Homeless Essays Examples

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Today, homelessness is the burning issue. Although many countries occur as a symbol of good life, millions of residents cannot make the ends meet. Respectively, such financial instability enhances the number of homeless people. The issue of poverty is extremely topical and needs to be adequately resolved.
Considering different categories of people, it is necessary to mention that children are potentially the most vulnerable. In accordance with the national statistics, practically every fifth child in the world is poor and homeless. Regarding the poverty in the United States, one should know that California is the third state in terms of poverty indicators; extremely high living standards and massive unemployment are the factors, which negatively contribute to the poverty rate. Most of the families in California have either only one full-time wage earner or two full-time workers, earning minimum wage (Robertson., Zlotnick., Westerfelt, 1997, p. 218). Apart from it, the homelessness among children is often caused by the families providing insufficient treatment. In order to prevent children from changing into real beggars, the authorities have to take into consideration the need to monitor disadvantaged families in order to avert runaways ((Robertson., Zlotnick., Westerfelt, 1997, p. 220). Moreover, it is important to locate runaway children in the appropriate state centres. Obviously, these measures are likely to reduce the number of homeless children.
Another category of people, who are at risk for becoming homeless are women. Due to the fact that women are often not equally treated if compared to men, their rights are violated and they are not usually promoted better jobs. The identity of woman in USA can be observed differently, depending on specific institutions. Historically, the rights of women were violated, and this violation was especially attributed to people of color, first settlers, minority groups and feminists. To be precise, the discrimination was mostly noticed towards lesbians, gays, Afro-American women and Latinas. Their social and economic welfare was put in danger. The Peace Movement in USA was supported by Peace Pilgrim, who was a strong woman, who covered approximately twenty-five thousand miles on foot and was ready to go on until the humanity establishes peace in her native country. The peace and equality were necessary things that could provide the balance within society. However sexism was noticed in every aspect of life in the form of masculinity. In America women’s reproductive rights and individual independence tend to be the main indicators of women’s health and provide their important roles in society. However, at different times such aspects of life were not fully provided for women. Consequently, it is possible to argue that females have more chances of becoming homeless (Plain, 2001). In order to settle on a solution to a problem of homeless women the government should be targeted on implementing compensation policies for the local inhabitants due to the lack of jobs. All in all, the authorities have to be concerned about the historical trials that the women had to pass through and finally give them the guarantees of equal rights when applying for jobs (Plain 2001, p. 197).
One more category of people who face homelessness are disabled. It is clear that these people are at risk of becoming the beggars, since the power usually underestimate the significance of effective treating the disabled homeless population (Foster, 2010). In order to overcome the problems of disabled people and reduce the number of homeless invalids, the power needs to be focused on implementing a range of social programs aimed to assist with the obstacles of this group of people. Invalids are often considered to be those people who due to their disability are no longer capable of earning an income (Foster, 2010). Obviously, some countries offer several financial benefits to disabled. For example, in Australia Disability Support Pension is given to disabled over 16 years old who do not qualify for age pension and who have physical and psychiatric impairment at least 20 points of more or are permanently blind. Thus, such benefit is paid once invalids provide their medical certificate and in case they are planning to return to study or work later. Finally, some invalids can receive a Youth Allowance and Newstart Allowance for Individuals Who Are Incapacitated. Such recipients are exempted from the obligatory activity test as their physical disability prevents them from going to work.
One cannot skip with the issue of high food prices that many people consider as the factor that leads to depression, health problems, and even begging (Hitchman., Christie., Harrison., Lang, 2002); since many people are unable to buy necessary food, they are forced to go bagging, and they automatically approach the status of the homeless. In order to prevent these people from going begging, the authorities should provide them with minimum package of goods and services (Hitchman., Christie., Harrison., Lang, 2002). As a result, it will give a new chance for these citizens to start afresh.
Apart from the abovementioned factors causing the rise of homelessness, some people still believe that the targeted homeless assistance projects are likely to lead to poverty in the United States. What is more, they consider homeless to be unwilling to change their life for better, since they are satisfied with what they get for free (Koegel et al., 1996). The thing is that a big number of people have serious financial difficulties even though they are not beggars; as a result, their understanding that a part of all the taxes they pay goes towards the homeless assistance programs make these people nervous. Inevitably, it is possible to see many completely healthy homeless people who just ignore the chance to apply for some job. That is the main reason why some people criticize the attempts to help the homeless. All in all, despite the fact that these people are partially right, it is still necessary to help the homeless. However, the assistance programs should not be based on the principles of solely feeding housing and giving some money; it is necessary to understand that the homeless people turned to be real outcasts, and it is high time to let them go back to their society and start over from scratch (Koegel, et al., 1996). Otherwise, they will just remain the outcasts. It is obvious that homeless can happen to each one, and, consequently, one should not disregard the homeless assistance.

References

Foster, L. (2010). Estimating California’s Homeless Population. California Homeless Youth
Project. California Research Bureau
Hitchman, C., Christie, I., Harrison, M., Lang, T. (2002). Inconvenience Food: The struggle
Koegel, P, et al. (1996).“The Causes of Homelessness,” in Homelessness in America, Oryx
Press. National Coalition for the Homeless, 2201 P St NW, Washington, D.C., 20036;
202/462-4822.
Plain, G. (2001). Twentieth-Century Fiction: Gender, Sexuality and the Body. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press., p. 196.
Robertson, M., Zlotnick, C., and Westerfelt, A. (1997). “Drug Use Disorders and
Treatment Contact among Homeless Adults in Alameda County, California.” American Journal of Public Health. 87(2): 217–20.