations such as occupational stress, financial stress, mental health issues, substance use, gender, age, race, disabilities, incarceration, chronic illness, and family stress.
It is estimated that, “each year, more than 3 million people experience homelessness, including 1.3 million children” (NLCHP). Clearly poverty and Homelessness come hand in hand, and the economy downfall has only contributed to this growing crisis. “Homelessness stems from a lack of affordable housing. Increasing rents, destruction of traditional low-income housing, and cuts in federal housing programs threaten affordable housing with extinction” (NLCHP). Most people in poverty have a housing affordability crisis, which means that they pay more than half of their income for rent, so therefore they have to buffer to deal with unforeseen expenses.
Mental health problems contribute to some homelessness exacerbating disturbances of a critical disposition. Homelessness is problematic without Mental Health issues and can be harder to treat without the added disparity. Homelessness and mental health issues can induce crisis alone and combined. The combination of these two issues can worsen disruption leading to greater chance of crisis. Roberts (2005) states that there must be an ongoing balance of affect and cognitive abilities available to counter stressful incidents that could lead to crisis. A person who is unstable in their mental health would have fewer resources to combat crisis. A stressful situation added to mental health issues could lead to crisis and homelessness. Lee et al. (2010) say mental illness associated with homelessness could be from the crises or cause crisis. Each additional stress can escalate disruption leading to the possibility of crisis.
The government has the power to help reduce the risk of becoming homeless due to economic reasons. Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, points out that, in order to end homelessness, the government could make housing more affordable to lower income families “or figure out some way to supplement people 's income through vouchers or tax credits" (qtd. in Housing the Homeless). This would mean that even if a person, or an entire family, lost their main source of income, they would still have the me...
Homelessness is a vast predicament in America and around the world. It is severely overlooked as people don’t really think of homelessness as real world problem. However, there have been ways that people have tried to fix the problem. They have come up with homeless shelters, emergency shelters, food banks and soup kitchens. These solutions have limitations though, which will hopefully come to an end.
...At its root, homelessness is the result of the inability to afford and maintain housing. Government funding should be put into place that can incorporate an investment in creating affordable housing. This includes supportive housing, which is permanent housing coupled with supportive services. In order to maintain housing, people exiting homelessness must have income. Cash assistance programs are available through federal and state government, and career-based employment services can help formerly homeless people build the skills necessary to increase their income. Mainstream services, including the Workforce Investment Act, should be used for this purpose (Ten Essentials). Lastly, programs must ensure that the homeless have access to these services but are able to attain independence as soon as possible as well. To do this there must be instant access to housing.