Poverty

Poverty is “the condition of having no money, goods, or means of support.” People in poverty usually lack food, nutrition, health, education, housing, and employment. About 25,000 people die daily due to hunger related causes. These people don’t have a sufficient amount of money to buy food to nourish themselves. Nearly three billion people (half the world) survive on less than $2 a day. People who live in poverty have a higher chance of becoming homeless due to the lack of money for adequate housing.

Poverty is caused by many reasons including discrimination in the work force. People may be in poverty because of the lack of education, skill, experience or intelligence, low wages, health, disability, birth of a child, domestic abuse, and discrimination from race or sex. These problems can lead to a lack of a occupation which then results to little or no income to support themselves.

A measure of poverty is called relative poverty. It is also known as “at risk poverty” or “moderate poverty.” Relative poverty is those who earn 25% less than the median income which is $46,326 in 2005 studies. People categorized in relative poverty generate enough income to survive with the basic needs like water, food, shelter and healthcare. Another measure of poverty is extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is people who survives on less than $1 a day.

According to the United Nations, poverty can be stopped. The expense to stop this would cost us nearly $195 billion a year. There are also many organizations that help to fight poverty, hunger, and diseases.

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are a devastating cause of homelessness that cannot be prevented. Over the past 20 years, there have been 141 million people affected by 3,559 natural disasters. The different types of disasters that caused this global problem are earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, landslides, windstorms and many more. As of 2000, an overwhelming 68.3% of all natural disaster caused homelessness was achieved by floods.

In 2003, Indonesia was hit by heavy rains that flooded the country, which left thousands homeless. The town that was hardest hit had “34,000 houses, 300 schools, 90 bridges, 110 mosques, 70 health centers, and 245 orange plantations” flooded. This disaster was caused by 28 days of continuous rainfall which caused several hundreds of thousands to flee their homes into safety.

On August 1, 2003, another rain caused disaster has hit Papua New Guinea causing thousands to become homeless. The torrential rains transformed the dirt into mud which initiated a massive landslide. Many homes and roads were destroyed and three of their bridges were swept away. A church, crops and domestic animals were also destroyed.

After a natural disaster occurs, many are left homeless. It is extremely difficult for families that are assaulted to rebuild because of the amount of damage dealt so they would have to deal with further suffering.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDISMGMT/Resources/housing.pdf

Fighting Homelessness

As of today, there are over 500 million people in the world that are homeless or in the danger of becoming homeless. This is a global problem that must be resolved and there are many steps that can help to reduce homelessness. Some of the ways to battle homelessness are, building affordable housing, creating more emergency shelters, and direct homeless to shelters.

Affordable housing is an important step to combat homelessness. Because of overpopulation and inflation, the prices of housing have dramatically increased making it harder for the homeless to find a place to live. It is also hard for the homeless to get a job to pay for housing because they have no permanent address or telephone to be contacted at so there are no means of income. The government should decrease military spending so they can have money to fund the building of affordable housing. Also war should be halted because it causes destruction of homes, villages, and towns which leads to homelessness.

Another step to fight homelessness is to build shelters for them. They are vulnerable to the weather changes, and can get extremely sick from the cold. Shelters can also protect the homeless from violence in the streets. Shelters can provide them with food, as well as a place to stay.

Some states prohibit panhandling and if caught, they would be arrested and jailed. When release, the homeless would have a criminal record which would make things more difficult for them especially when finding a job. What should be done is to train policemen to guide them to homeless shelters where they can receive assistance.

http://iws.punahou.edu/user/JStevens/project/2006/07/global_homelessness_1.html

Street Children

Homelessness can happen to anybody including children. There are over 100 million homeless children that live in the streets all over the world. Street children are categorized as “any girl or boy that has not reached adulthood, and is inadequately protected, directed, and supervised by responsible adults.”

Street children have no home or family support and they move from place to place looking for a place to live. Some return home and visit their family, but return to the streets at night due to poverty, overcrowding, or sexual and physical abuse. There is approximately 40 million homeless Latin America and 18 million in India, and majority of those homeless children are boy the age of 10 to 14.

The unstable lifestyle of homeless children has resulted in a lack of medical care which caused many illnesses. They also struggle to find food to eat and are persuaded by adults to sell drugs, steal and prostitute for them. Children often take drugs to ease the pain they’re suffering from. Over 90 percent of street children take some sort of drug including medicine, alcohol, cigarettes, heroine, and even shoe glue.

