Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Homelessness is an increasingly prominent issue throughout America and the government needs to step in to help take action in prevention and and rehabilitation.

Homelessness in the United States is of great importance to society as a whole, social service providers, and government officials. The State of Homelessness In America 2015 reported that on a given night in January of 2014, more than 500,000 people were experiencing homelessness. Albeit, from 2013 to 2014 there was an average decrease in the number of homeless by about 2.4%.

Individuals succumb to homelessness often because of major life changes, contrary to the popular belief that homelessness is mainly an effect of traumatic events or physical and mental disabilities.


Many people believe that homelessness is the fault of the individual; Because of their lack of effort to maintain a steady job, or because of addiction, but this is often not the case. The National Coalition for the Homeless reports that the inability to afford rent and a lack of affordable housing account are the 1st and 3rd most common reason for homelessness, respectively.

Alcohol and drug dependency, along with job loss, is the 2nd most reported cause of homelessness, with only 33.9% of homeless reporting that one of these was the reason for homelessness.

Veterans make up a surprising portion of the homeless population, about 12% of the 500,000 homeless people in America, are veterans. But how and why are the people fighting for our freedom often left without a bed to sleep on when they come back.

For many of these homeless veterans, it is again because of a lack of affordable housing, but it can also be because of lingering effects of PTSD or substance abuse, combined with a lack of social support and familial support networks. Vets are also sometimes not very well suited for the civilian workforce, possibly because of a lack of skills or the possibility of deployment, which puts them at a disadvantage for employment options.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) does however help these individuals to some extent. They have provided nearly 15,000 residential and transitional beds or homes to veterans with out one, and about 30,000 permanent beds.

Mental Illness is one of the top reasons for homelessness, as well as a significant barrier for overcoming homelessness.

About 25% of the homeless population suffers from mental illness, in contrast to the mere 6% of the American population that deal with mental illness. Many mental illness will prevent an individual from being able to lead a normal life, individually. These illnesses disrupt people's ability to carry out day to day tasks. Included in these tasks may be hygiene; a person's inability to take proper precaution in preventing sickness and disease could cause them to possibly develop a physical disability.

Homeless individuals, particularly those with mental disabilities, will often try to self medicate using street drugs. This will usually lead to some sort of drug or alcohol addiction and in combination with mental illness, will severely limit a person's ability to maintain a job or housing agreement, which is why it is difficult for people with these disabilities to defeat homelessness.

To combat this issue of mental health among the homeless, the stigma around mental health needs to significantly change. Without a proper evaluation, there is almost no way to tell the mental disability someone has, or even if they have one, based on their appearance and actions alone. A system that is able to identify mental illness within the homeless community needs to be put into place so that those individuals can be properly assisted.

Former President George W. Bush did however introduce the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which aimed to evaluate then provide recommendations on the United State's mental health service delivery system.

The report concluded that there was a need for more education regarding mental health, involvement with families in care decisions for the patient, creating personalized care plans, increasing opportunities for affordable housing and employment, early screening for illness, and the use of more evidence-based practices.


The governments role in homelessness is severely underwhelming and with an upcoming presidential election, some candidates plan on changing that.

According to Grove City College, “There is little evidence to suggest that government-provided shelter has in any way solved or even reduced the problem of homelessness” and government policies may actually be making the issue worse.

Amanda Vite, a local advocate for the Homeless, shares her views on the governments role in helping the homeless.


Bernie Sanders is a strong advocate of social benefits for the public through assistance programs. "It is unacceptable that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world as many as 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness over the course of a year."

As seen previously, a lack of affordable housing is one of the top reasons for homelessness in America. While mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Bernie Sanders was an advocate for affordable housing for the working class. Landlords of Burlington found a loophole in federal funding that would allow them to convert their apartments into luxury condos.

Sanders was not putting up with this as he hit his fist a the conference table while in his office and told the landlords, "Over my dead body are you going to displace 336 working families. You are not going to convert Northgate into luxury housing".

As mayor, Sanders also helped in the creation of the Champlain Housing Trust and the Community and Economic Development Office. These programs ensured that housing costs would not be dependent on the housing market and would stay affordable. The Champlain Housing Trust model is also now spreading to countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Belgium.

