Homelessness By Stephen Minor

            Everyday, you go on your daily morning commute. You always come to that same stoplight where a man is standing with his dog, holding up a sign. He sits there every day with only his clothes on his back and whatever he can fit in his rugged, old backpack. His clothes are worn and look as if they haven’t been washed in years. His skin is browned from the sun and the dirt that has accumulated on him. His eyes are tired and his body is malnourished and bony. You see him everyday, so you don’t think anything of it. You never stop to think why he’s standing out there or if really he needs any help. You only assume that he wants to live like that and he wants to beg for money. People in the U.S. have become used to seeing homeless people on the streets and it’s almost second nature. In fact, it would be quite odd to be in a city were homelessness was nonexistent. It’s a major problem that America still faces to this day. For a powerful, developed country like America, this shouldn’t even be a possibility. Though many countries face homelessness and will possibly always have some amount of homeless citizens, the U.S. can still do so much more to reduce its homeless population. The question is, when will something be done?

History:

            It’s the pre Civil War era in the early 1800s. Homelessness in America consisted mainly of those displaced by wars, immigrants seeking refuge and those expelled from their towns or settlements. The industrialization of America resulted in jobs being less stable, caused by wage labor. Workers were easily replaced and many were left unemployed and homeless. Wherever the jobs moved, so did the people. Then, all of a sudden, the Civil War broke loose. Though war may not have been the best option for work, it was something to do and provided many people with much money. But then, post Civil War arrived, increasing the population of workers seeking jobs as veterans and freed slaves join the lookout for work. Workers now have to be even more migratory than before due to the poor economy and the post-war depression. The Bowery Mission in New York was established in 1879. This was one of the first settlements built to support young men in finding work. As the years passed, the homeless population grew, while the economy shrank. Skid rows began to spread across major cities in the country. As these streets grew, many cities found ways to create shelters for the homeless. This is the time when homelessness became widespread and a major problem within the country. During the 1950’s urban development was in full force. This is the time when the homeless population was unfortunately pushed aside due to certain regulation that communities and cities had to abide by. Housing was also now more expensive to build and maintain, causing low income populations and those without jobs to have less housing options. The 1970s began a time when shelters and organizations were created to prevent homelessness and to help the people affect by it. Unfortunately though, federal budget cuts caused further problems for the homeless population. Also, the deinstitutionalization of mental health hospitals across the country caused a major increase of the homeless citizens on the streets. Those with mental problems were provided with less government assistance and therefore resorted to living on the streets. This was the beginning of modern homelessness, as we very well know it today.

Social Affects:

            Homelessness in America has the largest, but also the smallest affects on the country. First and foremost, the citizens of he country are affected. People see the homeless population around their community and think either getting them help or just taking them off the streets. Though the way people view the homeless population may vary, people still consistently think about them. Not only does the community find concerns for the homeless population, but the governments of the communities do too. It doesn’t look so good when a city, state or even a country has a large homeless population. It may make the government seem as if they don’t care or that they are actually causing the homeless population to rise. People may avoid visiting or even living in certain places due to the high homelessness population. Homelessness isn’t the most appealing characteristic for any community to have. The homeless population can also be known to create trashy areas, disrupt the daily lives of other citizens, spread diseases and bacteria, or even commit crimes. Homelessness overall just isn’t something any country would want to have.

            There are many personal accounts to describe what its like to be a homeless citizen, but in this essay, three were chosen at random to describe how the experiences and lives that these homeless citizens had to go through before and during their time while living on the streets. The three chosen were Neil, Jim and Ascania. All three of these people had some sort of negative background that was affecting their lives in various ways. Neil had redundancy and depression, which led to everything in his life being taken away from him. He had nothing to do and nowhere to go, leaving the only place available being the streets. Nail said, “I just stood outside on the street and my whole life had been taken away from me.” Neil dint want to leave his old life behind, but to him, he had no other options. He was living in solitude and battling his various problems happening with his life and ended up being thrown on the streets. Next was article was Jim’s. From his accounts, he says that his mother and his family lived with a man who, “…was into drinking, hitting women, and hitting kids.” His family had to move to a shelter for families who have experienced domestic violence. Once Jim was old enough to live on his own, he was given a little bit of cash and thrown onto the streets. But Jim had no guidance and knew anything to do, so he turned to living on the streets and begging for money. The last article was over Ascania and her story. Ascania went through many terrible and stuff times in her life. Back in her home country of Jamaica, she was raped and beaten due to her sexuality. She fled the country just before anything truly terrible happened and risked everything to seek refuge. Even though she had fled, her life was anything, but perfect. She suffered from depression from having to leave her son behind in Jamaica and she also was in an abusive relationship. She began sleeping with various women to find a place to stay at night. She had nowhere else to go and was forced to be homeless. These are just a few accounts of citizens suffering from homelessness. These are also just a rare few people that have successfully made it out of poverty. Many people that are homeless have something going on in their lives that they can’t necessarily control. They don’t want to be homeless and if they had the choice they wouldn’t be, but these people don’t have any other ways of living. They are living with emotion and physical stress that’s causing them to break down and stop functioning, but with the help of various organizations, they were able to regain their lives.  They were able to rebuild what they had lost. They were able to find new ways of living and were able to succeed in life. These organizations have helped these people and many more start new lives and promise a better future for them.

