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/