Why help other countries when we have homelessness right here at home?
Raven Tyler, from NewsHour Extra, stated, “The face of homelessness has drastically changed throughout the years. In the 1980s, thousands of individuals from the nation 's public psychiatric hospitals were discharged, leaving many of the people who were mentally ill without homes. This gave rise to a popular misconception, however, that led many to think all homeless people were mentally ill or suffered from drug or alcohol abuse problems. Oftentimes, homeless people were portrayed as lazy and unclean. But today, more working and middle class families face the prospect of living on the streets.” This quote was from her article, Homeless in America, which was featured on pbs.org.
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Homelessness is a serious issue that people, whether individually or as a family, in America face every day no matter your background or your nationalities. The National Coalition for the Homeless believes that there are two theories to the causes of homelessness. The first theory is the cause of social-based conditions with an individual’s life. These include employment minimum wage, lack of mental health services, and lack of public assistance service. The second theory is personal problems with the person lacking money management skills, excessive abuse, and being lazy (Scheidies). Many people do not believe that homelessness can happen to them but sometimes certain factors in life cause people to end up homeless. Factors like, economic failures, drug/alcohol problems, and family problems can have an effect of becoming homeless. Learning how homelessness start can also help prevent people from becoming …show more content…
In conclusion, the solutions needed to eliminate homelessness are the same ones needed to prevent its occurrence. Prevention is a present day need as so many people within our society currently sit at the brink of devastation. Areas in which assistance is most needed include low-cost housing, affordable health care, adequate mental health services, improved vocational/educational opportunities, and job opportunities. Prevention efforts cost less compared to the costs of imprisonment, maintaining shelters, and distributing food to a growing population. Unfortunately, funding for these needs continues to dwindle, on both federal and state