Causes of Homelessness Essay Example

📌Category: Homeless, Social Issues
📌Words: 1451
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 15 May 2021

Homelessness has grown over the years by a lot. If you want to know why and how to prevent becoming homeless make sure to read all information below. “A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness. Recently, foreclosures have also increased the number of people who experience homelessness.” (Nationalhomeless.org, Paragraph 1) Nationalhomeless implies that homelessness has grown exponentially over the years because of foreclosures and high prices causing many people to go without a house. Due to lack of affordable housing, homelessness has increased over the years exponentially, Homelessness is bad because they lack access to health care and often have chronic illnesses, made worse by tough living conditions

One of the causes of homelessness is, Disabilities but most common in the category of disabilities is Illness. With Illness come many other challenges such as lack of income and other things like Chronic illness. Chronic illness and disability prevent someone from holding a job, and without a job, you have no means of steady income. In the article published by Atlantamission.org the writer says, “Illnesses and disabilities do not occur by choice, and the repercussions of enduring such traumatic circumstances too often cause homelessness. Chronic illness and disability prevent someone from holding a job, and without a job, you have no means of steady income. Without a steady income, how are you able to afford somewhere to call home? How are you able to afford something to eat? Then there’s those medical bills you have accrued. You never know when you are going to fall ill or get into a life-changing accident, and the consequences of something you never asked for are enough to drastically change your life.” (Atlantamission.org, Paragraph 2) The takeaway from this piece of evidence is, The article is emphasizing the severity of Illness and Disability and how it affects the person's life. The state the effects of Illness more specifically chronic illness and how it changes the impacted person's life. Another article that provides information on the topic of homelessness and Illnesses and disabilities is, Big Issue. Big Issue talks about how the ill are more prone to homelessness. They also talk about homelessness affects the ill person. In the article “Big issue” the writer states, “The mentally ill and people addicted to alcohol or drugs are the first victims of housing shortages,” as noted by Harvard Medical School. This group is at a high risk of homelessness due to their disabilities and low-income. “Once they are on the streets, their isolation becomes more serious, because lost connections are difficult to re-establish.” (Big Issue, Paragraph 15) The point the writer is trying to get across is that Disabeled people are more likely to become homeless. The writer also says that once Ill people become homeless their illnesses are more severe and harder to recover from. To sum this paragraph up, one of the causes of homelessness is, Disabilities but most common in the category of disabilities is Illness.

Another cause of homlessness would be lack of affordable housing. The lack of affordable housing is a major problem. Many people tend to fall short of the amount a house costs because of low wages. According to the article published by Homeless services the author says, “One of the leading factors of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. Did you know, to cover the rent of a two-bedroom apartment at fair market value, a person working on the federal minimum wage would need to work a total of 112 hours per week! That is nearly three times the standard working week of a full-time employee.”(Homeless Services, Paragraph 11) The takeaway from this piece of information is, for the average person finding a fairly priced apartment in their budget is unlikely. Since properties are so highly valued the average human with the federal minimum wage is challenging. Another source that would support the topic of lack of affordable housing would be Atlanta Mission. The article states that with the minimum wage in Atlanta it is close to impossible to afford the average apartment. This is a big problem and a big reason why there are so many homeless people in Atlanta. In the article Atlanta Mission the writer says, “Atlanta is a beautiful place to live, it’s a growing city, and with growth comes an increase in housing prices. The average one bedroom apartment in the city is about $1,000 per month. Now imagine trying to find a place to live when minimum wage is only $7.25 an hour. No one should be left without a home.”(Atlanta Mission, Paragraph 6) What the article is saying is that the economy is booming in Atlanta but the wages are staying the same. Restating what was sad a few sentences back, with the minimum wage in Atlanta it is close to impossible to afford the average apartment. This is upsetting as Atlanta is a very well known and beautiful area. To wrap this paragraph up, a main cause of homlessness would be lack of affordable housing, this can be caused by low wages and a booming economy but no increase in wage.

On to another topic, Poverty and homelessness fall into the same category. Poverty and Homelessness are linked very tightly as most poor people cannot afford a home, let alone Food and clothes. According to an article published by NationalHomeless , The writer says,”Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, 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. If you are poor, you are essentially an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.” (Paragraph 3) To further explain this piece of evidence the article is backing the point the poor people can't afford a home. It also says how valuable you are from losing everything. The article emphasizes how if you fall in any illness or anything happens to you, you're done. Another piece of evidence back up the main topic would be an article published by Big Issue. This article discusses how poor people are impacted by homelessness. According to BigIssue, “In all major cities throughout America, there is a lack of affordable housing for low-income individuals and families. Without access to affordable housing, many Americans are caught in a cycle of poverty and homelessness, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.” (Big Issue, Paragraph 1) To translate what this piece of evidence is saying, it's saying that because there are so many big cities in America, low income citizens are pushed into an area where they cannot afford. This runs their money costing them many things. To conclude this topic, Poverty and homelessness go hand and hand making the homeless crisis worse.

Some people believe that most homeless people are bad and whatever they did they did it to themselves. While this may be true, in some cases people go homeless because of gambling. However, what they fail to consider is the amount of people who go homeless because of gambling are so un significant that most major homeless corporations skip past that idea. The counter argument of gambeling being a main cause of homelessness may be true but not at a large scale.According to an article published by Springer Link, “Research indicates the prevalence of disordered gambling is significantly higher in the homeless, comparable to the general population. Further research indicates that gambling is more commonly a factor contributing to homelessness, that gambling disorders are often overlooked by homeless services, and that support services are often inadequate.”(Springer Link, Paragraph 2) Some supporting evidence is a survey done by the article Philadelphia, In a survey of 1,100 clients at Rescue Missions nationwide, 18 percent cited gambling as a cause of their homelessness. Interviews with more than 7,000 homeless individuals in Las Vegas revealed that 20 percent reported a gambling problem. These pieces of evidence do support that gambling is a big part of homelessness but it's still not significant. The main reasons of homelessness are lack of affordable housing, homelessness has increased over the years exponentially, Homelessness is bad because they lack access to health care and often have chronic illnesses, made worse by tough living conditions. To wrap up the argument, the argument does have a good point, but the amount of people that become homeless from gambling is irrelevant to the number of people who become homeless from illness, housing prices, wages, and poverty.

I believe that homelessness is getting worse and I do believe that if we continue on the current path we're on it'll only get worse. The main points to remember are, Disiabled people get affected more commonly and when they are homeless there illnesses become more severe. You should also remember that another reason people become homeless is because they are not able to afford regular housing. And to restate one of the left main points, poverty and homelessness are tightly grouped with each other. As said earlier earlier in the raising the federal minimum wage will help prevent homelessness. With hearing all this information you should be inspired to help the situation and now that you are familiar with it maybe you wont make the same mistake many did without a home.

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