Homelessness Melissa St

homeless personness Melissa St George SOC 203 Social Problems Instructor Risa G arlick August 28, 2011 I limit to shew the meaning of homelessness and the different ways that battalion become homeless. I will also show how we groundwork go ab forbidden preventing homelessness. Homelessness means that one has no place to live. The most prominent sociodemographic characteristics determine with spunky risk of homelessness stool been male gender, B overlook race, being unmarried, and being middle aged (Greenberg & Rosenheck, 2010, p1234-1235). approximately of the homeless live in cities but there atomic number 18 those who live in the rural atomic number 18as. approximately of them are hidden because they are homeless for shorter periods of time. thither are several causes or reasons why tribe are homeless, some of them are by choice and others are constrained, contrary to most peoples beliefs that they are drug addicts, alcoholics or are intellectually challenged (syzygyas tro). The different types of homeless people are push- push throughs, victims of environmental catastrophe, mentally ill, the new poor, the technically unqualified, the elderly, runaways, the demoralized, alcoholics, ease addicts, travel addicts, and excitement addicts (Henslin, 2008, p 228).The push-outs are people or families that countenance been forced out. They can be teenagedagers who are thr confess out by their parents. The parents may pick up thrown them out due to They can be adults or families who have been evicted by landlords. Due to the high costs of rents, they may have had to choose between paying the rent or other necessities much(prenominal) as food, clothing, or gas. Or they could have lost their home due to the sub-prime mortgage catastrophe that has do more than families homeless in 2008 and now threatens a further 48 percent of the rest sub-prime mortgage holders who are late in payments or in default (Syzygyastro).Victims of environmental catastrophe have been forced out due to hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, tsunamis, or other environmental disasters. The mentally ill have been forced out by hospitals or insurance companies. They are un fitted to care for themselves, so they live out on the streets non knowing how to survive in the real world. They can also become homeless because they gather up to choose their medications over rent. 20% to 50% of homeless adults suffer from a sound mental malady (Greenberg & Rosenheck, 2010, p 1235).The new poor are forced out from a job due to technological change. There jobs are taken over by machines and/or globalization. The company moves to another part of the world, so that they can pay fewer wage to their employees. The technologically unqualified have been forced out because they neer posed any technological skills, so they are unable to keep or cross jobs. The struggle that they do receive are so low that they can not afford an apartment. The elderly have been discarded.They have no family support, no income, and most are unemployable. Runaways choose to be homeless due to precarious living conditions. nigh of these runaways are teenagers who have been physically depraved. Some are the results of the system failing them. Most of the runaways are between the age of fifteen and seventeen but there are some that are as young as age ten. The demoralized are the depressed who have given up. The addicts are those who have been addicted to alcohol or drugs and choose their addictions over their homes. 0% to 80% have a history of substance use disorders (Greenberg & Rosenheck, 2010, p 1235), thirty eight percent of homeless people have a problem with alcohol addiction and that another twenty six percent of homeless people have addictions to other drugs (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2003). The Anti-Drug Abuse Act has made undoable for people who are convicted of a drug-related crime to keep their unrestricted caparison. In the 1950s the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric manipulation was the major factor of homelessness. The ease addicts choose homelessness.They are usually in their early twenties and indispensableness to escape responsibility. The travel addicts choose to be homeless and want to roam. The excitement addicts choose to be homeless. They enjoy the thrill of danger and because it offers the edge. The other things that are also associated with homelessness are past incarceration, exposure to trauma, lack of low-income trapping, and the decrease in public funds. As a result of loss of benefits, low wages, and unstable employment, many families leaving welfare struggle to get medical care, food, and housing (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). A lack of low-priced housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). There are many ways that we can athletic s upporter to prevent homelessness. In 1987, the McKinney Homeless Act took the startle steps to this by making it a federal law that there needed to be keep for the homeless. The next steps that we need to do is to evaluate the homeless in our communities to see what programs or function are most in need. We need to evaluate our homeless shelters.We need to have job facts of life and financial programs. We need to keep train of the people that we serving. We need to banding up supportive housing and/or Unfortunately, government action and public policy of recent has not necessarily helped the plight of the homeless, in fact in some cases it has served to compound the problem (Gaddis, 2007). When we evaluate the homeless in our communities to see what programs or services that we need most, we need to do it in a way that is nonthreatening and compassionate. We need to evaluate our own bias, so that we can put them aside and help them. Many of the people that experience homeless ness are not the stereotypical homeless persons that would come to mind when thinking about this problem (Gaddis, 2007). We need to find out why they are homeless and look to the local government for help. Public assistance programs can help the homeless with some of their problems. There needs to be some type of coordination between homeless shelters and public service agencies. Some people will not go to public agencies for help because of the bias of others and/or because of their pride.Many of the reports that I enjoin told of conditions at shelters as being in poor condition. An example of this is when FEMA set up the social housing after Hurricane Katrina. Some people are highly critical of these camps, craft them nothing more than concentration camps complete with barbed wire and gun towers (Syzygyastro). The other reports that I read talked about shelters that were run down, very few of them, and they were riddled with disease, pests, and thefts. Job preps and financial p rograms will be able to help the homeless get back on their feet.We should have some kind of job training programs for these people because most of them are there due to a job loss. This would also help the runaways who need to the life skills to survive in the world. Financial programs could be very helpful because it can help them get their finances in order and to teach them how to stretch their earnings by budgeting. We need to keep track of the people that we help. Too many times people get the help that they need and then they are forgotten about. We need to set up programs that help this people and offer support over a long period of time. Studies of placement programs often find that they lose track of residents within the first year, so track clients carefully, and assess their need for specific services (Solutions for America). We need to look at supportive housing or Treatment of substance abuse has been reported to improve outcomes in homeless persons with dual diagnoses of serious mental illness and substance abuse (Folsom, Hawthorne, Lindamer.. , 2005). When we set up supportive housing for addicts, we can help them to beat their addictions and set up their new life.We can also help the people with mental health disorders get the supports that they may need. We will only be able break the cycle by coming together as a community and working on ways to help those that are having a difficult time. We need to remember that one day that could be us and we would want person there to help us. Annotated Bibliography Why Are People Homeless?. (July 2009). Retrieved August 12, 2011, from National Coalition for the Homeless website, http//www. nationalhomeless. org/factsheets/why. tml. The name talks about what homelessness is and the many causes of it. Gaddis, Roger. (2007, August 22). The Homeless in the get together States. Retrieved August 12, 2011, from website http//www. associatedcontent. com/article/351165/the_homeless_in_the_united_states. html? cat=4, The article talks about the number of homeless people in the United States and reasons why they are homeless. Youth Homelessness Facts and Solutions. (n. d. ) Retrieved August 12, 2011, from Youth Noise website http//www. youthnoise. om/page. php? page_id=6145. This article talks about the causes for teen homelessness and how we can prevent it. Preventing Homelessness in America. (n. d. ) Retrieved August 12, 2011, from Solutions for America website http//www. solutionsforamerica. org/thrivingneigh/homelessness. html. The article talks about the many causes of homelessness and how we can prevent it. Addiction Blog. (2011, January 7). Drug and alcohol abuse and the homeless. It talks about the statistics for drug and alcohol abuse among the