Solutions:

            There are several ways to help the homeless population, but there are four main things that we can do as a country to help. The first thing to do is to provide housing. Without housing, there still won’t be any places for the homeless to go. If the community is able to provide safe places for the homeless to consistently go, we will have a better chance at taking these people off the streets. The next thing that must be available to the homeless population is services. Many times, homeless people will go back to living on the streets because they believe that their previous life may have been better. If we are able to provide services and address any mental issues or any other issues that they may have, we are able to heal the people and prepare them for better lives. Social Connectedness is very important for the homeless community. If the citizens feel as if they are welcomed and find new friends and people that they want to be around, they are more likely to stick around. If they feel unwanted, they may revert back to their previous lives and fall victim once again to homelessness. The last and most obvious thing to do is to prevent. If we are able to prevent anyone from becoming homeless or being left out on the streets to defend for him or herself, then we will keep running into these situations over and over. The whole point in solving the homelessness epidemic is to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Camus and Absurdity:

            Camus’s beliefs do and also don’t relate to this topic. The way that it does, has to do with the previous or sometimes current lives of the homeless population.  They may feel left out, alone, or worthless.  They feel as if their life is pointless and there is no meaning to it.  They may be lost and have nowhere to go or no one to go to.  Though they may feel this now, their future could not relate to these beliefs.  If they do receive help, their lives could be the complete opposite of these beliefs, meaning the population could now have hope, happiness and a new life. Camus’s would believe this epidemic is absurd.  The lives of the homeless population has no meaning, they just do little to nothing all day and have no purpose in life. The outcome of some of these homeless people would probably not go well with Camus’s beliefs. He would probably find some type of reasoning to argue against their success.  Even though many people’s lives could have been turned around, he’d still say that many other people are still facing these problems and many more will continue to face these problems in the future.

Conclusion:

            In today’s world, the homeless epidemic is more important than ever before. It seems as if the homeless population is actually increasingly expanding, even though or knowledge and development is actually expanding. In many ways, homeless citizens affect the places that where they live in many ways.  They affect the daily lives and the decisions that people make. They affect the cities and the country as a whole, causing major concerns for the nearing future.  The history of homeless is extremely extensive in the World and in America. It dates back to close to the beginning of this country to current times.  The homeless population has changed in many ways and the amount of people that are homeless has fluctuated throughout the years.  But as studies have shown, there are solutions to these problems.  With the right amount of time and effort, the homelessness epidemic can be reversed.  Though many countries face homelessness and will possibly always have some amount of homeless citizens, the U.S. can still do so much more to reduce its homeless population. The question is, when will something be done?

Works Cited

“America's Homeless Population Rises for First Time in Years.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-12-06/us-homeless-count-rises-pushed-by-crisis-on-the-west-coast.

Day, Eli. “The Number of Homeless People in America Increased for the First Time in Seven Years.” Mother Jones, 21 Dec. 2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/the-number-of-homeless-people-in-america-increased-for-the-first-time-in-7-years/.

“Effects of Homelessness Shown through Real Life Stories.” St Mungo's, 5 Mar. 2018, www.mungos.org/homelessness/real-life-stories/.

Gee, Alastair. “America's Homeless Population Rises for the First Time since the Great Recession.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Dec. 2017, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/america-homeless-population-2017-official-count-crisis.

“Homelessness in America.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/.

“Homelessness in America.” National Coalition for the Homeless, nationalhomeless.org/about-homelessness/.

“Homelessness in America: What Will It Take for the Crisis to Abate?” International Policy Digest, 13 Feb. 2018, intpolicydigest.org/2018/01/01/homelessness-america-will-take-crisis-abate/.

“How Bad Is Homelessness In America?” HuffPost, 18 Apr. 2017, 06:23, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-bad-is-homelessness-in-america-really_us_58f6916de4b0c892a4fb736f.

Olivet, Jeff. “4 Simple Ways to End Homelessness.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Feb. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/4-simple-ways-to-end-homelessness_us_58a45fe9e4b080bf74f04294.

“The State of Homelessness in America.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/.