Homelessness is a state of lacking a permanent residence, which represents a wide social category of people who don’t have a roof over their head for multiple reasons. This affects people around the world, but its severity depends on location. The majority of homeless people globally are women with young children, versus in the United States the highest homeless population consists of middle-aged men. This matters because homelessness is a worldwide epidemic and no one is immune from it. The Los Angeles County is severely affected by homelessness since there are 57,794 as of May of 2017, and these numbers are only increasing. Homelessness matters because there is an increasing trend lately in Los Angeles, it affects everyday citizens’ emotions …show more content…
since they encounter these people that are less fortunate than them, and because people living in communities that contain homeless people are influenced politically, socially, and environmentally. Homelessness has been around since the beginning of time, but this problem has recently started arising heavily as of late. Los Angeles has struggled with homelessness for decades, which causes it to be the top of LA’s civic agenda. In the 1980s, homeless people were perceived as ‘lazy bums, beggars, and romantic hobos’ (Smith, LA Times), but today’s homeless people are college graduates, single-parent families, veterans, and other professionals. LA Times states, ‘This year, there are 57,794 homeless people in Los Angeles, compared to 44,359 in 2015’ (Smith, LA times). Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti states, “Our city is in the midst of an extraordinary homelessness crisis that needs an extraordinary response. These men, these women, these children are our neighbors” (Holland/Smith, 1). The most common causes leading to homelessness are the raise in housing costs and the stagnant incomes, recession and housing crisis of 2008, drug and alcohol addiction, mental illnesses, and being a victim of abuse, etcetera. With the homeless population in the Los Angeles County jumping by twenty-three percent in just one year, it becomes evident that homelessness is an epidemic and it needs to be addressed with seriousness. Measure H was approved in March 2017 and it raised the sales tax by one-fourth of a percent to fund for varieties of life-changing services for homeless people, which can make a permanent dent in homelessness. The LA Missions, the Crossroads of Hope is a non-profit organization that runs a homeless shelter in Downtown Los Angeles. Not only do they provide beds, hot meals, and showers, but they have rehabilitation services to help with addiction issues, as well as a center for abused women, and they even have academic training. Tina Russek, who is a manager at LA Missions, believes that it’s amazing to work with homeless people, “Gratifying. I see people upset that they are homeless and that they actually want to clean up their act from being a “druggy,” or ruining their life because they lost a job or because they got a divorce. I got this job just because I care so much about other people and why they are in this position” (Tina Russek, Manager, October 26th, 2017). She communicates with homeless people and she provides essential needs for them, but her main goal is to completely restore their lives so that they wouldn’t go back to this life. One of the stories Tina told was about a guy who was on the streets and in and out of jail for many years, which made him want to kill himself, so someone who works at the shelter told him to get on a bus and come to the shelter. The guy just repeated that nothing worked and that he just wants to kill himself. The shelter employee joked that we can do that later and now you just need ice cream. The employee later brought him to the shelter on a bus. Los Angeles County isn’t the only area that struggles with homelessness, so does the rest of the country.
