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Causes, effects and solutions to homelessness
What Are The Solutions To Homelessness
Causes, effects and solutions to homelessness
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In the article “I Need a Dollar: Should you give to the New York 's Homeless?”, published on Gawker.com on July 28, 2014, Paul Cantor argues the issue of whether or not you should give money to a panhandler. Like Cantor, I have been approached several times by people asking for money. Often times I wondered, "how did you end up in this situation?” More often than not I find myself leaning towards the negative connotation; that it is their fault they’re in these circumstances. However, I generally feel that I can spare a buck or two. Cantor suggests "maybe nine out of every ten panhandlers are lying." Even if every dollar you hand out goes to something it shouldn 't, what is it really hurting? I agree with Cantor. Americans spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year on coffee …show more content…
"I hoped I could just rely on the kindness of people," Roger Blondell exclaims. How can you say no to this man only asking for spare change after you hear his story? This article challenges the reader with questions and dilemmas. Can I go without my daily cup of coffee to offer hope to someone in need? Should I spare this man a dollar if all he plans on doing with it is buy booze or get high with it? Can I actually spare my money? I am sure she’s only homeless because she is addicted to drugs! Cantor did not mention these questions or dilemmas in his article, he didn 't have to. My mind automatically thought of them when remembering past experiences or thinking of my next experience with a panhandler. I believe each reader has developed ideas in their mind as to what actions they will yield in their future experiences. “The decision is ultimately yours to make,” concludes Cantor; I say let’s get these people off the streets, into homes they can afford, and acquire food for them to eat so we don’t have to be concerned with whether or not we desire to spare a little change.
Today's world is filled with both great tragedy and abundant joy. In a densely populated metropolis like New York City, on a quick walk down a street you encounter homeless people walking among the most prosperous. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten the prosperous person will trudge straight past the one in need without a second thought. A serious problem arises when this happens continually. The problem worsens when you enter a different neighborhood and the well-to-do are far from sight. Many neighborhoods are inhabited only by the most hopeless of poverty - ridden people while others downtown or across the park do not care, or are glad to be separated from them. Such is the problem in New York City today and in Mott Haven in Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace. I have lived in New York City all my life and I had no idea that these problems were going on so close to home. If I live about three miles away from Mott Haven and I am not aware of the situation there, then who is?
They are automatically prejudged and looked at as being dirty and having diseases. According to the story “Authorities were forced to justify this action by declaring them, in the words of the city council, ‘a threat to public safety.’”(Jonathan 277). The homeless are assumed to be a threat because they have no where to take a bath and have no where to go if they do get sick. Since authorities have put this thought in American’s heads we now watch that we do not touch them when giving out change. Jonathan explains how he, himself responds to the homeless when it comes to touching them; prejudging them also. “Every so often, someone stops to put a coin into his hand. I noticed the care with which the people drop their coins, in order that their hands do not touch his. When I pass that spot some hours later he will still be there. I’ll do the same” (Jonathan 276). The fact that people watch the order in how they drop the coins coveys that they are dirty and if they touch the homeless they too will become dirty. Jonathan explains to us that they are sparingly viewed as “trash,” because Government officials makes society feel and encourages the thought of them being
In Righteous Dopefiend, Bourgois and Schonberg delve into the lives of homeless drug addicts on Edgewater Boulevard in San Francisco. They highlight the moral ambiguity of the gray zone in which these individuals exist and the institutional forces that create and perpetuate their condition. The authors liken the experience of the daily lives of the Edgewater homeless to living in an everyday “state of emergency” (2009:21). Throughout the course of their work, they expose the conditions of extreme poverty that the homeless experience, the institutional indifference towards their suffering and the consequences of their crippling addictions. Bourgois and Schonberg describe the Edgewater homeless as a ‘community of addicted bodies’ driven by a communal need to avoid the agony of heroin withdrawal symptoms and held together through a “moral economy of sharing”. (2009: 6) The “webs of mutual obligation” that form as a result of their participation in this system are key to the survival of the Edgewater homeless as they attempt to live under conditions of desperate poverty and police repression.
...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.
People tend to believe that homeless individuals will beg for money, only to spend it on drugs. Contrary to this, however, statistics prove otherwise. According to a recent survey across the United States, “94% of panhandlers”, or commonly known as the homeless, use the money that they receive to solely “purchase the food that they need” (Gaille). People who follow the folkway of avoiding eye contact need to understand that their donations are often for beneficial use. They also need to understand that avoiding eye contact is a means of ignorance.
It’s discouraging to witness a fellow human being sitting on the corner with a sign claiming to be homeless, starving, and desperate. When you witness a generous citizen hand the needy a couple dollars, hoping they fulfilled their wish of eating for the day, you experience a feeling of caring and joy. However, I have witnessed this several times, that same desperate woman on the corner in raggedy clothing and clumped hair. I felt contemplative about doing a so-called good deed until I witnessed her one night board a fairly new Jeep Liberty in a nearby parking lot. This baffled me and made me wonder who are desperate from the dishonest. Panhandling is a growing problem and what seems to me has become a trend in the United States today. It is hard to get away from panhandling and the negative effects it brings on society, including the panhandlers themselves. Thus, if I could ban anything in the world, I would ban panhandling.
