Homeless citizens frequently depend on the highest-cost public service systems. They need emergency room care, hospital psychiatric beds, detoxification centers, and residential treatment programs, due to the fact that one-third of the people who are homeless have serious mental illnesses, and more than one-half of them also have substance use disorders. Supported housing offers stable homes and services such as mental and physical health treatment, supported education and employment, peer support, daily living skill training, and money management instruction.
These unfortunate people are citizens of our country, and it is our duty to help them get the treatment they need for their illnesses and addictions. There are two major theories for the rise in homelessness. One is that people are on the streets because they have had some bad luck with a job and that there is a lack of affordable housing. This notion plays along with the statistics that show many people are only a couple of paychecks away from being homeless, because our society uses credit so much.
The other theory is that the rise in homelessness is because of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. In 1975 many new policies were introduced at hospitals that worked with the mentally ill, and as a result a lot of patients were released without having anywhere to go. (National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness, online) It is most likely that the problem is growing because of a combination of these two theories. Whatever the cause may be, we are in need as a country to step up and work towards a solution in making sure everyone has a safe place to sleep at night.
A lot of politicians say that they are working on ending the problem of homelessness. The current administration has communicated a goal to end homelessness by 2012. Conversely, what they say and what they do are two different things. They have goals in place but at the same time are cutting funding for assisted housing. The numbers are just going to grow even larger as they do this. Some advocates believe we need to work on the major economic problems simultaneously in order to end homelessness.
(Roman, online) They would like to see subsidized housing being built, a raise in pay to at least meet the basic needs of people, and more services being provided in order to end homelessness. Governments should initiate few creative efforts like life support services, health and mental health care, education, occupational training, and long-term housing with public monies and through public/ private affiliations to ameliorate the desolations of the homeless. It is eventually at the local government level where efforts should be made to assist the homeless turn into tangible in terms of shelter, food, and human service programs.
Several regions have created a partnership of public and private corporations to supply services to this population. In New York City, government funded and operated shelters subsist side by side with shelters maneuvered by religious or nonprofit bodies. Crisis shelter and life-support services, a preliminary priority for the homeless, should be gradually being enhanced by long-term shelter programs, dealing with the extensively held view that shelters are only an impermanent solution to the homeless problem.
With its embedded pledge of both budgetary and charitable savings, the preclusion of homelessness magnetizes a lot of emblematic support–but putting into practice deterrence initiatives that will in reality comprehend such savings is difficult. Even so, helping homeless citizens without averting homelessness is similar to bailing a boat without setting up the leaks: it might keep circumstances from getting worse, but it will never resolve the problem (National Alliance to End Homelessness, online).
Fixing the leaks–or avoiding new entries and reentries into the homeless statistics-can take a diversity of forms. Mostly, generating more job opportunities, increasing income supports, and intensifying public housing assistance would certainly prevent homelessness, as would flourish large-scale hard work to get better health, education, and employability among the poor. In conclusion, the complication of the current homeless problem in the world, with its acquaintances to severe poverty and individual disability, has led specialists to caution that a speedy and easy solution is improbable.
A procedure must evolve in which scientific and humanitarian efforts work in recital to productively tackle the age-old problem of homelessness as it prevails in the twenty first century. The capable new programs developed by the contemporary Bush administration are a good commencement, but a continuous effort is needed to bring about effective avoidance and management theories to benefit contemporary and future generations.
Bibliography
National Alliance to End Homelessness. Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years. Retrieved from (http://www.endhomelessness. org/pub/tenyear/elements. htm) on December 09, 2006. National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness. Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Retrieved from (http://www. pirg. org/nscahh/hunger. asp? id2=7328) on December 09, 2006. Roman, Nan. President’s Budget Undercuts Progress in Ending Homelessness. National Alliance to End Homelessness. Retrieved from (http://www. endhomelessness. org/pol/press/PR020204. pdf) on December 09, 2006. Tischler, Henry. Introduction to Sociology. 8th Ed. New York: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004. pp: 55-79.