Why all this homelessness !!!

Homelessness is a matter of concern anywhere in the world. However, it is a particular cause for alarm, concern and even shame when it occurs in the richest of the nations. Sadly, homelessness is a significant problem in most developed countries. Accurate statistics on the level of homelessness are hard to come by. In part, this is because definitions of homelessness vary. It includes not only tho...se who are living on the streets or in shelters and hostels but also those who are living in temporary accommodation or in housing that is unfit for human habitation.

 

Estimates of the number of people without homes in the United States vary from 230,000 to 3 million, including between 50,000 and 500,000 children. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated in 1999 that "there are at least 600,000 homeless men, women, and children in the United States on any given night," adding that roughly one-third of this population is composed of families with children. In its 1997 position paper on eliminating homelessness, the American Public Health Association (APHA) noted that "as many as 7.4 percent of Americans (13.5 million people) may have experienced homelessness at some time in their lives."

 

Homelessness increased in the 1990s, and the fastest growing segment of the homeless population was homeless families. A wide variety of factors contribute to homelessness, but the main categories are: structural problems and individual factors that increase vulnerability. Structural problems include a lack of affordable housing, changes in the industrial economy leading to unemployment, inadequate income supports, the denstitutionalization of patients with mental health problems, and the erosion of family and social support. Added to this are factors that increase an individual's vulnerability, such as physical or mental illness, disability, substance abuse, domestic violence, or job loss. Reducing homelessness will mean addressing issues such as these. A little bit helps! Let us all join hands and together we will make a difference!! Shelter is a basic right!! We should fight to have a home just as we fight to have food and education. It is a human right that we should all feel morally obliged to demand from our societies. We can do it, one person at at time.

 

Join us. Invite your friend to join us to help one at a time to get a shelter, a safe place to lay their head. In the streets many children are exposed to abuse. Safe homes help alleviate abuse. Just saying.

 

WISO Associate