Cause and effect of Homelessness

The Solution of Homelessness

Homelessness describes the situation of an individual or family without stable, permanent, appropriate housing or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it. Homelessness describes a range of housing and shelter circumstances, with people being without any shelter at one end, and being insecurely housed at the other. That is homelessness encompasses a range of physical living situations, organized here in a typology that includes 1) unsheltered or absolutely homeless and living on the streets or in places not intended for human habitation; 2) Emergency Sheltered, including those staying in overnight shelters for people who are homeless, as well as shelters for those impacted by family violence; 3) provisionally accommodated, referring to those whose accommodation is temporary or lacks security of tenure and finally; 4) at risk of homelessness, referring to people who are not homeless, but whose current economic and housing situation is precarious or does not meet public health and safety standards. It should be noted that for many people homelessness is note a static state but rather a fluid experience, where one’s shelter circumstances and options may shift and change quite dramatically and with frequency.

Homelessness has many causes, they are extreme poverty, female-headed households, teen parents and lack of affordable housing. In addition homelessness has many impacts, there are traumatic, poor physical and mental health, miss educational , sexually risky behaviors.

The first causes of homelessness is extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is the strongest predictor of homelessness for families. These families are often forced to choose between housing and other necessities for their survival. As result, at least 11% of American children living in poverty are homelessness.

The second causes of homelessness is female-headed households (particularly by women with limited education and job skills) are also particularly vulnerable. The consequent is the current economic climate has made the labor market even less hospitable as many of them do not have more than a high school diploma or GED.

The third causes of homelessness is teen parents are also particularly at risk of homelessness as they often lack the education and income of adults who become parents.

The last causes of homelessness is lack of affordable housing is also a risk factor for homelessness, particularly for families who devote more than 50% of household income to paying rent or those who experience a foreclosure. Consequently foreclosures affect vulnerable tenants as well as homeowners who are delinquent in their mortgage payments.

However, homelessness has many impacts, there are traumatic, poor physical and mental health, missed educational , sexually risky behaviors.

The first impact of homelessness is traumatic. In addition, many have suffered a trauma leading homelessness such as home repossession, drug, alcohol misuse and domestic violance.

The second impact of homelessness is linked to poor physical health for children including low birth weight, malnutrition, ear infections, exposure to enviromental toxins and chronic illness (eg. Asthma). Consequently, homeless are less likely to have adequate access to medical and dental care.

The third impact of homelessness is miss educational. Homeless lack stability in their lives with 97% having moved at least once on an annual basis, which leads to discruptions in schooling and negatively impacts academic achievement.

The last impact of homelessness is sexually risky behaviors. Many runaway youth engage in sexually risky behaviors (sometimes for their oen survival), which places them at risk of HIV, other STDs and unintended pregnancies. Also, emerging research has shown that GLBT homeless youth are 7 times more likely to be victims of violent crime.

                        Homeless people are one of the most disadvantaged groups in society. Not only do they face disadvantage from not having a permanent home, they also face problems realting to health, skill levels and education, social exclusion and unemployment.

                        Evidence suggests that one of the key pathways to address social exclusion is by obtaining paid employment. However, many people facec a number of barriers that prevent them moving into work.

                        Due to the diverse range of needs, homeless people may need to access a range of services before they are “work ready” (Singh 2005). The key to supporting the homeless into employment should be the recognition that they face a number of barriers including “a lack of basic skills, a lack of self-confidence, poor physical and mental health” and lack of access to adequate housing” (Sodha and Grant 2010).

To sum up, Employment is one of the “key routes” toward addressing social exclusion and achieving independence, both socially and financially. However, financial rewards are not the singular motivation for the homeless wanting to find work. The ‘traditional’ pathway to employment model employed by the homelessness sector is a three stage process where the first ‘engangement’ stage is centred on addressing the issues that led to homelessness such as treatment for subnstance missue. In the second stage of ‘pre-work support’ the process is about attempting to get clients work-ready and can include volunteering, job search, training, work placements etc, which will hopefully result in a job offer. The last stage involves ‘in-work support’which can take the form of job-coaching and at-work training (New Economics Foundation 2008).