How are the homeless?

We've looked at another sheet on homelessness. In this we discussed the causes, different types of people, and what the government is doing about homelessness. The greatest causes of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, and mental illness. 1.5 million American children are homeless each year. Forty percent of homeless men are veterans. You would think that since the veterans served the country that the government would at least provide a roof over their heads. Thirty-eight percent report alcohol use, twenty-six are drug use, and thirty-nine have some form of mental health problem. Homelessness seems to be bigger in central cities rather than in rural areas.
Our group agreed that this is the case because the cost of living in a city is much more expensive than the cost of living in the rural area. That made us think: why don't they just move somewhere else where the cost of living is less expensive? Of course move there before they go completely homeless, but the truth is, you never know. Often times homelessness creeps up on you and when it hits you, it hits you all at once and it hits you hard.
We all learned something new today: The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was the first major federal legislative response to homelessness. This has created several programs that helped Americans regain stability through shelters, housing, job training, health care, and education. Although this Act may have helped the symptoms of homelessness, people argued that they needed to focus more on the causes.

Another thing we did today was discuss the previous video: Faces of Homelessness 2 with our teacher. He had asked us each which part was the most shocking and we each had a different answer. Mine was the homeless shelter. I told about how surprised I was that homeless shelters didn't actually provide safety and security. One of my partners answered how one of the women there was raped.
We then discussed how we felt about the homeless. If we had ever thought about people who were homeless before we were exposed to this project and both of my partners answered that they knew there were people out there who were homeless but never thought much of it until they saw them out on the streets. My response was yes. I did think about it before this project. With my parents having me at the very young age of 16, my mom attending college, and my dad being the only one working we struggled a lot yet my parents always reminded me to count my blessings. I remember when my dad had lost his job and we ended up moving in with my grandparents my parents kept telling me that we were blessed to have somebody to fall back on because most people didn't. Ever since then I've tried to never take things for granted and I'm thankful that there's a roof over my head, food on the table, and a bed to sleep in at night.

Different ages of homeless children:


Homeless person(s):

Faces of Homelessness

We watched a video on YouTube called Faces of Homelessness 2. It was a very sad video. People told us their stories of when they were homeless. In this video we discovered that homeless shelters aren't one of the safest and best place to live in. We pictured a nice clean facility with tons of bunk beds and blankets and pillows with bathrooms for all and cubbies where people can store their things but, no. Instead there are thieves, crack heads, criminals, and rapists staying there. Over ten people share one bed and you'd be lucky if someone didn't steal a bar soap from you. This is horrible! Homeless shelters are suppose to provide safety, security, and a roof over your head. It needs all three not just one. We found out that some of the homeless would even rather live out in the streets than an actually shelter. If homeless shelters aren't providing homes for the homeless then what are they good for? What use is it if we are just sheltering criminals? I'm pretty sure even prisoners in jail have it better than homeless people do. At least in jail you get food, toiletries, a bed, and a roof over your head. That's so much more than what a homeless person has.
And lastly, we were amazed at how people still had faith and hope that one day their lives would turn right side up. We were amazed at how they didn't lose faith in the American Dream, how they believe it was still out there and all they needed to do was work a little harder, have a little faith and it'll happen.

Faces of Homelessness 2 Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUAYjt67IM4

Should the Government Help the Homeless?

There are about 2.5 to 3.5 million people whom are homeless each year. About 166,000 people are homeless for a certain period of time every year. My group and I were talking about it and it made us question "Will we be homeless?". Twenty percent of homeless adults have full-time or part-time jobs. If a person has a job, shouldn't they be able to keep a roof over their heads at least? So what caused the homelessness? We found out that the stability of jobs were one of the main causes, lack of health insurance for emergency or chronic illnesses, family separations, death of family member and government assistance. We were curious when it came to "What did the government do for the homeless?". We came across the website Debate.org where the question was: "Should the Government Help the Homeless?" Surprisingly there were 14% who disagreed to the Government helping the homeless. Their reasons for being so is because: 1. The government shouldn't support their drinking habits (they're automatically assuming that all homeless people are drug addicts, alcoholics, and gamblers). 2. Homeless people are lazy and choose NOT to have a job. 3. They qualify for food stamps and medicaid they just need a 9.00 a month PO Box to get the benefits. 4. If the government took away their 'support' the homelessness would suddenly be 'capable'. 5. The government should promote general welfare, not provide it.

But also we were surprised that among the 86% who agreed that the government should help the homeless, we found that a couple people believed that we should help out only because it made our country look bad.