Term Paper on "Homelessness in America"

Term Paper 6 pages (2110 words) Sources: 6 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Homelessness in America

Globalization represents in the last decades a source of prosperity and economic growth throughout the world. It is already a generally accepted fact that the process itself is has made industrialized countries thrive as well as developing countries reemerge on the world economic spectrum. In America homelessness has become a clear indicator that there is a wide gap between the distributions of wealth among the different levels of the society. Thus, poverty, with all its adjacent issues and despite divergent opinions, can be considered to represent the cause of homelessness. Despite the slow, but positive economic growth registered in states such the U.S. The issue of homelessness remains one of the moment's most dangerous social "diseases."

The term "homelessness" is legally defined as "an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill); an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings" (Cornell University Law School, 2008). Aside from the obvious elements the law suggests as criteria for establishing the status of a person as being homeless, there is also the income criterion, which argues that the homeless person, especially the one eligible for homeless protection programs, must prove their limited or inexistent income in order to be taken into consideration for such a state help.

The issue of homelessness in America is not of recent date, precisely due to the fact that, as of the late 17th century, the country began slowly to flourish and the discrepancies between people emerged as a natural consequence. Therefore, the idea of homelessness being a disease can be considered from a historical point-of-view in the first instance. Thus, the population of the American rural dwellings began to migrate to the city outskirts and as in time to the center of the cities. For instance, New York soon became a city where homelessness was a common affair and where the basic assistance for this type of people was represented by the church. In this sense, "in the late 17th century, New York City, in concert with local churches, rented a building for use as emergency housing for kinless -- and otherwise homeless -- residents. In 1734, the city erected a formal almshouse whose residents were considered members of a substitute "family," and whose responsibilities were detailed in the posted rules of the house" (Baumohl, 1996, 6). Therefore, it can be considered that from this point-of-view, the issue of homelessness soon became a problem for major cities as well as for small towns throughout the United States.

The situation did not change for the better in the decades to come due to the rapid changes that were driving the American society forward, as well because of the limited measures undertaken at the level of the society and the state administration. This is why the 19th century America saw an increase in the number of homeless people. This is largely due to the fact that the immigration flows, although supported the economic growth of the country, were also a destabilizing force for the society as a whole (Baumohl, 1996, 7-8). However, there was an additional and sometimes synonymous term that began to be used. Thus, the issue of tramping was considered to be one of the most important urban phenomena facing the American society (Baumohl, 1996, 8). More precisely, this issue included "men who chose to work on their own terms while dodging the discipline of the factory and shop floor, mixed with men whose jobs required frequent moves and rootlessness (the gandy dancers, canal diggers, and bridge workers who built the transportation infrastructure, for example). But the road also drew men who were at loose ends, happy to postpone hard decisions about livelihood. For most in this latter group, tramping was a late adolescent." (Baumohl, 1996, 8) Therefore, despite the fact that some people had chosen this type of life, they were driven by the lack of better financial possibilities, and in the end by poverty.

Currently, there are other particular evolutions of the society which determine the trend of homelessness which, through their different perspective, relate to the issue of poverty. First and foremost, it must be pointed out that "homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped." (National Coalition for the Homeless, 1999) Therefore, one cause of homelessness in poverty is the limited and even inexistent incomes. As seen in the past, people where obliged to choose this type of living given the small wages they had at their disposal; today, despite the fact that the level of development inside the society is improving, the market economy, the competition forces, as well as other factors acting on the markets determine the rise of prices, of rents, and house acquisitions in the conditions in which the wages do not see this evolution. Thus, "While the last few years have seen growth in real wages at all levels, these increases have not been enough to counteract a long pattern of stagnant and declining wages. Low-wage workers have been particularly hard hit by wage trends." (National Coalition for the Homeless, 1999) Therefore, there is a discrepancy between the offers available and the purchase power. This in turn results to more and more people choosing to either live on the streets, or appeal to various shelters in the major cities.

Secondly, the limited power of public assistance programs also determines the lack of efficiency in decreasing the number of homeless people by bringing them out of poverty. This issue is rather complex and deals in the end with the poor strategy of the public assistance programs. The general approach of the issue of homelessness is based on the concept of transitory help. More precisely, this implies offering of temporary solutions for those seeking shelter, especially for those who have no means of existence (Brierton Granruth and Smith, 2001, 5). Therefore, as part of this strategy, the state provides temporary shelter in especially designed facilities. However, this is not a long-term solution precisely because it does not cater for the cause root of those sheltered. The main consideration of the problem must be the actual element that determined their presence in the shelters, which is their financial situation. Therefore, few of the current protection plans have in mind the core issue at hand, poverty, while most of them try to offer an immediate, yet not lasting provisory solution. This approach however, does not decrease the number of homeless; on the contrary, it maintains this trend.

Thirdly, the issue of the psychological situation of those faced with the situation of being homeless and the society at large is yet another major factor concerning homelessness and that supports the idea of homelessness being a disease of our current reality. Studies have pointed out the fact that homeless people are considered to be the sole responsible for their situation. Even more, the society denies most of its involvement in this case and acts negatively. Therefore, homeless people are often subjected to discrimination, both from a physical and moral point-of-view. Generally speaking, "the strength of the stigma attached to the homelessness label equals that for mental hospitalization"; therefore, the treatment in the society is similar to that provided for the mentally challenged (Phelan et al., 1997, 323). This attitude however does not benefit the current condition of the homeless because it excludes them from any possible attempt decent to a decent way of life.

The discriminatory attitude, the marginalization, as well as the stigmatization of the homeless in America are seen at different levels. On the one hand, there is the level of the public opinion and the social perception of the phenomenon of homelessness. This is an important aspect because it contributes to the creation of the collective mentality and attitude towards the homeless and increases the degree to which homelessness comes to be perceived as a "disease." Thus, "Americans and Britons tend to attribute poverty to poor people's personal shortcomings. In a national survey in the United States, for example, Feagin (1975) found that, when respondents evaluated the causes of poverty, they placed more importance on poor people's behavioral characteristics, such as lack of thrift and proper money management (59% said this was a "very important" reason for poverty), lack of effort (57%), lack of ability and talent (54%), and loose morals and drunkenness (50%), than on economic and social factors such as low wages (43%), scarcity of jobs (29%), poor schools (38%),… READ MORE

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