There are many government organizations that work to help these street children usually by providing them shelter, safety, healthcare and an education. We can also help to improve the conditions of homeless children by volunteering at homeless shelters, donate funds to these organizations or help to spread awareness of this situation.

http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0904-Homelessness.html

Homeless Assistant Act

Since the 1980’s, there were many programs created that focused on finding a solution to homelessness. The programs were supported by the federal government and in 1986, congress passed the “Homeless Persons’ Survival Act.” The goal of the act was to aid the homeless with food, shelter, mobile health care and transitional housing. This act was later renamed and enforced into law by Ronald Reagan in 1987. The act is now called “McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act,” named after the chief Republican sponsor, Stewart B. McKinney.

The McKinney act has fifteen different programs that provide services to the homeless society. Some of the programs they offer are: “The Supportive Housing Program, the Shelter Plus Care Program, and the Single Room Occupancy Program, as well as the Emergency Shelter Grant Program.”

The Supportive Housing Program’s purpose is to provide permanent housing for those who are defined as homeless. They are sent to housings or projects that are safe and sanitary within 24 months. The building has to meet the state and local housing codes and requirements.

Under the McKinney Act, there are also supportive services for the homeless. The service is provided for those who are disabled or are a family with kids. The different activities the supportive service assistants perform are: providing food, health care, counseling for employment and nutrition, security arrangements, child care services and many others. This act has helped to improve the homeless society and decrease their population over the years.

http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/rulesandregs/laws/

Homeless Hate Crimes

The homeless live a rough life worrying about how they will survive and ponder about when their next meal will be and now, they have to defend their lives as they are discriminated against. Between 1999 and 2005, there have been “472 acts of violence by housed people, resulting in 169 murders of homeless people and 303 victims of non-lethal violence.” Those that are targeted are homeless men, women, and even children. They are tortured by all sorts of crimes including being set on fire, kicked, beaten, harassed, and even decapitated.

Those who commit these acts are usually by an individual citizen. These perpetrators are separated into three categories: “mission offenders, scapegoat offenders, and thrill seekers.” The mission offenders feel that it is their job to “cleanse the world of a particular evil.” Scapegoat offenders are those that attack a racial or ethnic group that is continually growing in economic power. Thrill seekers are primarily teens that satisfy their own pleasures by harming the vulnerable, defenseless and disadvantaged.

An example of a homeless hate crime occurred over 1 year ago on January 12, 2006. Three teens in the age between 17 and 18 attacked three homeless men with baseball bats in the middle of the night at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Two of these victims suffered from “broken bones, lacerations, deep bruises, but also from the internal damage to both the mind and the body” and was listed in serious conditions. The third however, died due to head trauma and internal bleeding. This disturbing hate crime was captured on video and the shocking footage showed the teens smiling while beating the unfortunate homeless. But in the end, justice was served when the “three teens face murder charges for the death of Gaynor as well as aggravated assault for the other victims.”

Because hate crimes continue to grow, law enforcements would treat crimes like these with a tougher penalty. They would also work to protect the homeless from future attacks.

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/Hatecrimes.pdf

History of the Homeless Society

In New York City, alcoholics were traditionally found on the streets with a bottle in their hands. Many homeless lived near train tracks and took trains to various locations. This resulted in a creation of the very first homeless shelter in 1879 that seeks to rescue those who are homeless. The shelter is known as “The Bowery Mission” and was founded by “Rev. and Mrs. A.G. Ruliffson.”

Homelessness was started as a result to stress in the economic society when the availability of affordable housing continued to decrease. Many others also lost their home due to economic reasons. Tension grew between public places (libraries, churches, and public bathrooms) and the homeless as their population continued to grow consistently. Libraries enforced a “no eyes shut” and dress policy as well as hiring security guards to keep the homeless out.

Since the homeless was prohibited to stay at public places, the majority of the population stayed at sidewalks, parks, bridges or the subways. There were limited shelters for the homeless to stay at night. They were forced to leave in the morning and they had to survive on their own until evening. But, they could stay at daytime shelters instead of wandering around in the streets. One of these daytime shelters founded in the 1980’s is the “Saint Francis House” located in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1989, some local newspaper companies put homeless people to work by offering them jobs which include writing, producing, and selling papers on the streets and trains. Some of these companies were called, “Street News, The Big Issue, Street Wise, Street Sense and Spare Change.” But, even with the limited employment opportunities; the homeless population continues to rise gradually every year.

http://www.bowery.org/reference/history.htm

The Count

The purpose behind counting homeless census is to understand the amount of people living in the streets unsheltered or in abandoned buildings. With an accurate count, we can work to understand the causes that affect homelessness and find a solution to reduce the amount of homeless for the future years. The count can also raise public awareness to the community so we can support and help those who are suffering from homelessness.

