The Problems Caused by Homelessness and Ways to Solve Them

Introduction

Homelessness started to become a dilemma since the 1930s leaving millions of people without homes or jobs during The Great Depression. Homeless people face numerous challenges every day dealing with shelters and food in order to survive every year. The issues that left many people homeless is, “loss of jobs, loss of affordable housing, loss of a relationship, domestic violence, substance abuse or addiction, chronic mental illness, chronic illness, release from incarceration another natural disaster, and others”. Homelessness is a dilemma that affects millions of people each year; therefore, lawmakers find a feasible solution to this situation in order to alleviate the problem.

Problems Related to Homelessness

The problem caused by homelessness is an addiction to drugs. Unfortunately, the “Government officials must arrange for the appropriate treatment services for people with such problems in order to come up with effective long-term solutions for homelessness”. This shows governments should provide treatments for homeless people in order to get rid of this situation. Mostly, this is also a huge problem to the economy, “about 85% of homeless people are on the streets because they are addicted to alcohol, drugs or have some form of mental illness”. This explains half of the people become homeless because of these situations which may lead them to live in the streets. People who are addicted to drugs or other medication is affecting their education also the community, but “Society has no chance of solving the homeless problem until it deals with the underlying addiction and mental illness, the authors claim”. In order to settle these obstacles, treatments would be a great opportunity to help homeless people get rid of their addiction to the drug.

Another issue that is happening right now in society is homeless people’s health; “experiencing homelessness significantly increases your chance of having a long-term physical health problem or being diagnosed with a mental health condition”. Additionally, “More than 70% of respondents to a survey of more than 2,500 homeless people across England reported one or more physical health problems, while more than eight out of 10 reported a mental health issue”. This explains, mostly half of the population in England is having an issue to health. This problem can possibly be solved “with health care reform, preferably a single-payer system. But doesn’t cover everything”. In fact, programs can help every vagrant who needs health care, although the bad news is it would not cover everything. Unfortunately, health care can cost a lot which leads, “the predatory practices of health insurance companies, and medical debt are the number one causes of bankruptcy” and this is the real issue why people become homeless.

Homelessness Solutions

The first solution is to get health insurance for homeless people. If individuals don’t have their documents it would beard for them to qualify for health insurance. It is a big risk for,“ people living on the streets or spending most of their time outside are also at increased risk for health conditions such as frostbite, immersion foot (also known as trench foot), and hypothermia”. This shows no matter where these homeless people are staying they will definitely catch any disease. Additionally, people are risking their lives, “On average, 700 homeless people experience hypothermia annually, according to the NHCHC”. According to the research, hypothermia means having an abnormally low body temperature which loses heat very fast. Despite the difference of climate change; homeless people have the possibility to catch a disease; indeed, “Homeless people are at increased risk for a variety of skin disease and conditions, parasitic infestations, and dental decay and other disease resulting from exposure to serve weather, coupled with a lack of easy access to showers, sanitary, or hygiene facilities”. This explains all the conditions that homeless people catch which are very rare for them to stay away from any disease. Moreover, it is hard for families to obtain health insurance because, “ people who do not have permanent addresses, or ready access to documentation proving identity (birth certificates, social security cards, mailing addresses), have an extremely difficult time obtaining health insurance, even if they are gainfully employed”. If some of the people qualify for health insurance it will be difficult to contact them because they don’t have an appropriate address to send them checks or jobs applications. About 208 clinics across the United States decided to do a project to, “provide care to low-income populations with initiatives such as setting up hospitals in shelters and offering health care services at soup kitchens”. This means clinics will be available in the United States for homeless people who decide to have their health checked. As a result, homeless people can access free health insurance by applying to clinics or programs which will be available in every country and they do not need to have their documents; indeed, it would be free for everyone.

A second possible solution is cutting down prices in homes. Since,“ the twenty-first century, many cities and counties have continued to establish a variety of housing services to assist the homeless, including emergency shelters, transitional housing, and rapid rehousing, with the number of programs growing significantly between 2013 and 2015”, programs all over the nation started to spread out rapidly increasing shelters for every family or individual to have their own home. This shows, shelters will be available for homeless people and there will enough programs for them to assist. Suddenly, rent was increasing which was hard for people to keep up their payments, although “a significant number of homeless persons are gainfully employed, but do not earn enough money to be able to afford to house. Many homeless people do not have traditional jobs; instead, they utilize begging, panhandling, busking, selling blood and plasma where that is still legal, and selling streets papers or magazines for a scant income”. This explains, homeless people do this in order to survive, but it might lead to prison. Even though people still have jobs they don’t have enough to pay their homes or their necessaries. Basically, Countries decided to do a fundraiser to eliminate homelessness, “the plan would cost over $25 billion by 2041 but would deliver benefits equal to more than $70 billion”. For instance, it will take about 22 years to reach a quest, but it will worth it in the future.

Lastly, the third solution is jobs available for homeless people. Although, some homeless people are lazy and they do not like to work which causes them to have a difficult time to earn money to pay their necessaries. For this purpose, the data show, “Twenty percent of homeless Americans work full or part-time, but do not earn enough to meet their most basic needs; 30% of the men and women who visit soup kitchens and food pantries are employed. Policies must be put into place to guarantee a living wage — the minimum income needed for an individual or family to meet basic needs: housing, food, health care, transportation, and clothing”. In this case, employees do not make enough money to pay or buy their needs even they work overtime. On the other hand, if homeless individuals find a way to get back to work, they need to find someone to take care of their children which in the data shows, “The average family spends seven percent of its income on child care, in contrast to 25% for a low-income family. While child care expenses are part of the welfare reform initiative, just 10% of the families who qualify for Federal-aid receive assistance”. This can be seen as most of the families do not have the chance to get free Federal aid and many miser families do not like to spend money on child care. Particularly, child care should be, “available so that all parents, including those who work late shifts, have access to it”. In this case, it would be easier for parents to work overtime and would not worry about who will be available to take care of their children.

Conclusion

After careful evaluation, from this essay it becomes clear that decreasing income of houses is the best solution to help the community; this will work well because it will get homeless people to stay out of the streets. Hopefully, programs and charities will help many homeless people to afford to house and making an impact in the future for many individuals or families.