Essay on Solving Homelessness

Words: 1417
Pages: 6

Solving Homelessness

Nationwide homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways an individual can become homeless, for the most part it is poverty. There are also different concentrations of homeless in different types of environments, such as urban or suburban areas. Last, there is the ever-growing homeless population, and how much money it costs us for others to live in poverty. A way we can help find the solution to this problem, is to know the facts about this lingering subject. People become homeless not because of lack of effort for success, but because of poverty, drug addictions, mental illness and financially unstable times in their lives. The biggest reason people are homeless is because of
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The national estimate for homelessness in the United States as of 2001 was 3.5 Million people, 1.5 million of them being children (National Homeless). That is a huge number to deal with, and there is a bit of questioning with this statistic, wondering where all of these people are in the United States. Many may think that homelessness is a strictly urban issue, but in reality the population between urban homelessness and rural homelessness is split about 50/50. There are far fewer shelters in rural areas; so people experiencing homelessness are less likely to live in a shelter, and more likely to live in a car or camper, or with relatives in overcrowded and poor housing. Restricting definitions of homelessness include only those who are literally homeless, that is, on the streets or in shelters - does not fit well with the reality, and also may exclude many rural communities from accessing federal money to address homelessness (National Homeless). Studies comparing urban and rural homeless populations have shown that homeless people in rural areas are more likely to be white, female, married, currently working, homeless for the first time, and homeless for a shorter period of time (National Homeless). Other research says that families, single mothers, and children make up the largest group of people who are homeless in rural areas