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Introduction to homelessness
Housing homeless from a sociological perspective
Housing homeless from a sociological perspective
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While circumstances can vary, an individual’s first choice is rarely to choose homelessness due to the inability to afford housing or other unforeseen circumstances. The support of friends, family, and community programs/shelters are first suggestions when a person becomes displaced. When these suggestions become inadequate, living on the streets is the next favorable/affordable option. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on a night in January of 2015, there were 564,708 people homeless in the United States (para 3).
Another stereotype that has established itself in society’s mindset is that all homeless people are criminals. In the online Huffington Post article, “10 Facts About Homelessness,” written by Bill Quigley, the author asserts that “Jerome Murdough, a homeless former Marine, was arrested for trespass in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell.” In all reality, if any homeless individual commits a crime, they are not dangerous crimes rather they are status crimes. Status crimes include trespassing, loitering, or sleeping on public property. Nonetheless, if a criminal had committed serious crimes such as murder or involvement in drug, they would be behind bars, not lurking on the streets.
More people suffer from homelessness than we realize. We often take for granted having a home to go to. I completely agree with Anna about her feelings on homelessness. I often see the homeless on the side of the road and I normally refer to them as homeless people but what I fail to realize is, that “homeless person” has a name, that “homeless guy” is a human being just like the rest of us longing for certainty, stability and privacy. Those “homeless people” are human beings without a home.
There’s no way in this world that I would allow myself to see my brother or my sister live on the streets. No one is born into homelessness; some have just been through a series of unfortunate events in their lives that led them to live as homeless individuals. For others, it's a case of psychological problems. No matter what family you come from, everybody is born for a reason. I believe that we all have one purpose in this life on our quest to becoming better people, and that is to take care of one another here on earth.
The homeless require help to get out of the situations they are in, but often people do not offer help because they attach negative symbols to the homeless. The social interactionist theory tries to understand how society views the homeless and how the homeless view themselves, based on the symbols that are projected onto homeless people. During the 1970s Madison Square Garden was filled with homeless people. Rising rents caused many people to lose their homes and apartments and to join the homeless community. Dozens of homeless women lived in the public restrooms as an attempt to escape the harsh weather.
The social issue that I picked is homelessness. Homelessness is a real issue, even if we don’t always see it. Homelessness doesn’t just mean you don’t have a roof over your head, it means you don’t have food, a good education, a healthy lifestyle, or a warm place to sleep every night. Some people don’t think very highly about homeless people, they think that it's their fault that they are where they are in life. Homelessness is going to end up becoming a bigger problem.
Essay on The Homeless Introduction to Human Resources Columbia college By Kawana Roberts The issue of contemporary homelessness has took a huge shift from the common perception of homeless people. I am witnessing a shift from the image of ‘homelessness’ being a physically dirty, pan handling, poor, uneducated individual who does not have a physical home for shelter. Initially, I failed to recognize that ‘homelessness’ can be a temporary state on can live in. Not all homeless people are homeless by “choice”, sometimes people are homeless by “force”.
Area of Conflict Homelessness can be understood in the perspective of conflict theory, which holds that capitalism is one the main reason for homelessness. “Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned” (Ayn Rand). There are many reasons why a person becomes homeless, an increasing number become homeless each year, with up to 5,000 people becoming homeless every year. Generally the experiences that lead to homelessness are determined by poverty and structural inequality.
Homelessness and Functionalism The social problem that I chose was homelessness. Homelessness has increased by 8% since 2011-2012 to more than 225,000 people in 2014-15 and in 2011 censers 105,237 people where homeless. As also the unemployment rate and the domestic violence rate which both are increasing as well as these are some of the big factors . The biggest reason homelessness is domestic violence.
Balancing out individuals through shelters, moving them into permanent lodging, and actualizing help projects to keep them in their housing, can lessen, as well as dispose of, homelessness. System theories compresses ideas that apply to all frameworks. System theory is helpful when drawing close to complex issues. The greater part of us utilize a frameworks approach for critical thinking. This paper discusses how the developmental theory works for the human administration professional when dealing homeless mentally ill.
The sociological imagination is thinking that is done with the realization that both the individual’s experience and the historical context which they live in must be looked at to fully gain insight about the world around them (Elwell, 2006). In other words, “the individual and society cannot be understood apart from each other” (Pyyhtinen, 2016, p. 4). The intersection of the two is where valuable information is found. The sociological imagination requires the ability to change between perspectives of biography and history (Mills, 1959). One can practice the craft of sociological thought by using the sociological imagination.
I remember being a little kid and whenever my family and I would see a homeless person with a sign my parents would say, “Don’t make eye contact,” or “They probably don’t even have a problem, they’re just begging.” I remember when I made my dad buy a woman and her children McDonalds because she had a sign about having no money for food and she had no home and I felt bad for her kids. I remember my dad giving her the McDonalds and her saying to my dad, “I’d rather just have the money.” That’s when I stopped feeling sympathetic towards the poor and homeless. That’s when I decided if they wanted to be out of poverty then they could work for it
The Minimum Wage Struggle Money is an essential object to acquire in the society we live in. Various places demand a high monthly rate in order to occupy a premise, along with the stress of utility bills that may not be included. Aside from living costs there are many other factors which must be calculated when budgeting on a day to day basis. Overall, the survival rate tends to increase due to so many responsibilities that need to be upheld, as well as costs being raised. This rise in both the cost of living as well as the need for higher wages proves that the standard of minimum wage needs a major increase.
The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S.
Homelessness is a significant complex societal problem. Many people think homelessness is an individual problem, but I think society has a large factor on why people become homeless. Individuals who are homeless are not lazy like most of society thinks. These people are struggling with societal problems such as living costs and mostly cannot support themselves financially. In my eyes, Homelessness is a factor of societal forces such as high cost of housing and living and also society having failed systems to support people who are stuck in these sorts of situations.
