Late last Sunday I was stretching my legs before I leaned on my car to rest. A woman of around seventy-five winters walked past. She had a large Backpack and she was dragging a plastic laundry basket full of stuff. She was well-dressed, and I assumed she must be waiting for a taxi or someone. Suddenly she started to yell, making hand gestures as if she was talking to someone in the distance. She yelled, “Come back, come back here!” I couldn’t see anyone around. She continued, “Comeback here. Pick me up.” For about ten minutes she talked loudly to some invisible person. She was almost sobbing when she complained, “they made me pay 300 dollars for a motel room.” Then she shrieked, “Why? Because you are foolish, you caused that.” Then she warned the invisible person, “Don’t believe them… they are lying to you.” In a …show more content…
Evidently, she was fine until she became homeless. Still, she was clean dressed; the streets have not taken their toll on her appearance. I felt sorry and helpless watching her agonize and yelling for help. Earlier in the afternoon I drove on the 27th street in Oakland, under Highway 580. That street makes me feel guilty though I don’t understand why I feel that way. But then, any human being should feel so—unless they have lost their humanity. Why do people have to live in that kind life, in the Land of Milk and Honey? Rows and rows of tents and simple shades made of carton boxes. They are unfortunate dehumanized people squatting in odd places. Until recently I though Las Angeles Skid Raw was the worst. The definition of Skid Row is “a run-down part of a town frequented by vagrants, alcoholics, and drug addicts.” You watch someone slipping to homelessness, that happens to them. Even the most decent person is likely to become a vagrant alcoholic and drug addict if exposed to homelessness… and helplessness. Mostly, its situations that create vagrants—naturally, people are not created
More often than not, the homeless are viewed as weak and helpless. They are seen in movies as street beggars, and are vehicles of pity and remorse to touch the hearts of the viewers. Moreover, the media trains its audiences to believe that homelessness comes from the fault of the person. They are “bums, alcoholics, and drug addicts, caught in a hopeless downward spiral because of their individual pathological behavior” (427). In reality, it is the perpetuating cycle of wealth that keeps them in at a standstill in their struggles. The media only condones this very same cycle because it trains the masses to believe that people are poor due to their bad decisions. This overall census that the poor are addicts and alcoholics only makes it easier to drag their image further through the mud, going as far as calling them “crazy.” This is highlighted in shows such as Cops, or Law & Order. With the idea that these people are bad news it is easy to “buy into the dominant ideology construction that views poverty as a problem of individuals” (428). Although some of the issues of the poor are highlighted through episodic framing, for the most part the lower class is a faceless group who bring no real value to the
Statistically, over 670,000 Americans are homeless with a growing number. 48 million people go to bed hungry every night. Although we do provide shelters and opportunities in America, millions of people are homeless worldwide. Even on a more minor level there are still hundreds homeless within hometowns. Everyday we encounter the homeless whether by seeing them holding their personal signs at stoplights, confronts with beggars, or viewing them from afar under bridges. In her essay titled “On Compassion”, writer Barbara Ascher uses rhetorical techniques detailing some of her personal homeless experiences within the city life, Asher does effectively use logos, pathos,
Homelessness in America Here in Tahoe, we are lucky enough to experience a great quality of life, and only a few have to face the horrible life of poverty and homelessness. However, nationwide, even right outside the basin, homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways one can become homeless; for the most part poverty. There are also different concentrations of homeless in different types of terrain, such as urban or suburban areas. Last, there is the ever-growing homeless population, and how much money it costs us for others to live in poverty.
In 1929 the Great Depression occurred that sent a panic through the country and a sharp decline in the United States economy. This decline accompanied an increase in homeless people. Although the United States had seen its’ share of homeless, the 1930s-1940s marked the peak. Many people believed the government would provide assistance but were let down. These homeless created Shantytowns to live in and called them Hoovervilles. These Hoovervilles contained awful hygienic conditions that would put many people at risk. The Great Depression brought along hundreds and thousands of homeless people and shantytowns, which was blamed on the government but has shaped
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.
According to Streetwise of Street News Services (2010), the first reported instances of homelessness dates as far back as 1640, in some of the larger cities in the original 13 colonies. At this time, there were wars being fought between settlers and Native Americans, and people were left with no shelter in both sides (Street News Service, 2010). Later, the industrial revolution caused more homelessness, industrial accidents left many former hard-working families with a dead provider, or with severe disabilities, and then the economy entered a recession in the same time period (Street News Service, 2010). Wars always left a large number of veterans homeless. Later, in 1927, there was an astronomical flood along the Mississippi River, across multiple state, leaving about 1.3 million people without a home (Street News Service, 2010). Natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the Asian tsunami in 2004, and the earthquake early this year in Japan are still a major cause of homelessness.
Homelessness, One of the largest growing concerns in New York is the constantly increasing number of citizens who are finding themselves living on the streets. Economic conditions, personal choice, deinstitutionalization, and other factors could be the main contributions of homelessness in this world. With the decrease in the number of available jobs, the population of homeless people has literally boomed. My questions are not as simple to answer as they may appear. Homelessness is a symptom of much deeper and more serious changes in America society. Homelessness is a serious public health issue ...
“3.5 million people will experience homelessness in a given year,”(Los Angeles Homeless Services). This shocking number is one of the sad truths in today’s society. Homelessness is caused by a wide range of things including financial issues. The life of a homeless person is hard and comes with set-backs and the constant need to overcome them. Homeless people go through many challenges in surviving without a home. They can suffer from health issues, hunger, and poor emotional well-being.
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.
The lack of employment opportunities, war and conflict, migration, mental health, social exclusion, gentrification, and poverty are just but a few factors that drive one toward homelessness.
There are two types of homelessness, chronic and situational. A chronically homeless person is someone who has been homeless for over a long period of time. Stereotypically speaking, chronically homeless people usually are drug addicts or they have some type of mental health issue. The actual case in that theory is that: a vast majority of the chronically homeless suffer from serious mental illnesses (like schizophrenia), severe substance addiction, or a physical disability. People with mental health illnesses cannot help being homeless. Most lose their jobs due to their illness, causing them to not be able to work or to get a job, eventually leading them to not be financially capable to take care of themselves. This contributes to their
This paper will explain approaches to resolve the social issue of homelessness in the state of Delaware. It will also explain a few reasons why homelessness should be addressed the correct way to potentially end it. I will describe the correlations of homelessness and health, the crimes involving and against the homeless, and lastly the families subjected to homelessness. A few solutions will be recommended in this paper also to optimistically achieve the goal of assisting the homeless and improving the assistance already given.
...he squatter camps of the city which they are living. Moreover slums are also the source of all kinds of social evils such as drugs and prostitution because of the lowest security.
Homelessness is a problem virtually every society suffers from. There are many things that cause people to become homeless, such as unemployment, relationship problems, and being evicted from ones domicile either by a landlord, friend or even a family member. However, with every cause there must be an effect. Some of the effects of one becoming homeless, besides the obvious change of lifestyle, are various health problems which often times may lead to death.
What the locals are not taking into account in any of their plans is the resources or lack of when it comes to people trying to get housing. The families I help have a hard time finding housing because of personal barriers that are hard to fix and overcome. Landlords tend to not rent to people who have been evicted. Landlords tend to not rent to people with poor credit scores. Landlords tend not rent to people whose income is less than three times the rent. These barriers are going to keep them homeless unless a landlord is willing to give people a chance.