The Rise of Homelessness and What Can Be Done

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“Homelessness is a symptom of systemic poverty” (http://www.kansascity.com/ ). As one of our country's major social problems, homelessness is often in the news (http://www.ebooks.com/ ). Many seek shelters for the first time. The Homeless Coalition of Greater Kansas City reports that on any given night as many as 3,000 adults are homeless and more than 7,500 children are homeless on these Kansas City streets. Since 2011 more than 7% people who live in the state of Kansas City has become homeless. We are not actually sure why this rate has risen over the last 2 years. Maybe because of a bad economy and loses of jobs. The most common people who are counted as being homeless are: Victims of Domestic Violence, after deciding to leave an abusive relationship they often have nowhere to go for those who have few resources. Lack of money needed to afford housing and long waiting lists for assisted housing means that women and/or women and their families are forced to choose between abuse at home and life on the streets. In 2010, 344 victims of domestic violence were counted as sheltered and 12 were not as a total of 437 (See Table A1). In 2009, 108 were sheltered and 13 were not. (See Table A2). Chronically Homeless (See Table B1), Mentally Ill (See Table B2) and Substance abuse victims (See Table B3) are groups of people who are commonly homeless. Also, persons with HIV/AIDS (See Table C1), these people often get depressed and suicidal decreasing their likelihood to maintain to medications, which is needed to treat HIV/AIDS. The cost of health care and medications for people living with HIV/AIDS are often too high for people to keep up with. They are also at risk of losing their jobs due to discrimination or health-related absences. Ano...

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...endent giving them a sense of freedom once again. Meanwhile, in the future non-profit organizations continued to try to respond to the problem as do the government agencies. Efforts to provide emergency shelters increase and become institutionalized; transitional housing programs sprang up; a few “prevention” programs are going to be tried. A problem that may arise is people who are not at or below the poverty level to receive these types of assistance will soon try to do so. Many will try to lose their jobs and/or quit so that they would be making less income than they were previouly, so they can file for welfare, section 8 voucher, food stamps, etc,. Which could make our homeless rate increase again? We are not for sure just yet, we the people of Kansas City will just have to wait and see what the future holds for us and plan to end homelessness in the metro area.

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