Once Sanders was elected senator of Vermont, he introduced legislation that would create the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This program would distribute block grants upwards of $4 billion, to make housing more affordable and accessible to Americans.

Hilary Clinton on the other hand believes that many people face homelessness because they are not given enough time before their house is foreclosed. When asked "What’s the role of the federal government to play to ensure that the American [people do not face a mortgage crisis]?", Clinton responded "But [in the meantime] we’ve got to get a time-out, we’ve got to try to persuade the mortgage companies and the banks to slow down their march toward foreclosure, give people a chance to renegotiate their loans. Maybe they can rent instead of own. But we must move, because otherwise, we’ll see millions of people out on the street, and we’ve got to stop that."

Many of the other possible presidential candidates are not as passionate on the issue of homelessness and no useful information could be found on their involvement with or future plans for dealing with homelessness and poverty.

Many cities are practically making it illegal to be homeless by criminalizing the act of life-sustaining functions in public.

There is almost no protection in place for people who are economically oppressed, specifically those who are homeless. This makes it very easy for local and federal government to be able to almost outlaw the state of being homeless.

Activities Outlawed in Certain States
Laws against the obstruction of public places and sidewalks make finding a place to sleep very difficult for a homeless person. Many cities will perform "sweep" in which the police will harass the homeless by enforcing these rules or warning them to leave the city or they will be arrested.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty reported many other activities that were banned, such as begging, loitering, sitting or lying down in specific areas, as well as sharing food with the homeless.

Amanda Vite talks about how more people should approach the homeless and how society should view them.


There are many other organizations that specialize in helping the homeless, such as the National Student Campaign Against Homelessness, and many different ways you can help by getting involved with these groups.

There are many organizations in place that have a mission to put an end to poverty and more specifically, homelessness. The National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness (NSCAHH), take on the responsibility of ending hunger and homelessness by educating, engaging, and training students on to how to help with immediate needs of the homeless, as well as advocation for longer-term solutions.

The NSCAHH holds an annual conference that involves workshops, panels, speakers, as well as networking events across a wide range of college campuses, University of Maryland being one of them. Members of the anti-poverty movement gather with the NSCAHH to also participate in an action fair, where they inform college students on how to get involved with anti-poverty organizations.


For a more detailed list of organizations, the NSCAHH has such on their website, with about 40 different groups and organizations you can get involved with to assist with and advocate for poverty, hunger and homelessness.

So how can you personally help? Just Give says some of the best ways to aid the homeless are to become educated about the homeless, in order to be able to understand them and respect them more. They also encourage you to give as much as you can. Something you may think wouldn't be helpful may be the item to turn someones life around. That may seem a little exaggerated but Points of Life says that of donated items, socks are the least donated item, but the most needed, even more than food.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

The Last of Us includes gay and lesbian characters to shed light on the LGBT community.

The lesbian character Ellie from The Last of Us is a character that travels through a post apocalyptic world scavenging items within her environment. The game designers were accused of “ripping off [Ellen Page’s] likeness” because of the many similarities that can be found between her and Ellie.

Ellie’s sexual orientation is seen as a stepping stone for the LGBT community as she is a highly respected character within the game. Players can fight off zombies in the game playing as Ellie  which allows younger, and possibly older, players to have a different perspective on gay individuals. Ellie is portrayed very realistically and in a way that her sexuality doesn't become a source of awkward discussion. She is who she is. Which may be what the game creators were trying to prove to their players.

The creators included another gay character, Bill, in their game. GLAAD, an American organization promoting the LGBT community’s image in the media, also named Bill, a supporting character, "the most intriguing new LGBT characters of 2013”.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

United Kingdom citizens unknowingly share their personal information with employers and the US.

Facebook in the Workplace

Take the case of Dixon v GB Eye Ltd; an employee was dismissed for posted a comment on Facebook about her coworkers in which she called them “the biggest bunch of wankers known to the human race! Full of gingers, fat wankers, sleazes, brown noses and cokeheads!”. This was considered to be a fair dismissal as her actions off and online represent herself as well as the company and the employees she was abusing.

