Cause Of Homelessness Essay

Causes of Homelessness Imagine not knowing what to do or where to go and feeling lost. You have to spend each night in the bitter weather sleeping on a park bench or under a bridge. Or maybe you have to stand in line for the local shelter. When you awake the next morning you have to decide where you can go to clean yourself up. When you get hungry, you have to beg people for money of search the nearest garbage can for food. You then spend the rest of the day sitting or walking around the city, hoping people will notice you and help you. You know that people are judging you because of what you are. They don’t understand homelessness and how it feels to wonder if your circumstances of homelessness will ever change. Even though many feel the

The legal definition of homelessness was outlined by the Stewart B. McKinney Act (1987) as “a person is considered homeless who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence; has a primary night time residency that is: a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations, an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.” In other words homelessness occurs when people are unable to acquire or maintain housing they can afford. Another definition of homelessness is an individual without permanent who may live on the streets; staying in a shelter, an abandoned building, a vehicle; or any unstable or non-permanent situation (NHCHC). Now what causes one to become homeless? This may be a question that many of us want the answer to. There are many causes as to why people experience homelessness. With that being said, I am going to discuss three causes as to why people become homeless. The first cause I’m going to discuss is structural factors, then I will talk about system failures for my second cause, and the last cause I will discuss is individual and relational

Examples of personal circumstances are traumatic events such as house fire or job loss, personal crisis such as domestic violence, mental health, and addiction problems.

In such situations, people (mainly women) may feel that their life is endangered or at high risk due to domestic violence in an abusive relationship. When a woman leaves an abusive relationship, she often has nowhere to go with little to no resources, causing them to be homeless.

Mental illness is also a major contributor to homelessness. In a 2008 survey performed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 25 cities were asked for the three largest causes of homelessness in their communities. Mental illness was the third largest cause of homelessness for single adults (NCH). About 20-25% of the adult individuals suffer from mental illnesses. The Mental Health Institution states that, “the increase of homelessness is not alone caused by the relapse of severely mentally ill individuals (NCH).” The increase of homelessness first began in the 1980’s when low incomes and housing costs became a series of effect. Survival and treatment are a caution, which could lead the mentally ill to being homeless. Throughout society, many people feel that the mentally ill who are either homeless or are normally housed are not capable of living in this society. But most of them can live in the society with the appropriate supportive