There are about 3.5 million people in America alone that are homeless; half of these people are children between the ages of 10-17. Neglect, Physical, and Sexual abuse are some reasons most teens are on the streets. 20% of children every year are experiencing physical and emotional neglect by their parents, families, and best friends. They feel as if their not appreciated, wanted, or even loved. Most teens feel like they would be better without their parents and decide to run away. The crime rates are outrageous on the street! As a result, 5000 teens die every year due to high risk anxiety, depressions, post traumatic stress, and disorders. The growth of homelessness was increasing 8.5% per month each year. Causing the Government to loose over 4 million dollars. Lots of teens are often beaten and raped everyday. The majority are female. 96% of females on the streets are often fatherless and easily taken advantage of by older and younger men. Because they are fatherless, they don’t know how to be treated, and allow men to beat and have unconsensual sex with them. For awhile these teen girls feel like these men are doing this out of love and care, until the beatings and forced relations get WORSE! When these teens find a way to escape from their abusive relationships, they find themselves on the street selling their bodies for survival. Studies show that 3 out of 4 female teens under the age of 15 are forced into prostitution while living on the streets. These teens deal with the risk of kidnapping, Aids and STDs. According to the justice system of missing persons, 1 out of 4 teens are abducted everyday trying to steal, trespass, and sell their bodies. Living on the streets and catching viruses and Aids is commonly fo...
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...s mothers say that they weren’t employed when they became homeless. They were stay at home moms taking care of household chores and taking care of their children and satisfying their husband’s needs. They didn’t ever think that they would become homeless or ever get a divorce. These mothers try to survive with working two jobs, but the income isn’t enough to take of all the bills and provide food on the table for the family. The overall situation is that there’s lots of reason teens become homeless weather its run away or eviction. This all causes teens stress and sometimes even there life’s. Mother’s even give there children away because of these type of situations, so they want suffer or have a bad life. Lots of adoption agency’s have received lots of babies and teens over the years because of the poverty and finical situations that there parents are in.
Although The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a program that guarantees education for the homeless youth population, many homeless do not receive the proper services they need because they are not aware of available resources (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Many homeless youths do not have a safe place to stay during the night or do not have any family or friends to rely on for support. In addition, approximately 7% of youth members in the United States are left without a home because of high dependence on an addictive substance or because they have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Services that could provide shelter for the youth are often underused. Research in homeless youth
Even with the daily struggle faced by youth in obtaining shelter and homelessness becoming a reality for a growing number of Canadians, Canada, with its high quality of life is one country that has always had a global long-standing reputation. This paper will be working towards giving the reader a better understanding with regards to homeless youth. It will be focusing on the reasons why they leave home, their lives on the street and steps they are trying to take to be able to leave the streets. An important finding from this research suggests, “the street youth population is diverse, complex, and heterogeneous”. According to Karabanow, made up of a number of subcultures including hardcore street-entrenched young people, squatters, group home kids, child welfare kids, soft-core twinkles, runaways, throwaways, refugees and immigrants is the generic term ‘street youth’.
If you wanted to examine young people's experiences of homelessness, would you use qualitative methods, or quantitative methods, or a mixed methods approach, and why?
I have heard stories from my friends that are horrible, especially considering they were all under 18 during these events within their lives. Therefore, I believe the homeless youth in our community need more attention due to their age and lack of confidence. For example, my boyfriend Alex was homeless when we started dating. All of his siblings were taken away separately from child services due to abuse, addiction and neglect within his family. He lived in a shelter where teens were using drugs, stealing and some were even into prostitution. I do understand that not all shelters are this way, but in his experience, he has lived in three different ones and all of them had some of these factors within them. I used to believe there were many options for the homeless, especially teenagers, but from my own second-hand experiences there are really not that many alternatives. “Sometimes it is safer to sleep on the street than some homeless shelters we came across”, suggests Alex Black, a former homeless youth. These shelters can be horrifying to the point that many teens, including Alex, run away. Society looks down on the homeless, creating a barrier surrounding our social structure, placing them at the bottom. Many people in our community believe it is not their place to help, some just are selfish or look the other way and keep on walking.“Whoever closes
“Homelessness is a symptom of systemic poverty” (www.kansascity.com). Since 2012, the homeless rate has risen more than 7% in Kansas City, MO alone. According to a 2012 count survey by the homeless coalition services, roughly 2,434 unduplicated individuals were homeless in Kansas City. Of those 70% were sheltered and 30% were on the streets. Since reported on any given night here in the metro more than 3,000 adults and 7,500 kids are homeless in our area. We are not sure why the rate has risen so much over the years. “Maybe because the declining economy is almost certain for the external event most commonly said to make people homeless” (Shumoky, Neil Larry). Many people who are homeless are, victims of domestic violence, after deciding to leave an abusive relationship, they often have nowhere to go for those who have few resource. Also, Lack of money needed for housing and having to wait on a list for assisted housing means they have to chose between staying with an abuser or living on the street with their kids. People with HIV/AIDS, those people often get depressed and suicidal. The cost for medications and treatments for people living with HIV/AIDS get too high for people to keep up with. They also are at risk of losing their jobs because of discrimination or absences health-related. A few more are people with a mental illness and substance abusers. Also, Veterans, who once served in this country. They were also effected by the economic crisis that hit a few years ago. Many also dealing with PTSD, are unwilling to get the help needed because of the shame surrounding mental illness. So many turn to alcohol/drugs as an escape from the terrible and haunting memories of the war. Some of their families give up on them. Not being ...
