Literature Review Homelessness

Literature Review Homelessness is steadily becoming a crisis both here at home and in the world at large. It’s estimated that within well developed countries, homelessness is believed to have affected around 1% of city-centered populations. Homelessness doesn’t only affect the homeless themselves. The cost that this epidemic is putting on society is putting a large strain on judicial, social and healthcare resources. All this is further exacerbated by the fact that homeless populations are six to seven times more likely to suffer from alcoholic and drug addiction leading to even more strain on the healthcare system.
Among the homeless population in the United States there is one group that is considered to be overrepresented; that of U.S. veterans. When comparing both veteran and non-veteran homeless populations, veterans had significantly higher numbers in concentration than those that were not veterans. What’s more is that the amount of homeless people that suffered from mental and psychological disorders was also severely higher in the veteran population than that in the civilian homeless population.

Researchers methodically reviewed surveys that looked into the prevalence of mental disorders in homeless populations. In the end they had over 25 studies and included over 5000 homeless individuals in the US and UK. What they found was that compared to general populations, the homeless had a much higher percentage of cases of mental disorders. The highest among the list was dependencies on drug and alcohol, as opposed to psychosis when compared to the general public. The most damning conclusion is the idea proposed that traditional service delivery do not meet the needs of the homeless population and how that helps create more problems in our