Defining where the homeless stand in our society scale is one of the hardest aspects in conducting a study of the population and understanding the definitions used in research is one of the most challenging tasks for people who want to use its results.
Most would agree that people in Shelters or literally living on the street are homeless, but there is less agreement regarding people in the following circumstances: Youth on their own, with no permanent residence or even an usual place to sleep; children who have been separated from their homeless parents and are in foster care or are living with relatives; People living in stable but physically inadequate housing (having no plumbing, no heating, or major structural damage, for example)
Which of these people should be considered homeless?
There is no right answer; there can only be agreement on a convention. Homelessness is a term that covers a big territory. It seems that homelessness is at best an odd-job word, pressed into service to impose order on a hodgepodge of social dislocation, extreme poverty, seasonal or itinerant work, and unconventional ways of life. Homelessness, One of the largest growing concerns in New York is the constantly increasing number of citizens who are finding themselves living on the streets. Economic conditions, personal choice, deinstitutionalization, and other factors could be the main contributions to homelessness in this world.
With the decrease in the number of available jobs, the population of homeless people has literally boomed. My questions are not as simple to answer as they may appear. Homelessness is a symptom of much deeper and more serious changes in America society. Homelessness is a serious public health issue in its own right. In addition, homeless people suffer from associated conditions such as mental illness, alcoholism, tuberculosis, and a substantial increase in deaths.
To understand homelessness today, one must understand not only why people are poor but also why their poverty takes the distinctive form of having nowhere to live. Homelessness must be approached as one manifestation of the housing crisis at large. The decisive issue is whether homeless should be understood as something confined to problem populations or as a surface manifestation of deeper difficulties. Homeless on the scale we see it today reveals serious deficiencies in the mechanism available in this society to meet basic needs deficiencies that have notably worsened and taken on a distinctive cast in the past few years. Paramount among such deficiencies is the failure to provide sufficient affordable housing. Homeless people are more numerous, visible, and geographically concentrated in cities; so, too, are the institutions designated to serve them.
In rural areas, by contrast, we are still at the early stages of understanding how to identify and serve homeless people. With the economical wealth attributed to the name New York, one would have to wonder why there is a homeless situation at all. The government, both at the federal and municipal levels, is currently working on new spending cuts. These cuts also include spending on welfare, unemployment and social services that are geared towards helping the homeless. Spending cuts can be seen as a necessity to maintain the country economically, but the reason for having a government in the first place is to take care of the people.
Although there is no quick and easy answer to solve this difficult problem, New York City has the means to attempt economical ways to research and come up with ideas to solve it. Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live. People are not homeless because there are physically disabled, mentally ill, abusers of alcohol or other drugs, or unemployed. However destructive and relevant these conditions may be, they do not explain homelessness; most physically disable people, most mentally ill or physically disable or alcoholic homeless persons do get a place to live. Moreover, when mentally ill or physically disable or alcoholic homeless persons do get a place to live, they are no longer homeless but they remain, as they were before, physically or mentally disabled, drug addicts. Clearly, then, there is no necessary connection between these conditions and homelessness.
Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live.
