THE PROBLEM OF HOMELESSNESS IN THE US AND SOLUTION PROPOSALS

I. Introduction The Definition of Homelessness: According to the Federal Government: “people who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate night time residence” However there are still disagreements about an exact definition of homelessness. According to Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing: “Homelessness include those at imminent risk of losing housing due to eviction under specific economic circumstances, those in temporary institutional settings who lacked prior stable housing, unaccompanied youths, and victims of domestic violence.” Before moving to the problem of homelessness, I would like to start with the definitions and few facts about the homelessness in the US. There are several different definitions of homelessness. According to the Federal Government, it is defined as “people who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate night time residence”. According to Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing, it is defined as people who are at imminent risk of losing housing due to eviction under specific economic circumstances, those in temporary institutional settings who lacked prior stable housing, unaccompanied youths, and victims of domestic violence.” However there are still disagreements about an exact definition of homelessness. Homelessness exists when people lack safe, stable, and appropriate places to live. Sheltered and unsheltered people are homeless. People living doubled up or in overcrowded living situations or motels because of inadequate economic resources are included in this definition, as are those living in tents or other temporary enclosures. Gender, age, disability, or other personal characteristics are not included in this definition of homelessness

I. Introduction 16% have severe mental health disorders Demographics of Homeless Children < 18 are 40%; majority under age 40 African Americans 40% Caucasians 38% Hispanics 20% 40% of men are veterans 1/3 have severe addictive disorders 16% have severe mental health disorders 1% of population will be homeless at some point during each year (3,000,000) (Caton et al., 2005) On any given day between 400,000 and 800,000 are homeless According to the recent studies, there are certain common demographics of homeless people. The majority of them are under the age of 40, of which 40% include children under the age of 18. Mostly, African Americans are the ones facing with homelessness with around 40%, followed by Caucasians and Hispanics with 38 and 28% respectively. The disorders are also very common among the homeless. 33% have severe addictive disorders including the hard drug use, whereas 16% of them have to deal with the severe Mental health disorders. According to the estimates, it is calculate that 1% of the population is homeless. Although it sounds small as a percentage, the number of people who had to fight with homelessness at some point reaches to 3 million in the US, which is a very large number. It is also believed that on any given day between 400,000 and 800,000 are homeless

Facts and Figures Total homeless estimated around 750k people. 56% Unsheltered 41% with Families 23% Chronic Highest in California The recent estimates indicate that around 750 thousand people is homeless in a given day on average. The most striking figure is 41% of them are homeless not alone but with families. And 56% of them are not even sheltered. The highest figure appears in California, with the 130 thousand people, which makes the 18% of the entire homeless population in the US. Since we say that 23% of them belong to chronic homelessness, we can move the categorization of it.

Different Types of Homelessness Chronic Episodic Transitional Let’s discuss a little bit about what the different types of homelessness are and how we can characterize them.. There are three main types of homelessness. Let’s start with the essential one, that is easier to identify CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS Persons most like the stereotyped profile of the “skid-row” homeless, who are likely to be entrenched in the shelter system and for whom shelters are more like long-term housing rather than an emergency arrangement. These individuals are likely to be older, and consist of the “hard-core unemployed”, often suffering from disabilities and substance abuse problems. Yet such persons represent a far smaller proportion of the population compared to the transitionally homeless.  TRANSITIONAL HOMELESSNESS Transitionally homeless individuals generally enter the shelter system for only one stay and for a short period. Such persons are likely to be younger, are probably recent members of the precariously housed population and have become homeless because of some catastrophic event, and have been forced to spend a short time in a homeless shelter before making a transition into more stable housing. Over time, transitionally homeless individuals will account for the majority of persons experiencing homelessness given their higher rate of turnover.  EPISODIC HOMELESSNESS Those who frequently shuttle in and out of homelessness are known as episodically homeless. They are most likely to be young, but unlike those in transitional homelessness, episodically homeless individuals often are chronically unemployed and experience medical, mental health, and substance abuse problems. It is believed that the episodic and transient nature of homelessness makes it difficult to estimate its prevalence accurately. However, let’s discuss the reasons what causes the homelessness, and what are the root causes of it.

The root causes of homelessness Economic Lack of income, lack of employment, insufficient financial means, poverty, increased cost of housing Social Lack of sense of belonging, family or social connectedness Individual Psychological disorders, drug use and crime Homelessness exists when people lack safe, stable, and appropriate places to live. Sheltered and unsheltered people are homeless. People living doubled up or in overcrowded living situations or motels because of inadequate economic resources are included in this definition, as are those living in tents or other temporary enclosures. Economic causes are among the first ones which causes people to become homeless. This refers to the situation that the insufficiency of income is not enough to afford a place to stay. There might be several reasons for this. Lack of income, lack of employment, insufficient financial means, poverty, increased cost of housing are considered among the major reasons. We will take a look at a detailed view of economic causes in the next slide. In addition to this, lack of sense of belonging, family or social connectedness make up the social causes of homelessness. People reject to become a homeliness person because they lack the social ties and often ignore the outside world. This also triggers individual state of minds, that causes the individual reasons to become homeless. Again, the details of these are to be explained in the upcoming slides.