In Sean Baker’s movie The Florida Project, out in theatres now, he highlights the struggles of housing insecurity, poverty, and how this struggle is even higher when raising children. The director, Sean Baker, raised an important topic of “de facto” homelessness in the Orlando, Florida, area. Three young kids who are being raised in a motel by their young mothers, who had them as teens, go through financial, emotional, and social struggles. Hailey, the main character who is only 21, and her daugher, Moonie, 6, have to pay thirty-eight dollars for rent every night, they have to go through stressful experiences while hassling this money, while having to provide for her and her child. Sean Baker talks about the fact that he wants to draw support and get the federal and state governments involved in the homelessness problem. He states, “My goal is to draw support to them and put pressure on state and local governments to fund them” (Hakimi). The movie teaches and informs us how to be empathetic towards people who are just one night away from being homeless. Baker also teaches the importance of not being judgemental of anyone’s situations, but instead to draw attention to people about why homelessness needs to be eradicated once and for all. Likewise to Orlando, Los Angeles is also in close proximity to the other Happiest Place on Earth, yet so many kids and their families struggle with poverty and homelessness. According to Sean Baker, Disneyworld isn’t a problem because Disney donated five-hundred thousand dollars to the homelessness cause in
Orlando. After careful research and consideration, I came to the conclusion that resolving an issue of homelessness is an overwhelming undertaking. The solution requires a comprehensive approach, and according to the Los Angeles County that approach is Measure H, which is expected to annually generate three-hundred fifty-five million dollars for services to combat homelessness; it will also pay for building housing. Just providing a place to live in isn’t enough because a lot of these people need rehab services to help with drug and alcohol addiction. They also need the help of psychologists as a lot of them were abused and are traumatized while being homeless, and even before they were homeless. Homeless people also need mental health services from the psychiatrists to treat their mental health issues. Lastly, they need education to acquire knowledge and degrees so that they would be able to find and hold down a job. Some impacts I can have is that I can be empathetic instead of judgemental. I can continue educating myself on the issue of homelessness and how it affects the community, while following the proposed solutions meant to eradicate the issue. I can also volunteer at my school to pack food for the Feed My Starving Children event; what I will pack will be donated to homeless shelters. Once I’m older, I can volunteer at homeless shelters to interact with homeless people myself. I can also donate clothes, hygiene sets and money to homeless shelters and other organizations. Altogether, I think that homeless needs to be focused on as the majority of problems in Los Angeles, and I can help by volunteering to help a great cause. “The Times Editorial Board,” http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-hhh-hurdles-20161114-story.html “Hakimi, Alexander.” http://www.papermag.com/the-florida-project-director-sean-baker-on-working-with-untrained-actors-and-secret-filming-in-disney-world-2499057069.html “Berg, Nate” http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/MagazinesDetailsPage/MagazinesDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=&displayGroupName=Magazines&docIndex=&source=DirectLinking&prodId=&mode=view&jsid=71e8512382ff2fa3e7129442d7ea6f1f&limiter=&display-query=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&windowstate=normal&currPage=&dviSelectedPage=&scanId=&query=&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&catId=&u=paci91811&displayGroups=&documentId=GALE%7CA476572527&activityType=BasicSearch&failOverType=&commentary= Gale Document Number: GALE|A476572527 Angelika Film Center & Cafe,” https://youtu.be/OK4j5XoFiN0 Russek, Tina. Telephone Interview, Manager at LA Missions, 26 Oct., 2017 Holland, Gale, and Doug Smith. “L.A. County Homelessness Jumps a 'Staggering' 23% as Need Far Outpaces Housing, New Count Shows.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2017, www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-homeless-count-20170530-story.html. A24Films. “The Florida Project | Official Trailer HD | A24.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Aug. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwQ-NH1rRT4.
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.
News Briefs. a. The adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of the adage of Journal of Housing & Community Development, 10-11. Stein, M. L., & Roseman, M. (1990). Homeless Children: A New Vulnerability?
Homelessness is one of the biggest issues society (Unites States) faces today. Homelessness is caused by lack of affordable housing, economic situations and decline in federal funding for low income families and the mentally ill. A homeless person is defined as an individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a family) including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private (shelters) facility that provides temporary living accommodations and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing. This definition of housing is used by the U.S Department of Healt...
Individuals often have their own perceptions and definitions of homelessness. These perceptions generally are over exaggerated. Over exaggerated definitions of what homelessness looks like can be explained by movies, TV shows, internet, and ev...
Tunstall, L. (2009). Homelessness: an overview. EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://web.ebscohost.com/pov/detail?hid=119&sid=d5f751fa-0d0d-4ed1-8deb-483e701af50c%40sessionmgr111&vid=3&bdata=Jmxhbmc9ZW4tY2Emc2l0ZT1wb3YtY2Fu#db=p3h&AN=28674966
It is estimated that, “each year, more than 3 million people experience homelessness, including 1.3 million children” (NLCHP). Clearly poverty and Homelessness come hand in hand, and the economy downfall has only contributed to this growing crisis. “Homelessness stems from a lack of affordable housing. Increasing rents, destruction of traditional low-income housing, and cuts in federal housing programs threaten affordable housing with extinction” (NLCHP). Most people in poverty have a housing affordability crisis, which means that they pay more than half of their income for rent, so therefore they have to buffer to deal with unforeseen expenses.
