In San Antonio, the Number of Homeless Is Constantly Growing

Homelessness in San Antonio has been steadily rising over the years. The City of San Antonio and Department of Human Services should provide job placement and turn some of the thousands of abandoned buildings into shelters because this will decrease homelessness in the future.

Richard Berry is the Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the video he talks about helping homeless individuals find jobs instead of only providing emergency shelter or food. Berry and his employees drive around the streets in an old van and offers a days work to the homeless, pay them the same day, and feed them lunch on the job.

One of the jobs is litter pickup which helps to beautify the city on top of helping those less fortunate. He also has non-profit partners who offer counseling services to these homeless individuals. On top of all of this he has a housing-first program which houses the homeless, especially those with medical ailments (Berry, R. 2017).

I found this source credible not only because of Berry’s political position, but because he had results.

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Ted Talks has many educational videos from people in various positions in the world. Another reason I found this credible is because it wasn’t based off opinion or “what-ifs”. The Mayor took the “what-ifs” and provided answers.

There were many videos to support my thesis statement, but this one in particular can help to get the stakeholders to look into the issue. This is due to the fact that a Mayor in another city was able to make a change.

If the stakeholders (San Antonio Mayor and City Council) can see what has worked for other cities, they can have more confidence that it will work in San Antonio.

This article talks about the taxpayer costs toward homelessness versus the costs towards housing the homeless. In the article it talks about how permanent housing and services to help them maintain it is cheaper for the city than shelters. Research has shown permanent housing instead of shelters can save taxpayers thousands of dollars. Not only is it cheaper, it is more effective when assisting the homeless individual to transition (Snyder, K. 2015).

I found this article reliable because it was written based off of studies done by researchers. It is carefully written through an organization that is not a for-profit. Not only that but they provided average costs around the United States.

I could use this source to show the stakeholders that permanent housing for the homeless will be cheaper than alternatives. My stakeholders work for the city and saving money is always a topic. It will be important for me to get average costs for my city so I can present facts to them.

This is an academic journal which focuses on the underrepresented individuals in my theses (the homeless). It stresses the importance of permanent housing and support. The article revealed through interviews of the former homeless that things such as counseling and job placement would be beneficial in maintaining permanent shelter. With permanent housing having assistance in day-to-day activities such as cooking and cleaning was shown to have more long lasting results (Gabrielian, S. et al. 2018).

I found this article credible because it was found in the Purdue Library and provided information gathered from the homeless themselves. They Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal has many peer reviewed articles and is published by the American Psychological Association and has been around since 1978, which helped me to see its reliability.

This will help me to make my case because of the reliability of the American Psychological Association. The stakeholders will be able to hear about the issue through interviews of those impacted directly by it. It can help them to empathize with these homeless individuals as well.

There are many myths about homelessness and this source breaks down things that may prevent the government from helping. Some cities may believe that there are enough resources for homeless, but most of these resources are for emergencies. Another thing that can prevent more permanent housing is that some feel property value can go down (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2018).

I found this article reliable because it is a government website. They gathered opinions and other information from the community in order to see what is preventing more resources for the homeless. Government websites are more reliable than others and can be useful for my argument.

This source brings to light the negative opinions, but I can use it along with my other sources to show that these opinions are simply not true. Showing the negative side can even help to get the stakeholders to empathize with the issue.