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Homeless immigrants in the us essay
Homelessness in america
Homelessness in america
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After a long day of work, all I wanted to do was sleep. I had paid five cents to spend the night, and I intended to make good use of it. I was resting in the Bayard Street tenement in the year 1889. I was willing to endure the crowded, unsanitary, and non-private room because it was all I could afford; you do what you can to survive. The six other single men, beat from a long day of back-breaking work, were already sleeping or resting against the wall. The lack of bunks meant that I would be sleeping on the floor. I am lucky. A room down the hall had twelve men and a woman occupying it. I am even more better off than the homeless children forced to live on the streets and in alleys. All of our possessions and our bodies themselves made the
According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people are employed in full or part-time jobs”. In the book Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover in order to investigate and experience first-hand how life is for America’s “working poor”. The “working poor” are defined as individuals who have a full-time job, sometimes more than one, but still cannot afford the basics of shelter, food and adequate healthcare. As one can imagine, this led to many public health concerns. In each of the three locations visited, Ehrenreich realizes that for many, “getting by” in America can sometimes be a daunting task.
The Image of Homelessness, captured by Mark Peterson in 1994, shows two perspectives of how people live their lives. In the center of the photograph you see a short, black, rounded fence, no higher than the old, brown bench placed in front of it. On the bench is a temporary shelter made of cardboard boxes, tied down with strings. To the right of the fence is a thin, sick looking tree with trash and dead leaves surrounding the base of the tree. In the bottom left corner of the photo is a box placed under the bench and reads: “Handle with Care,” which is ironic as the living conditions show a complete lack of care. Above the fence, stretching across the top of the photo, the sun shines on the blurred Burger King
Ehrenreich wants to find a ways to improve the quality of life of the working class. While working for Wal-mart, Ehrenreich discussed unionizing with her co-workers. The purpose of the union is so the workers can get a higher hourly wage. Her downfall in Minneapolis is when she can’t find affordable lodging. Ehrenreich stayed in hotels which become very expensive. The accommodations in these hotels proved to be almost inhabitable. The rooms were small, most had no air conditioning. The windows had no screens so they could not be left open to...
Mark Peterson’s 1994 photograph, Image of Homelessness, compares the everyday life of the working class to the forgotten life of the lowest class in society. In the image, the viewer can see a troubled homeless man wrapped in a cocoon of standard manipulated 12in by 12in cardboard boxes and yarn. The yarn is what is keeping the man and box tied to the red bench. This bench has chipped paint and is right in front of a black fence. Underneath the bench is dirt and debris from the dead fall leaves. The center focal point is the homeless man on the bench. He is the focal point because he is the greatest outsider known to man. Behind this man is vibrant life. There is pulsating people crossing the clean street, signs of life from all the advertising on store windows, families walking and blurred cars filled with
On the very first page, Riis states, “Long ago it was said that ‘one half of the world does not know how the other half lives.’ That was true then. It did not know because it did not care (5).” In first-person, Riis discusses his observations through somewhat unbiased analysis, delivering cold, hard, and straightforward facts. Following the War of 1812, New York City had a population of roughly half a million, desperately in need of homes. The solutions were mediocre tenements: large spaces divided into cheaper, smaller rooms, regardless of whether or not there were windows. Some families were lucky, being able to afford the rooms with windows, while others had to live in pitch-black, damp, and tiny rooms literally in the center of the building. These tenements contained inadequate living conditions; disease murdered many citizens, causing a shortage of industrial workers. The Board of Health passed the “Tenement-House Act” in 1867,...
A suburban life is a paradise full of shopping, colorful gardens, and well-groomed homes. Despite all these benefits, a suburban life is an isolated life. People living in suburbs are rarely exposed to miseries in society. One of these conflicts is homelessness. When living in an environment surrounded by homes, individuals often have difficulty imagining not being able to sleep in a warm bed, eat a proper meal or even receive necessary medical attention. This grim situation is depicted in the writings of Jeannette Walls. In the autobiography The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls accurately portrays homelessness by explaining its causes, its impact upon daily life, and its effect on victimized families.