Living without a home can put an individual at a high risk of finding themselves in dangerous situations. Among these are the possibility of: being harmed or exploited by others, raped or sexually abused, or doing illegal things, such as prostitution or drug dealing, in order to make a living (“Being”). Along with these perils comes the problematic issue of attending school. Fifty percent of homeless youth, aged sixteen or older, reported dropping out of school, being expelled, or suspended (“NRS”). Many times a youth’s attention will be more focused on their basic needs, food and shelter, and schooling no longer is a necessity to them. When an adolescent does, however, wish to enroll and attend school they are met with restrictions that prevent them from getting an opportunity. In ...
Homelessness is a real serious health issue all over the world that must be addressed. A lot of people in a public frequently misunderstand the cause of homelessness. Remarks regarding homeless people such as “they need to just get a job” or “go to school” are normally used liberally by members of society because they neglect to look at the complete issue. Homelessness does not discriminate. Individuals that have previously experience or may experience being homeless can be from different regions, have different cultural backgrounds, ages, and could be of any gender. Minorities seem to be mostly affected by homelessness. A study done in 2012 found that the homeless population is consisted of 39% non-Hispanic Whites, 42% African-Americans, 13% Hispanic, 4% Native-American, and 2% Asian (Now on PBS, 2012). The End Homelessness website provides the following statistics:
As a result of anti-poverty legislation being placed into effect all over the country to force workers back into the capitalist labour market, which has taken hold in neoliberalism, the number of families finding themselves on the brink of homeless is skyrocketing. Furthermore, with the reduction of social assistance programs these families are barely able to provide for themselves, therefore, numerous children are being physically impacted by homelessness. According to Jenny Hsu (2015) hunger and physical illness are effects children and youth may experience due to homelessness that greatly affect their development which is unacceptable for our government to allow this many young people to be negatively impacted. Thus, the links between these
Gattis and Larson suggest, “interested parties could benefit from an improved understanding of the mental health needs of homeless adolescents. This knowledge could be used to identify youths at risk of becoming homeless and to provide appropriate services to those currently homeless” (p. 87). In short, education and knowledge regarding the homelessness in itself can do wonders. The homeless face many hardships including depression, anxiety, PTSD, discrimination, and suicidal thoughts. These are just a few things that homeless people face that the general population don’t take into consideration on a first glance or thought. Intervention and world of mouth will also help, because this is a topic society doesn’t necessary publicize, we don’t know much about it. If this is publicized in a positive way, the motivation and self-esteem from homeless people will also rise. The increase of access to insurance would also help prevent this. In order to get treated for any mental illness they have, they need insurance. With active treatment for a mental illness, this will heighten the likelihood of obtaining a reliable job. Which in turn, will essentially help prevent the homeless from being
Teenage runaways have different reasons for leaving home but all have the same reason for becoming homeless. They simply just do not have enough money. Others are drug and alcohol abusers and disabled people. With this list of people there must be some way that we can help these people.
Based off the attention from modern media, youth homelessness has been on an unfortunate upslope in the United States within the past decade. Various factors tie into why this issue is becoming more prominent such as low income households being unable to afford children, LGBT youth rejection, and domestic abuse leading to children leaving home. Now, vagrancy has a severely negative impact on the development of young people as it inhibits them from developing academically, socially, and mentally and can also expose them to diseases and potentially various types of abuse, such as sexual and substance abuse. This is an issue that should be addressed, for the rising generations are America’s future, and so investing in the overall well-being of the
Children should not have to go through any of that. It is quite unbelievable but “HIV rates for homeless people are three to nine times higher than report rates for competitive samples in the US. A study across four cities found a prevalence of two point three percent for homeless youth under twenty five” (“eleven facts about homeless”). “Two million and two hundred thousand children die each year due to the fact they do not become immunized. Fifteen million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS” according to Snah. The HIV rates for homeless children are not good. The rate needs to go down. Out of all the runaway youths, over forty percent have been abandoned by their parents. Also, over forty percent have been beaten by their parents (“eleven facts about homeless”). It is proven children with homeless mothers are more likely to stay with them than if their father had been homeless (“Homeless”). Almost half of runaways happen when they have been abandoned or
Grant, R., Gracy, D., Goldsmith, G., Shapiro, A., & Redlener, I. E. (2013). Twenty-Five Years of Child and Family Homelessness: Where Are We Now?. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(S2), e1-e10. doi:10.2105/AJPH. 2013.301618
Youth become homeless for a number of reasons, including: family violence and neglect, rejection due to sexual orientation or gender identity, the overwhelmed child welfare system and extreme poverty. These youth almost always have experienced unimaginable abuse and trauma, in their homes, their communities, and on the street. It is the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA)-funded services and programs that help to rectify the deep injustices that homeless youth experience on a daily basis.
A study that was completed in Vancouver collected data from 770 street involved youth, ages ranging from 14 to 26 years of age, 77 per cent reported receiving income assistance from. 64 per cent reported having housing, further 28 per cent reported being evicted and losing income assistance. Heavy alcohol use, unprotected sex, being a victim of violence, and homelessness were all factors associated with eviction. Without income assistance or having a home, these street involved youth lead to drug dealing and eventually incarceration. Income assistance is crucial for some people because it involves being able to survive with basic necessities. It is important that social service programs for those at risk are improved so that these individuals are not left to make desperate decisions for survival. Another study done in Ontario collected data from 284 young mothers (under the age of 18) receiving income assistance, 26 per cent of these young mothers reported that the income assistance that they received was their main source of income. Young mothers are at higher risk to being victims of domestic violence and to have mental health issues. For these mother’s receiving income assistance as their main source of income can lead to stressful situations, this eventually can lead to vulnerability and a higher chance of neglecting their