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.

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