II. Why People Become Homeless? Poverty: 12.5% of the US population is living in poverty (37,000,000) Poverty: not enough money to pay for shelter, food, clothing, utilities, health care, etc. These people have to pick and choose what they can pay for. Poverty increasing due to: Increasing unemployment Decreasing wages Decreasing Public Assistance Low income ECONOMIC CAUSES There is an affordable housing shortage throughout the United States. A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs are the primary causes of homelessness. The growing gap between the number of affordable housing units and the number of people needing them has created a housing crisis for poor people. In addition to this, it is estimated that 12.5% of the entire population in the US live in poverty. We explain poverty by not having enough money to pay for shelter, food, clothing, utilities, health care, etc. These people have to pick and choose what they can pay for. When we look at the details of why poverty has risen up, we see three major factors: that are Increasing unemployment Decreasing wages Decreasing Public Assistance Foreclosures are up 33% in last two years due to mortgage crisis Lack of affordable low income housing: as unemployment rises and low income wages fall the rents have increased

II. Why People Become Homeless? Social Problems Lack of sense of belonging Lack of affordable housing Lack of jobs Inadequate levels of welfare & disability payments Ethnic & racial discrimination SOCIAL CAUSES In fact, even though some of the causes are triggered by the economic factors, and there is one-to-one relation between social and economic problems, there might be other ones that are disconnected. Imagine a situation that a family, where the husband loses his job. Due to insufficient income, the wife leaves with kids. In addition to the economic problems, the man is left behind with social problems as well. In this kind of situation, people are prone to lose their ties with the society, and lose their sense of belonging. Lack of affordable housing and lack of jobs may carry the risks, so the person has no other choice to become homeless. As clear as with this example, ethical and racial discrimination can add up to the problems. If you remember the statistics on the slide number 3 in the introduction part, the total percentage of African Americans and Hispanics reaches to 60%. Many low and minimum wage workers cannot afford food and shelter. Over the past twenty-five years, wages for the lowest income workers have not kept pace with the increase in living costs, nor the increase in salaries of those in the highest income brackets. The minimum wage has continually decreased in value since the late 1960s; adjusting for inflation, the current minimum wage is worth 27% less than it was in 1968. This leaves the lowest income workers unable to afford necessities like housing, food and medical care.

II. Why People Become Homeless? Major individual causes Stress caused by economic and social pressures Substance abuse Mental illness Childhood family environment Lack of job skills INDIVIDUAL CAUSES And finally, all stress caused by economic and social pressures increases the risks of the damage of mental health. People who are not able to cope with uncertain challenges are often feel depressed and lonely, and may end up becoming homeless. In addition to these, the substance abuse, alcohol and drug use may speed up the financial instability of the person, and had no other choice to live on streets. As a result, this can cause further mental illnesses. Lack of job and transferrable skills make these people to become unemployed so no source of income can lead to homelessness. As a result, instable financial situations may create a vicious cycle of homelessness and no way out.

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH HOMELESSNESS Different levels, different perspectives Recent studies reveal that the number of homeless people has been constantly growing during last decade in the United States. The negative impacts of homelessness are not bound with those who become homeless, but the entire society since homelessness cause many other social problems. In addition to the social problems, homelessness also causes several economic and political problems such as the loss of efficiency, productivity and overall welfare of the society. Moreover, unhealthy living conditions on streets cause infectious diseases to spread faster, so as a result the total burden of healthcare expenses of the society increases. We will focus on two major levels of the problem, that are macro and micro. This report aims to illustrate the social problem faced by the U.S. society, the causes of homelessness and to provide solution proposals that can help to achieve lower homelessness rates in the country. It will also familiarize the audience with other problems associated with homelessness (i.e., crime, drug use), and therefore draw attention to the importance of the fight against homelessness for the peace and welfare of our society. After this report, the audience will gain a clear idea about the definition of homelessness, the root causes of it, the problems associated with homelessness, and why these problems should be solved and how they can be solved.

