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Extreme poverty solutions
Sociological approach to ending homelessness
Solving homelessness
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Los Angeles, California, a beautiful city known for its glamourous celebrities, lovely palm trees, huge Hollywood sign and luxury homes. California is home to millions of people and has many tourist attractions. Los Angeles is known for its scenic beaches along the Pacific Ocean, but it is not known for having poverty and homeless roaming around. The city that is home to the iconic “Hollywood” is filled with glamour; the glamourous nature of this city does very little to cover the dark side of poverty. Poverty is a great issue in California that people seem to overlook because of this it is a serious problem. Instead of fixing poverty, the Los Angeles Police Department tries to contain the homeless population to fifty blocks of poverty, a neighborhood known as Skid Row. Los Angeles, California, the place many people call home; this is the place many people live out on the streets. Poverty may be in every state, but there is no poverty like Skid Row.
Skid Row, a fifty block radius of poverty has an extremely interesting history. Located in downtown Los Angeles, Skid Row is filled with drug users, predominantly people of color and
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(History of Skid Row)
Los Angeles was calling out for help and they were receiving it after about twenty years of poverty expanding beyond control. Skid Row now had shelters for the homeless and clinics for the ill. However, it was affecting the surrounding communities as well, and their result was to send the people that they could not “save” in to Skid Row. This caused for the population to grow instead of stabilizing or decaying it. Skid Row’s population is now thousands of people, including children growing up in
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
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.
Social issues are difficult to write about because they are simplistic and problematic. Johnson doesn’t say the homeless issue in Los Angeles is good or bad. The story describes the characters leaning more towards bad, but never directly states this. Johnson explores the characters reactions to the issue. From this story, we learn it is easier for this particular family and society to ignore an issue rather than address it.
...those who live in poverty, those who have insufficient economic resources, those who lack affordable housing, who have health issues, and those who face unjust racial bias (criminal justice system). We also looked at the domestic circumstances among the homeless and how minorities are doing when it comes to education. Unless these racial disparities and inequalities are addressed in every level, including employment, housing, health, criminal justice, mental health, domestic violence, and as well as other disparities that exist in this society are addressed there would continuously be a higher number of minorities that are homeless in New York City. There are many more other factors that lead to homelessness besides those that are mentioned above, but for this research, two factors will be examined; insufficient economic resources and lack of affordable housing.
Homelessness in America has always been an issue. There have been plans to help solve this issue in San Antonio, Texas, but it does cost local taxpayers millions. It is a tricky situation to solve because some people are innocent and have no other solution to help solve their necessitous situation. Although many people who are impoverished may not be bad, we should eradicate the chronically homeless because many of them are without a roof for their decisions or blameful addictions they can not control and is costing San Antonio’s taxpayers millions.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
Various individuals visualize New York City as a place that any person would love to live in, but what many do not to realize is the fact that the city has a continuously growing homeless population because of the rising cost to live within the city. Individuals in New York City are living in a time where not even a job may entirely support his/her daily finances.
There are many other cases of why the homeless are homeless like domestic violence, mental illness, addictions, and unaffordable health care. Homelessness is a problem which has been caused by many different aspects but mainly money because of massive unemployment rates. A hidden aspect to homelessness that we may not think of is ...
There were many factors that triggered the riots besides the beating of an African-American male and the murder of a young African-American girl. The Cold War ended in 1991 and China entered the global market. This caused a GM plant to close down in Los Angeles, and many people lost their jobs.2 A great deal of the people that lost their jobs were minorities from South Central Los Angeles. Many corporations either moved out of Los Angeles or went to other countries such as China for workers3; furthermore, many job opportunities were lost. California’s unemployment rate rose 7% in 1991 and became the third-highest unemployment industrial state.4 South Central Los Angeles was where many minorities lived, and it was where the poverty was. Many parts of South Central Los Angeles were never rebuilt after the 1960s Watts Riot which was similar to the Los Angeles Riots.5
Gentrification is a highly important topic that has not only been occurring all over the United States, but especially closer than we may have thought. San Francisco is home to hundreds of thousands of people who have been a part of how amazing this city has become. San Francisco is one of the most visited places in the world with many of its famous landmarks, endless opportunities not only for daytime fun but also has an amazing nightlife that people cannot get enough of. People come for a great time and could not be done without the help of the people who have grown up to experience and love this city for what it truly is. The cost of living in such an important city has definitely had its affect of lower income San Francisco residents. For decades we have seen changes occurring in parts of San Francisco where minorities live. We have seen this in Chinatown, SOMA, Fillmore district, and especially the Mission district.
“A 12-Part Video Series about Homelessness in Southern California.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 2016, www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-biagiotti-onthestreets-20151118-htmlstory.html.
Countless throughout the streets of Jackson, MS there are homeless people asking for food, money, etc. and some people aid them and others walk away. However, does anyone ever see the other side of the equation? Driving down Gallatin St. one night I saw firsthand the “other side”. Because of this, the issue that my research will cover is homelessness. Homelessness is defined as a state in which individuals lack a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence. Poverty, lack of affordable housing, declining wages, lost jobs, the economy, foreclosure, decreased assistance programs, domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness, single parenthood, etc. are some of the causes of homelessness in America. Some of the proposed solutions are: affordable housing and homeless prevention programs. However, there needs to be less energy focused on providing temporary housing for those who are homeless, and more focus on providing permanent, affordable housing. Homelessness is an issue that should concern all of us. With a decrease in this situation it would clear up the amount of people walking around on the streets and everyone would feel more comfortable traveling at night. If someone is homeless, it is a common belief that they are more inclined to criminal activity; therefore less homelessness could equal less crime. Homelessness is not discriminatory and can happen to anyone at any time.
Pascale begins her article by stating that many U.S. cities are enacting laws which would punish homeless individuals for doing things many ‘ordinary’ people do all the time. For instance, loitering or sleeping in public (320). She states that the California Homeless and Housing Coalition estimates that there are around a million homeless people in California alone. Eight self governed cities in southern California and at least one city in northern California passed anti-sleeping laws, says Pascale (320). Another law in the city of San Francisco states that it is “illegal to linger for more than 60 seconds within 30 feet of an automatic teller in use” (321). The city of San Francisco spent a lot of time and money to arrest 15 people for begging in 1993 and Pascale alleges that there are several other major cities in the U.S. with similar laws (321).
As the number of homeless people in America continues to rise, homelessness has become a central issue in the County of Orange. A homeless person can be defined as an individual who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence and has a primary nighttime residence that is a supervised, publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations. (“U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development”) Whether homelessness is a result of individual choices, drug abuse, poor work ethic or the expensive cost of living, one thing is for sure, statistics show that the homeless population in Orange County has increased 54% over the past four years. As Orange County has 5 of the
This state is full of more cities besides just Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, my city Richmond, California. I wasn’t born there, but I have lived there most of my life, and there is a certain appeal is there, but its not the stereotypical beauty you see in any infomercial. This city isn’t celebrated nor is it world recognized for its accomplishments, but it is a small city with hidden treasure. The hidden treasure are the success stories that the community does not expect, and that can create a sense of empowerment for everyone around us. That empowerment is something that should be seen nationally, especially since Richmond is not the only impoverished city in