There is a count conducted at least once every three years by a group of volunteers that are mainly from their own neighborhood and want a better understanding of homeless society. They are all trained by an organization called Continuum of Care (CoC) before they perform the count. The volunteer’s job is to find, identify, and record the homeless and make sure each person is counted once. The volunteers are instructed to count adults, children, and unaccompanied youths in streets, parks, alleys, transportation depots, abandoned buildings, etc.

As of 2005, study shows that New York City has the second highest homeless count in the United States with a total of 48,155 followed by an outstanding 91,000 homeless count in Los Angeles. The Ethnic breakdown of the homeless are as follow: “49% African-American, 35% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 2% Native American, and 1% Asian.” It is also more likely to find a male homeless adult on any given night than a female homeless adult by an outstanding 43%:17% of the homeless population.

http://www.hmis.info/documents/countingguide.pdf

Panhandling

What is panhandling? Panhandling is “to accost passers-by on the street and beg from them” also known as begging. It is common to see many homeless begging on the streets, trains, train platforms, or outside of restaurants for spare change or leftover food because they have no other source of money.

In large cities such as Chicago, Illinois, signs are posted on the streets stating that panhandling is banned. The only way panhandlers can obtain money from begging is by getting a permit from the municipal police department. It is considered a crime if they beg within 50 feet from an ATM or make untrue statements when requesting for money.

But, on the other hand, certain countries like India encourage begging. There are families that are continuing their generation as panhandlers. Some even “employ” younger and newer beggars to beg for money. In Europe, there are organized gangs that send out members to the public to beg for money.

There is a lot of criticism of how the homeless spend the money received from panhandling. Many critics refuse to offer them money because of the fear that they will use the money irresponsibly for unnecessary items like drugs or alcohol. During 2002, studies shows that homeless beggars in Toronto earn an average monthly income of $638. Further studies illustrates that three-quarters of the panhandlers population spend their money on drugs and tobacco while two-thirds spend it on alcohol.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5231022.stm

Main Causes of Homelessness

Our society has numerous amounts of homeless people wandering around in the streets. People aren’t born homeless but many factors could have led to their difference in lifestyles and lack of unstable shelter. Some of these reasons include: “lack of affordable housing, low paying jobs, substance abuse and lack of needed services, mental illness and lack of needed services, domestic violence, unemployment, poverty, prison release and re-entry into society, and change and cuts in public assistance.”

The lack of affordable housing plays a major role for the homeless rate in the United States. The availability of affordable housing decreases as the high cost of housing continues to increases due to the variation of the wealth and income of our nation.

Approximately one-third of the adult homeless population is mentally mental incompetent or disabled. There were 50,000 mentally ill in California that is homeless because they lack sufficient mental health care.

“In 1990 a study found that half of homeless women and children were fleeing abuse.” Those who suffer from sexual, physical and mental abuse tend to leave their household without a place to stay and struggle to establish a new residence.

Convicts who are discharged from prison have a tough time establishing residence because of the isolation from family and friends and the limited resources they have. It is also challenging for them to be employed because of their criminal record.

http://www.hifis.ca/index_e.asp

What is Homelessness?

Homelessness is the absence of a place to live. The homeless, also referred to as: hobo, tramp, vagrant, bum, bagman/bagwomen and wandering poor, struggle to survive because of the lack of food and shelter. It is an unsolved problem in United States and it still exists today. Homelessness is categorized in three different sections. They are: “the absolute houseless, the concealed houseless and those at risk of becoming houseless.”

The absolute houseless is people that are considered to be “sleeping rough.” They are the people that live on the streets or shelters that are not meant for human habitation.

Concealed houseless refers to those who are housed with family or friends temporarily. It is called concealed houseless because the person is considered to be privately living with family and is unable to afford any shelter of their own.

Those who are at risk of houseless are people who are going to be evicted or when their lease expires and have no future home in sight. Others who fall in this category are prisoners with no place to live when they are released.

http://www.raisingtheroof.org/lrn-home-QandA-index.cfm#1