Levels of Problems associated with homelessness Macro Economical Issues Societal Issues Health Issues Micro Health Issues We determined two levels of problems that are macro and micro, and we will discuss these problems in details. We will tackle economical, societal and health related issues at the macro level, whereas our focus will be on mental issues at the micro level. Economic instability is pervasive in the lives of poor people, who are most vulnerable to job layoffs, unemployment, evictions, property and personal crimes, which cause the loss in overall welfare of the society. Since they are not involved in the workforce, the total production levels stay at low levels. If all homeless people would be involved in employment, then the total GDP is considered to be higher by 10% according to the estimates. However, without creating value in the economy, the costs of homelessness are covered and shared by the entire society. The costs that composed of tangible and intangible components. For example, crime, drug use, epidemic diseases are the tangible costs that takes the stakes away from society. And intangible costs include the opportunity costs of educating and making them involved in employment. As a result of these costs, the societal issues are in place. When people become homeless, there are not many places that they can get counseling services. They need again funds to cover the cost of counseling visits. Furthermore, there are not enough low cost clinics; funding still an issue; most are open during the day when people are supposed to be working, looking for work, etc. And the crime becomes one of the most important problems threatening the society’s welfare and becomes an additional cost. As homeless people fight for survival, they can be violent as well. The link between poverty and poorer health is well-established. There are also specific risks faced by homeless people. Homeless people are less likely to have a regular source of healthcare. Crowded living arrangements with many other families means more bug sharing. Moreover, homeless children and those in unaffordable housing situations have actually been shown to exhibit growth stunting due to malnutrition. These are the costs to healthcare system, which has to be afforded by the others of the society. As a result of these macro issues, there are certain individual risk factors and vulnerabilities which include Substance abuse Mental illness The psychological and physical impact of homelessness is a matter of public health concern. There are also other individual health related issues Homelessness occurs when a cascade of economic and interpersonal factors converge in the lives of people marginalized in society. When compared with the general population, people living without homes have poorer physical health, including higher rates of tuberculosis, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and AIDS.

SOLUTION PROPOSALS – WHAT WE CAN DO? Division of Roles by the Government, organizations and individuals

What can we do? What can the Government do to reduce the number of the homeless? Increased Housing and Social Services Better Social programs Increased counseling facilities Restriction of layoffs GOVERNMENT’S ROLE Cuts in federal assistance for housing programs and social services have coincided with the rise in homelessness in the U.S. During the 1950s and 1960s, federal housing programs and services nearly eradicated homelessness; however, during the 1980s, housing programs were slashed by half and the homeless population in the U.S. began to grow. Programs designed to provide a safety net for people living at or near the poverty line, have faced changes or cuts that often make it more difficult or impossible for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness to access services. The components like sanctions, work requirements, time limits, and immigrant restrictions cut many people off from benefits. Without a safety net to help, many of the lowest income people must choose between things like food, medical care, and housing to make ends meet. As we discussed, one of the major reasons of homelessness is due to financial instability and unemployment. As organizations hire people for the best times, they have to take care them also during the worst times. There has to be more responsible employment policies that are to be controlled by the government. So, the companies have to reconsider the large number of layoffs and cutoffs.

What can we do? What can organizations do to reduce the number of the homeless? Responsible employment Counseling services for smooth transitions Higher financial packages for fired employees ORGANIZATIONS’ ROLE The companies have to realize the impacts when they layoff people. Not only they have to provide financial packages but they have to provide counseling service to assure smooth transactions. Even though these mean increased costs for employers, they have to realize that the sanctions of layoffs could be much higher. For this reason, the government has to assure that certain policies are in place that protects employees.

What can we do? What can we ? Engage in programs Advocate for legislations that fights against homelessness Social engagement OUR ROLE As individuals we can engage in program evaluation with a focus on mechanisms that support rapid return to permanent housing and methods for sustaining housing in vulnerable populations. Furthermore, we can advocate for legislations that would fund supportive housing as well as safe low-income housing in urban, suburban, and rural areas, that would provide a range of needed services, including mental health services to at-risk families, unaccompanied youth, and children and adults with disabilities and for the funding for targeted counseling services, education and job training opportunities for youths in foster care, and transitional services for those returning to home placement and communities. Social engagement could be the simplest thing that we can do. Sometimes, even a smile can help for people who suffers from homelessness in order to strengthen their ties with the society.

CONCLUSION Homelessness is extremely prevalent and the impacts are more visible on the facts, figures and statistics than observed. Homeless people face unique challenges to their health and this affects the entire welfare of the society due to the reasons we have discussed in this presentation. We have to be aware of people’s housing status and associated risk factors so that we can perform our roles defined. As we have proposed the roles and responsibilities to resolve the problem, we also have to provide care to be realistic given people’s living situations

REFERENCES Baum, A. S., & Burnes, D. W. (1993). A nation in denial: The truth about homelessness. Westview Press. Carlen, P. (1996). Jigsaw: A political criminology of youth homelessness. Buckingham: Open University Press. Caton, C.L., Dominguez, B., Schanzer, B., Hasin, D.S., Shrout, P. E., Felix, A., . . . Hsu, E. (2005). Risk factors for long-term homelessness: Findings from a longitudinal study of first-time homeless single adults. American Journal of Public Health, 95, 1753 1759.Henry M., Cortes, A., Morris., S. (2014). The 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Community Planning and Development. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaa <https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf > Link, B. G., Susser, E., Stueve, A., Phelan, J., Moore, R. E., & Struening, E. (1994). Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 84(12), 1907-1912. McCarthy, B. (1998). Mean streets: Youth crime and homelessness. Cambridge University Press. Morse, G. A. (1992). Causes of homelessness. In Homelessness (pp. 3-17). Springer US. National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2014). The State of Homelessness in America 2014. Homelessness Research Institute. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa <http://b.3cdn.net/naeh/d1b106237807ab260f_qam6ydz02.pdf>

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