The Causes of Homelessness Essay Example

The number of homeless people has been on the rise in the last couple of years, it has become a serious problem in the community.  In 2017, “nearly 58,000 families with children” were homeless (“America’s Homelessness Crisis”). Many homeless people have nowhere to live,  therefore, several crowds into something similar to LA’s “Skid Row” which are tents that surround the sidewalks. “Skid Row is- and long been- a national disgrace” says the Los Angeles Times (“America’s Homelessness Crisis”).  Society is commenting on the homeless population but is failing to do anything drastic to fix it.

Homeless people do not all live on the streets, some live in their cars, shelters, or stay with friends or family. A fair amount of states has not done enough to help the homeless, but are simply pushing it aside such as “Denver” and “San Francisco” which have made it a custom to “hand out free one-way bus tickets to the homeless”(“America’s Homelessness Crisis”). This establishes that states are pushing their homeless problem onto other states. It also proves that they are unconcerned about the homeless and are not finding other solutions to the rise of homelessness.  On top of that, society disregards homeless people by making it a “crime to live outside”

(“America’s Homelessness Crisis”). “More than 80 cities have passed laws making it illegal to sleep in vehicles, and more than 60 have banned camping in public”(“America’s Homelessness Crisis”). Cities are passing laws making it illegal to sleep inside a vehicle and banning camping in public, society is negligent, to help lower the rise of people without homes. The cities are just trying to make themselves look better. In the article “America’s Homelessness Crisis” “Veronica Harnish” states that society’s message to homeless people is quite direct: “ You don’t matter, because you don’t have money” (“America’s Homeless Crisis”). 

While there are several causes of homelessness, a majority of people believe that individuals become homeless by having a “drug addiction” and “mental illness”. Although this is the cause for some citizens, the most common reason is that “75 percent” of people cannot afford to live in a house (“America’s Homeless Crisis”).  According to “The National Low Income Housing Coalition”(“America’s Homeless Crisis”), there are now only “12 counties in the U.S” where a worker who earns a state minimum wage job of “$7.25” an hour could pay for a one-bedroom rental home (“America’s Homeless Crisis”).  The cost of living in housing for most cities is too expensive, while the minimum wage rate is too low. While some cities take an approach of pushing homeless people out, other cities are doing things to help the public. For instance “San Diego”, which has made tents structures the size of around a “city block” of “bunk beds”, and in “Seattle” where the city has authorized permanent encampments for the past decade. (“America’s Homeless Crisis”).

One solution to help people get off the streets is to have low-cost housing for the homeless. In “Utah” which has one of the lowest homeless populations, they have what is called “Housing First”(“America’s Homeless Crisis”).  Researchers have found that homeless costs taxpayers a large amount of money and putting people in these low-cost housing would save the taxpayers cash. A homeless person costs “taxpayers $43,000” dollars a year in things like “shelters” and “emergency-room visits”. While that same homeless person if they were in low-cost permanent housing would only cost the same taxpayer “$17,000”(“America’s Homeless Crisis”). Putting people in conditions like “Housing First” would help the homeless and would save taxpayers money. (“America’s Homeless Crisis”). A problem with finding homes for the homeless is the room to build new houses. States like “California” would have to build “ 180,000” new homes each year (“America’s Homeless Crisis”).  That would take an abundance of time and take up space that “California” does not have, but could save the state of “California” and its taxpayer’s money(“America’s Homeless Crisis”).  One solution might be for homeless people who live in bigger cities such as New York to move to smaller states or cities where the cost of living is not so high. They would be able to buy a house because the cost of living  is not as high as it was in the city. An interconnection society makes is homelessness with “begging”, although some people do beg they also try to make money in other ways. “25 percent” of  people without homes have a job(“America’s Homeless Crisis”).  

In conclusion, homelessness has taken a toll on millions of people around the globe and continues to grow. There are many causes of homeless like addiction, mental illness but the main one is the high cost of homes combined with people’s low minimum wage jobs. While society is trying to come up with a way to stop the rise of the homeless there have been some ideas like Utah where they provide low-cost housing to the homeless which saves taxpayers money, while other states have tried to ignore it.  Homelessness is a huge problem in the world, and if everyone in society could do their part it could decrease tremendously.