McNamara, Robert Hartmann. "Homelessness." Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues. Ed. Michael Shally-Jensen. Vol. 3: Family and Society. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 1024-1031. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014. .
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
Although most people know what homelessness is and it occurs in most societies, it is important to define because the forces of displacement vary greatly, along with the arrangement and meaning of the resulting transient state. The Stewart B McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 defined a homeless person as “an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence or a person who resides in a shelter, welfare hotel, transitional program or place not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, such as streets, cars, movie theaters, abandoned buildings, etc.” Resent surveys conducted in the U.S. have confirmed that the homeless population in America is extremely diverse and includes representatives from all segments of society, including: the old and young, men and women, single people and families, city dwellers and rural residents, whites and people of color, employed and unemployed, able workers and people with serious health problems. The diversity among people that are homeless reflects how difficult it is to generalize the causes of homelessness and the needs of homeless people. Robert Rosenheck M.D., the author of Special Populations of Homeless Americans, explains the importance of studying homelessness based on subgroups, “each subgroup [of homeless people] has unique service needs and identifying these needs is critical for program planning and design.” Despite these diversities, homelessness is a devastating situation for all that experience it. Not only have homeless people lost their dwelling, but they have also lost their safety, privacy, control, and domestic comfort.
“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)
“3.5 million people will experience homelessness in a given year,”(Los Angeles Homeless Services). This shocking number is one of the sad truths in today’s society. Homelessness is caused by a wide range of things including financial issues. The life of a homeless person is hard and comes with set-backs and the constant need to overcome them. Homeless people go through many challenges in surviving without a home. They can suffer from health issues, hunger, and poor emotional well-being.
...is to understand the factors that lead people into homelessness, that keep them homeless, and how they can recover from homelessness. Advocates for the homeless have proposed policies range from taking preventative measures, such as making housing and health care affordable, to policies that deal with individuals that are already homeless, such as rapid rehousing and redefining what it means to be homeless. Although many of the experts disagree on how the homeless epidemic should be handled, many acknowledge that the federal government plays an inexpendable role in helping the homeless. Homelessness is, obviously, a complex issue, but like all difficult issues it must be undertaken. It has become clear that homelessness is not something that will eradicate itself given time, homelessness will continue to grow and evolve unless an outside force stops it in its tracks.
Homelessness has become a serious problem in today’s society. Despite the organizations that help multitudes of homeless people, homelessness is continually increasing. In recent years, America’s culture has been changing due to economic, political, and social issues. These issues have caused a lot of stress on America resulting in abject poverty in several cities. Poverty is not nationwide, but if dealt with lightly, the affects can be catastrophic. Homelessness is increasing more than ever, and research proves that changing culture contributes to rising amount of homelessness.
Homelessness is a growing epidemic around the world, and poverty is the most common reason most people are forced to face the miserable life of living without shelter. The only way that we can help this unfortunate situation is to take action, and by doing that, we need to know the facts about this unfortunate situation. Over two-million people live in emergency shelters, and transitional housing. With so many people living in poverty, it gives us a better understanding as to why there are so many homeless people today. Having no food, and relying on food kitchens, garbage scraps, and stealing food, is a very tragic situation. With no protection from the elements, many of them will die from heat strokes, or quite frankly, freeze to death. The average american purchases food and other household goods for their families, and some never stop to think of those less...
This great nation of awesome power and abundant resources is losing the battle against homelessness. The casualties can be seen on the street corners of every city in American holding an ?I will work for food? sign. Homeless shelters and rescue missions are at full capacity. There is no room at the inn for the nation?s indigent. Anyone who has studied this issue understands that homelessness is a complex problem. Communities continue to struggle with this socio-economic problem while attempting to understand its causes and implement solutions. The public and private sectors of this country are making a difference in the lives of the homeless by addressing the issues of housing, poverty and education.