Essays24.com - Term Papers and Free Essays
Search

Homeless

Essay by   •  April 10, 2011  •  2,500 Words (10 Pages)  •  1,268 Views

Essay Preview: Homeless

Report this essay
Page 1 of 10

Homeless is a social issue that has been a problem in America for many years and as years progress it has gotten worst. People sometimes get the definition of what homeless really is, wrong or thinking that homelessness is the result of one specific reasoning. The true definition of being homeless is not the lack of not having a house and living on the streets. Homelessness is defined as what is known as a person or family who lacks housing and therefore is forced to live on the streets or in a shelter. This is the term that is used to define homeless and people when asked will define homeless as a definition similar to this. But what people don't know is that homelessness does not necessarily mean that it's a person or individual who lacks housing because in more technical terms, homeless is more well defined as just saying a person who lacks housing and is forced to live on the streets. When defining homeless from perspectives of the actual federal definition, homeless is defined as a person, child, youth and even family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residency and is required to live in shelters or anywhere that will help accommodated them so they wont have to live on the streets.

There are different parts when it comes to a person being homeless. Meaning that a person can be homeless but there are different levels to being homeless that most people don't quite actually see when it comes down to being homeless. There are three parts of homelessness when defining the term which consist of primary homelessness, secondary homelessness, and tertiary homelessness. Primary homelessness is when a family or individual doesn't have conventional accommodations. This is what most people recognize the definition of homeless is. What this type of homeless means is that people who fall under this category of being homeless are generally the people who are living on the streets, trying to find accommodation by sleeping in boxes or on benches in the park, or also sleeping under tunnels wherever they make feel as what's safe to stay knowing they can sleep there without worrying about anything. Most often these people will move periodically throughout time because these are temporary places and they are trying to seek better options that would keep them safe and comfortable.

The next definition of what homeless is defined as is secondary homelessness. Secondary homelessness is people who live in shelters instead of on the streets. They live in the shelters or any type of place that will accommodate them but only for a certain amount of time and they move to new location. Usually these people consist of women and children who are trying to find shelter because they want to escape domestic violence, teenagers who have ran away, or just a general family member who doesn't have a place on their own and moves from house to house of their family members until they can make some changes. Many people call this type of homelessness the emergency accommodation because they are only at a certain location temporary and not living on the streets to escape from whatever issue or situation they may have.

The last definition of defining homelessness is tertiary homelessness. Tertiary homelessness is when a person or persons are living in a shelter or boarding house on a semi to a long term stage. They don't have any residential luxury living as far as their own room, kitchen, bathroom etc. It only consist of a bed in which is there for them to sleep instead of living in the streets. This type of living usually consist of a lot of illness getting passed around because these people are placed in a shelter with other people which germs are more than likely to be passed to each other. There are many shelters around the world but they are usually first come first serve because there are so many Americans that are homeless today that they are trying to find shelter, and many people get turned down because of overcrowding of shelters or because of many other reasons.

Homelessness has become a huge issue in America and still today there are thousands of Americans living on the street trying to find place where they know they can sleep and find food to survive. What some people don't realize is that a homeless person doesn't have to be bums as what most people see as homeless. A homeless person can consist of children, teens, adults, and elderly. It can be anyone who lacks the issue of having a "roof over there heads". Today there are many Americans who are living in the streets in the cold, and the heat and try to survive of what little they can find or do. What many people wonder is, why there are some many people living on the streets and what is the reasoning for it? On of the reason why anyone is or could be homeless is by not being able to afford the cost of living and therefore they struggle or are forced to live on the street due to the lack of a reliable income. Some other reasons are because they were either kicked out of there house, on drugs or abused and ran away from home and it resulted to these people not having a place to stay, and also by not finishing school or going to school which made things harder for these people to get jobs because today in America people find it hard to get a good paying job unless they have some type of schooling in there background. There are multiple reasons why a person could become homeless, which is not a pleasant situation knowing that all these people have to fight to survive and live on the streets or find temporary accommodations just so that they can eat and stay cool or warm.

Being homeless can trigger a lot of issues and situation that can affect the person or persons who it is involving. When people are homeless they are more likely to experience depression which than makes the more liable to commit a crime and then be placed in jail. Most often times the ones who are getting locked up are the people who may be depressed or have some mental issues that trigger the way the act. Staticistics state that about one-forth of homeless people are mentally-ill people and most of them do involve their selves into violent situations. Families make up about a third of the population of homelessness and has been said that it is the fastest growing population when it come to homeless. Others consist of individuals, children, teens, more so female teen mothers, males, which make up sixty percent of the homeless population.

Most of homeless people are found living in busy city like areas for instance like downtown Philadelphia. As you walk around you see many men and women laying around or asking for change. About seventy percent of the homeless live in central cities like Philadelphia or wherever there may be city life. There would be less homelessness found in rural areas and suburban areas because many of these folks that live in

...

...

Download as:   txt (14 Kb)   pdf (145.4 Kb)   docx (12.9 Kb)  
Continue for 9 more pages »
Only available on Essays24.com