In America the topic of homelessness is one that is rarely discussed. The ongoing issues faced by the less fortunate of society continues to be viewed as a public nuisance versus a problem that is in need of viable solutions. John Grisham’s “Somewhere for Everyone” and “Same Kind of Different as Me” written by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, Lynn Vincent explores the issues from various viewpoints. The two books are more of similarity than that of difference since they discuss similar themes Poverty and suffrage are key elements of both pieces of literature. A root cause for homelessness is financial stability so the theme of poverty prevalent for this discussion.
The tenement was the biggest hindrance to achieving the American myth of rags to riches. It becomes impossible for one to rise up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live passed the age of five. Children under the age of five living in tenements had a death rate of 139.83 compared to the city’s overall death rate of 26.67. Even if one did live past the age of five it was highly probable he’d become a criminal, since virtually all of them originate from the tenements. They are forced to steal and murder, they’ll do anything to survive, Riis appropriately calls it the “survival of the unfittest”. (Pg.
The sleeping arrangement were poor. Their bed was made from thin straw and cardboard, they had old blankets (38). Early in the morning, prisoner are awoken and rush into the freezing cold in order to get morning bread. Prisoners think that the people next to them have a bigger piece of bread they will trade it. But in reality, the piece are almost the same size. In Monowitz-Buna concentration camp, bread is money to prisoners, there a lot of bargaining and trading happening
...on the homeless community. I previously held preconceived notions that the homeless consisted of people who were either unable to connect and form relationships with others or didn’t desire to do so. Yet, I observed most everyone greeting one another and reminiscing with those who have been absent from the community for a while, as well as, expressing concern for those missing. I recognized that the homeless may live in a non-traditional way, but they have established their own communities and are successful in forming and maintaining cohesive relationships.
In the tenements, two classes existed, the rich, and the poor. In this setting, the rich were greedy and in most cases, they exploited the poor by making them work more than they paid them[6]. For this reason, it is important to stress greed and impunity as some of the problems that the tenements faced. For example, the poor worked under tyrant masters because of their poor conditions and the rich took advantage of the poor conditions to pay them less than they should have. These horrible working conditions and treatment continued because there were not any consequences for the
Barracks are large, simple buildings in which many people are housed. Barracks in concentration camps housed an unrealistic number of people. Prisoners would sleep ten to a bed, forcing them to lay sideways to fit. Due to these close living quarters, “particular menaces were bed bugs that landed on the prisoner and sucked his or her blood. Lice and rats also plugged prisoners” (Nataupsky). Unsanitary conditions are prevalent in “The Shawl” when Ozick states “even when the lice, head lice and body lice, crazed [Magda] so that she became as wild as one of the big rats that plundered the barracks at daybreak looking for carrion (678). By applying Historical/Biographical Theory to the text, the time period of the Holocaust is reflected in “The Shawl”.
is here that a certain element of the abandoned poor seeks a refuge out of
Imagine; you are stripped of your identity and obliged to conform to the others of your exact situation. You are continually being monitored in an isolated area. The restrictions placed by your tormentors are precise and harsh and if you do not obey, you are punished beyond the simple yell in the face or slap of the hand. You endure this lifestyle for weeks and weeks, over time you begin to change both physically and mentally. Your weight has drastically plummeted and you have begun to lose hope in an exit. At this point you are desperate for a solution to your problems, resulting is assumably regrettable actions. All of which you have just read was what prisoners during the Holocaust had to face in concentration camps. In the memoir Night,
It is difficult to decide what is worse, the work done in the mines or the housing to which the miners returned to at night. The especially cruel truth. is the fact that the rent of a family of six living in two barren rooms, two hundred yards from an outdoor privy, extorted most of the household wages. Orwell 's urgent prose does not let anyone turn a blind eye to the facts. Although Orwell wrote from the perspective of a “participant observer” it still resonates today 's concerns about the effects of poverty on people 's everyday lives and dreams.