The United Kingdom’s Employment Rights Act of 1996 states that employees of 2 or more years have a statutory right not to be unfairly dismissed. Employers must prove that they have a fair reason for dismissing their employees.

One case in which an employee was unfairly dismissed was in the case of Whitham v Club 24 Ltd t/a Ventura. This employee had merely stated “I think I work in a nursery and I do not mean working with plants”.

While there isn’t such thing as the Employment Rights Act in the United States, the National Labor Relations Board created the National Labor Relations Act, which allows them to regulate employee and company relationships.

Companies, as well as employees, like these
have to take into account that once something is on the internet, especially once on Facebook, it is almost impossible to remove all traces of it. Friends of friends of coworkers are easily able to print or save a post or comment that will eventually come around to create damage never imagined by it’s creator.


Max Schrems vs. Facebook

A recent lawsuit against Facebook ruled in favor of Max Schrems, a law student and activist, who had discovered that Facebook had been trafficking data about citizens of the United Kingdom to US authorities. He believes the recent ruling "could be a major issue for Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo [, as] all of them operate data centers in Europe”.

Schrems’ dispute with Facebook dates back to Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA surveillance scheme called Prism, which allowed US officials access to data about Europeans and other foreign citizens that was held by US tech firms, such as Facebook.

Schrems felt he had no protection over his data against this type of US surveillance. Facebook was targeted because it is the number one social media in the UK. Once limitations and stricter policy regulations are imposed on Facebook, the more than 4,000 US companies making use of this Safe Harbor principle, allowing them to facilitate data transfers, will be forced to stick to these regulations as well.


Facebook Usability

Facebook users in the United Kingdom participate in various activities while on Facebook. A study done by Lancaster University found that 77% of their participants logged on daily but for only about 5-15 minutes at a time. All of the participants rated Facebook to either be between average and easy to use, none saying that it was difficult to use.

The study found that the main reasons participants would visit Facebook would be to browse photos, check profiles of friends or join a group. Joining a network, using apps and adding apps were found to be the lowest ranking reasons that participants would log on to Facebook.

Top reasons for engaging with Facebook were found to be the user's curiosity as well as enjoyment. The user would be drawn through different parts on their Facebook based on their interest and curiosity in their friends pictures, or recent status; 'I wonder what they did this weekend' a user might think while browsing.


Facebook Use in Education

A study by Neil Selwyn looked educational related use of Facebook with students at the University of London. The most common use of Facebook that was educational related was in students' reflection of events, exchange of information and banter.

Posts of students that were reflections were often about lectures, discussions, library visits and even individual encounters with teaching staff. They would post in order to cover lectures to share with other students or just to let their friends know what they were doing at the time.

Students would also use Facebook as a platform to ask questions or share information, whether it be practical, a reminder that there is a test tomorrow, or academic; students asking questions about a homework assignment.

The final educational related use to Facebook was students' banter. That is, posts that include humorous remarks to frustrating assignments or classes. Many posts also were found to include fascination with professor's and assistant's lives outside of the university. One student was quoted saying "OH MY GOD the funniest thing just happened i was in the postgrad centre in the union with cat and there was an open-mic night-like just anyone could sing and ul never guess who was there... the one and only dr. peters howwwww funny!!!! he was actually quite good. back to the essays tomoz fun fun xxx".


Popularity of Facebook in the United Kingdom

Facebook is the most popular social media site around the world and this is not an exception in the United Kingdom. With over 1.4 billion active users around the world, Facebook has taken over the internet. Of the UK’s online population, 96% currently have a Facebook account, which adds up to over 31 million users. This number is staggering but not quite so much as the 156 million users in the United States.

Though there are not as many users in the UK, Facebook is still their most popular social media site, followed by Twitter and Instagram. The use and access to Facebook in the United Kingdom is almost identical to that in the US but certain policies and laws slightly differ and this has caused some law suits among citizens as well as between companies and their employees.


Sunday, September 6, 2015

According to a recent poll in New Hampshire, Sen. Bernie Sanders now has a 9 point lead on Hillary Clinton. This upcoming election will help determine the next president of the United States, which is why I would share this article with my peers. Informing others on recent news in the presidential election may help the democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders, gain enough support to become the next president of our country.

Thursday, September 3, 2015