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The United States is the 11th richest country in the world, yet there are 553,700 homeless people living in the United States today and this number is not even counting all of the people living with family members. There have been many different perspectives on how we should go about fixing the problem of homelessness, one being those who help the homeless get off of the streets by giving them the resources they need, others who chose to stand back without interfering in hopes of the homeless people getting out of homelessness on their own, and the group of people in the middle who aren’t sure exactly what to do.
The problem of homelessness has always been an issue but the first time it truly came into the conversation was in the 1980’s. The cause of this explosion of homelessness has been a question left unsolved for man Scholars, government researchers, economists, and anthropologists for a long time. One belief is that homelessness has become such a big problem because of the huge federal cutback in housing assistance.
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Others believe that the federal cutback in housing assistance has nothing to do with the number of homeless people in America and they put the blame on drug abuse. Whatever the cause may be, each side of the argument can agree that there is an extremely overwhelming number of homeless people in the United States and one way or another this problem needs to be solved.
The first perspective that many people agree with is that Americans should not do anything that could possibly promote homelessness.
These people believe that continuously feeding, giving money to, and aiding the homeless does not encourage them to go find work and make their own money to get food and the things that they need by their selves. For these people, one way of stopping the promotion of homelessness is to ban or restrict the feeding of homeless people. Many cities have passed laws that make it illegal to feed the homeless an example of this is a law in Atlanta, Georgia which says how “Starting in 2003, all residents in Atlanta, Georgia, wishing to provide food for the homeless must do so by volunteering through eight designated organizations in the city.” (Fang, Anyu). Another city with laws such as that one is Santa Monica. “ Santa Monica, California, passed two ordinances: one prohibiting leaving food or clothing in city parks for donation and another prohibiting distribution of food without a permit.” (Fang, Anyu).
The lawmakers of these laws are concerned about the health and welfare of the people. They say that not all people making food in their kitchens and then handing out the food meet sanitization requirements. This can be dangerous if the homeless were to get sick and have that sickness be easily spread all because of food given to them by a person who’s kitchen does not meet the sanitization requirements. Another theory is that ““Street feeding programs without comprehensive services actually increase and promote homelessness”- Marbut Consulting.” (Rich, Alex K.) Marbut goes on to talk about how sitting under a bridge or on a park bench is no more productive than sitting on the floor of a jail cell. He believes that people should get up and find work to meet their needs. Many people agree with him and want to end homelessness through a life lesson that teaches the homeless that you need to work to get what you want. These people believe that homelessness should be eliminated by encouraging the homeless to work and recover from homelessness on their own over time by limiting the amount of help that they receive from others.
Another approach to the homeless crisis is to help the homeless by giving. The people that go by this approach believe that banning the sharing of food with the homeless is incredibly disturbing and just one step towards criminalizing homelessness. They prefer to help the homeless people in their area get out of the homeless web than to watch them struggle trying to fend for themselves. There are many programs that were built in favor of decreasing homelessness such as San Francisco’s new “Housing First” initiative which is “based on a promising notion: replacing costly and unnecessary transitional housing programs and shelters in favor of simply creating more affordable housing options for those in need of homes.” (Lee, M). The people who have this mentality are fighting for the rights that they believe the homeless should naturally have. These people believe that just because people are homeless that does not make it right to treat them as if they aren’t even human by preventing them from receiving free things that are essential to life. These essentials consist of food, clothes, toiletries, and many other things that the privileged use every day. Some people on this side of the argument say that it is the “lack of government effort and compassion” (Witherbee, Amy) that leads to the homeless crisis being ignored by citizens because they are watching the government do nothing about the problem. Because the government is choosing to ignore the homeless crisis some of these people form activist groups to inform those who are uneducated on homelessness and try to convince everyone to help the homeless get back on their feet. Most of these people fit into categories such as humanitarians, non-profits, and even philanthropists. Whatever they may be called, these people believe that a change needs to be made fast.
Finally, there are those people who are stuck in the middle, uneducated and have no opinion. This group of people consists of those who want to help but are not sure how to, those who do not know if it is best to help by standing back and hoping that people will get out of homelessness on their own over time, or to help by giving them the support that they need to regroup into society. This group of people are not educated enough about homelessness to make any decision and they are not sure if it is a problem that will die down on its own or if it is a growing problem each year that needs interference to die down. They question if they should not feed the homeless because of health concerns or if they should go ahead and take that risk because they believe that the importance of preventing the homeless in their area from starving is greater than the importance of the minute health concerns from the lawmakers. Some of these people are not even aware that there are laws restricting the amount of help that the homeless can receive from those wishing to help. According to Homeless Hub’s explanation on homelessness, many people don’t even know that most homeless people don’t actually live on the streets. This just goes to show that there are still many people who need more education on homelessness in order to pick a direct position.
Homelessness is a worldwide problem that has continued to get worse over the years. Although there is not one specific cause or solution to this crisis people are still trying every day to fix it. Whether it be fixing homelessness by taking a step back and letting the homeless learn on their own, or helping the homeless grow out of that life, or even a mixture of both everybody can agree that homelessness is a major problem that needs to be solved.
Why Is Homelessness Such a Problem in United States?. (2021, Jan 29). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/why-is-homelessness-such-a-problem-in-united-states-essay
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