A Rebuttal of “Brother, Don’t Spare a Dime” In “Brother, Don’t Spare a Dime,” L. Christopher Awalt says that homeless people are homeless on their own accord. He believes “many of them seem to have chosen the lifestyles they lead” (Awalt))).. This article states that most homeless people would prefer to escape responsibility rather than fix their social and economic problems. Awalt uses an example of a man who had been on the streets for about 10 years. He provided this man with resources to improve his life and within four months he was making progress.
“Homeless is more than being without a home. It is tied into education needs, food, security; health issues both mental and physical, employment issues, etc. Don’t forget the whole picture.” (“Boxed In” 2005 pg. 108)
So why shouldn’t people give money directly to pan-handlers? It is a common thought that the homeless will simply spend their hard “earned” money on cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. It is debated whether or not this belief is based on any truth or not. One group in San Francisco decided to find out. They found that “25 percent are alcoholics” and “32 percent are addicted to drugs” (Keyes) thus they claimed that the homeless are spending the majority of their profits on food. However, other surveys say that approximately “80% of people begging do so to support a drug habit” (Doward). So here are two sources that disagree with each other. Which one is valid? The first results were come by after a team of GLS researchers to survey the homeless people on the streets and came up with the results by their answers. The second conclusion was made by looking at police records. In places where it is illegal to panhandle, police would arrest the panhandlers and, among other things, preform a drug test on them. The results of the second statistics were deduced from these ...
The Homeless in America I never imagined that I would be homeless. " Although I have read this statement over and over again, the facts behind it remain astonishing. The facts are that there are millions of homeless people in America today. Many of these people had no choice but to become homeless. Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing, have led people to live on the streets.
Homeless individuals are known for taking hand outs and they prefer to plead for money rather than to go work for it. People assume most of the the money that is given to homeless people they spend it on drugs and alcohol because of the fact that many homeless people have drug and alcohol addictions. It is not uncommon to come across homeless youth and older homeless population that are known to abuse substances like drugs and alcohol. Because of the fact that homeless people have substance abuse problems, they tend face illnesses and infections. Many hard working Americans ask themselves “why don’t homeless people just get jobs?” The assumption is they are just lazy and unmotivated. Homeless people choose to live the life they live. Everyone goes through problems but not all people take the path homeless people do. The problems homeless people face is not an excuse for them to be helped and maintained by other hard working people. Although homelessness might be a choice to some, no one knows the hardships these people have gone through. Some assume these people are just lazy but in reality a lot of these homeless people have jobs of their own, they just can’t afford housing and a decent life. Everyone has their own opinion on homeless people, but that does not change the fact that one should still serve the homeless. Not because homeless people need help but because we are
The half of the 1 percent of the homeless who live in shelter fortunately has a place, but he says nothing about the other half who have no other choice than to sleep on benches outside in the cold, and ask people for spare change. Those people are not doing anything morally incorrect, yet they are being criminalized for trying to survive. In the video “Criminalization of Poverty” I learned that one third of the U.S. cities have banned homeless camps, yet impose laws to keep them off the streets, then where are they supposed to go? For the other people who, according to the U.S. Department of Energy have refrigerators in their homes, do those numbers reveal the amount of food inside? Prager says these people don’t suffer from material poverty, but it doesn’t seem like they are able to use the materials adequately to feed themselves, or their families. The numbers are simply a shell; they don’t tell us the actual situation of the person. The belief that poverty causes crime does not mean we at some level in our conscious would consider it, or think others are morally inferior, it simply means we can imagine the frustration that drives them to commit such crimes. Either way, if they rob, or if they sleep on a bench they will still be committing a crime in certain states that make it illegal to sleep on
The little boy was extremely afraid so he chooses to walk on the other side of the sidewalk, his mom also told him to not make eye contact with her. When they walked passed the lady, she asked for money and his mommy gave her $5. He thought to himself what a good deed by his mom, but then he soon realized that she could spend it on unnecessary things like drugs or alcohol. A surveyed was done and that 44% of the homeless use the money that they get from begging goes to drugs and alcohol. (International business times) 15% of the people in the U.S. jail are people who were
About a week ago, I went to Capital City Mall with two friends to seek out a more enjoyable meal than I would find in State University’s cafeteria. As we approached the entrance to the mall, I saw a presumably homeless man standing near the door. Though I heard his request for spare change, I passed him by without much thought. I had only a few pennies and, having grown up only an hour from a large metropolitan area, I had been downtown enough times to know it's often unwise to even make eye contact with those begging for spare change. Normally, that would have been the end of the story and I would have had nothing else about which to write. But, something inside was nagging at me…I couldn't get the man off my mind. As I ate my meal from Panda Express, I found that there was more food than I could eat. I determined that the homeless man could make more use of the leftovers than the garbage can would. As I exited the mall, I approached the man and told him I couldn't give him any change, but I had some food for him. With shaky hands, possibly due to a handicap or the brisk, wintry air, he gratefully pulled out a Wal-Mart bag for me to put the food in. I slid my le...
Homelessness is everywhere, it is not a new trend and is a growing problem. Many people ask themselves should I help the homeless or not; it is easier to just ignore the problem than to give a helping hand. Every person needs help at one point or another in their life and homeless people should be no different. Assisting the homeless with healthcare, housing, and childcare are ways people are able to and should help the homeless.