homelessness,who should responsible for homeless person

Homelessness: whose fault is it?E13Zhong YiPersonal Development and Academic SuccessJohn SeymourContents of report Introduction: (197 words) Main body: (1030 words)Conclusion (348 words)Reference Reading and research journalHomelessnessNowadays, one of the largest growing problems in the world is the constantly increasing number of citizens who are being homeless. According to preliminary statistics, there are over 100 million homeless people in the world. (Capdevila, 2005)With the decrease of available jobs, the population of homeless people has a dramatic increase. For this special group, most people know very little about them. The definition of homelessness is extensive, if we counted all the people who live independently and do not own a room or share the residence with family members as the homeless, in addition to the beggar and the people who spends substantial periods of time on the streets in urban areas, many people are also belong to the homeless. These homeless people all suffer from absolute poverty and can’t get the necessities for living, even for enough food and warm clothing. Homelessness is a very serious phenomenon which caused a lot of problems in the society. More and more people become homeless on account of different reasons, the consequence will be unimaginable if we do nothing to improve this situation, so that we should try our best to help them and stop the vicious circle.What does the word ’homeless’ mean? This is a n abstract noun which is difficult to define. There are many explanations about homelessness on the internet.It said on the United States Code that homelessness is a situation and social category of people who has no regular house or shelter because they unable to afford or cannot maintain adequate housing. Homeless people may also include people who have no residence to spend their primary nighttime, or sleeping at a public or private place which is not designed for regular sleeping accommodation. (Office of the Law Revision Counsel , 2006) A person can be named as the homeless in the United States but it may not in other countries. The actual legal definition is not identical in different countries and region. According to the figure, The United States government determined that somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 Americans were then homeless.Someone may ask that why the difference between two numbers is so big. Because the figure of homeless people will rise and fall by the season. In the United States, it is obviously that there are more homeless people in winter than in summer. (Kusmer, 2003)Which kind of people are suffering from homeless? Great majority of homeless people are unemployment or have a low income, they live with a poor lifestyle. Children suffer from being homeless as well, most children are orphans who were discarded by their parents and dispossessed. (Seymour, 2010) Moreover, many homeless are the victims of violent crime as well. This point is particularly outstanding in women. The Statistics show that, half of American women are being homeless in order to escape abuse and family violence. The longevity of homeless people is shorter than others, someone used to think that it related to alcoholism, drug and other bad habits. (Brenda M. Booth, J. Greer Sullivan, Paul Koegel, M. Audrey Burnam, 2002) Actually not only because drug and alcohol, but also Spiritual and mental illnesses. These are two of the menaces of the homeless and they cannot receive the effective treatment on time as well. By contract with the bad psychological status is the bad living condition. To sleep on the street, malnutrition, infection and arthritis are popular among the homeless. A rainstorm, cold or the intense heat of summer will cause fatal consequences to the homeless while common people only need some pills and few days break to recover. These people have no friends and kinsfolk, so they are lonely. Since they seldom communicate with the society, they gradually develop a set of their own values or beliefs. Before recognizing and accepting the fact of being homeless, many homeless people usually experienced several stages: shock, doubt, pessimism, depression, disappointed, resigned.Why so many people become homeless and whose fault it is? Actually it is hard to say. In my opinion, it includes three main reasons which are personal reason, social reason and natural disasters. Comparing with other reasons, I think the most important reason is personal reason. As we know, a lot ofpeople live in the same region. Some people are homeless while some have a rich life but all of them live in the same society and why there is a difference? Absolutely, it was caused by themselves. Many people have an illusion that poor and homeless people do not work.The surprising fact is that 6.3 million of the nation's poor have a full-time job. The percentage of poor people who has a full-time job in the U.S. has increased to 33% since 1979. Nowadays, 18% of the people working full-time are living a destitute life. Although some people work very hard but due to the low labor skills, they get a little income which only can pay a basic living. This kind of people usually born in a poor family and have no money to go to school. Since lack of knowledge, most of them are engaged in laborious work like farmer, cleaner and building worker. As we see on the street, many homeless people are disabled who are suffering from discrimination by others. Usually they are unable to get a job and most of them are beggars, the only sauce of income is begging. Orphans who don’t have any dependable kinsfolk also cannot get a job owing to they are too young. For the social reason, there are many arguments on it. Many people are puzzled that why don’t the government take some salvations to help the homeless. It is the government who should intervene while on the other hand, it may cause vicious circle if the government provides a lot of things to the homeless. For instance, some people become homeless just due to lazy, as one of the homeless people said that it is hard for him to get a paid job. In addition, he would rather be on the streets than get a full-time boring job and become brain-dead because he can get the government assistance payment. One important reason to be homeless is jobless. With a bad economy, any job is difficult to get. Many people are unemployed owing to the economic crisis. The other unavoidable issue is that the government built a lot of new buildings in the edge or commercial to improve people's living conditions and take a brand-new looking of the whole city. During this process, a mass of old simple buildings which were built by poor people are demolished. Due to the reform of city, low-cost housing are reduced, it increased the requirements of cheaphouses. At the same time, this led to the high housing price that many people cannot afford it. A number of people cannot afford the high housing price so that they become homeless. Nowadays, the housing price is higher than before, especially in big cities. So there are less available houses for the homeless. (Burt, 1993) Last but not least reason is the natural disaster, such as fire hazard, flood, tsunami and earthquake. Many people lose their home during these disasters. 97.7% of the total who become homeless by natural disasters in the world are from developing countries. (Gilbert, 2001) Even so, people feel powerless in front of the nature.The circumstances have changed: a person at risk of homelessness was more likely to be able to maintain housing in the 1970 than 1980s. (Burt, 1993) More and more people are suffering from homeless now. Since we are all human beings, we should give anyone a hand if he or she needs help. To make a harmonious societal environment, what should we do to help them break out of homeless life? First of all, we should offer some place for them so that they can have a shelter from storm. Then they should be given a basic living supply like food and clothes by public assistance. The government can build more orphanages for homeless children and give a hand for reestablishing links with family. It is obviously that all the homeless need help. While not only need physical help, but also spiritual help. Giving a chance to learn basic skills for the person who has low income is a good idea, so that they can earn more money for living by themselves. In London, they offer young people the methods of cooking, the way to have a healthier lifestyle and some work place as well. The main purpose is to increase homeless people’s self-respect, motivation and help them achieve greater independence. Therefore, they can earn a living by their own hand. This kind of help is certainly praiseworthy. Everything is two-sided, the help also bring some negative effect. Some people may think that since we can get help from the government, why should we work so hard? Then they prefer being jobless to working. As a result, the number of the homeless is always kept steady. Hence,we ought to be careful when we help the homeless. In conclusion, Homelessness is an inevitable phenomenon. Since there are so many reasons to be homelessness, it indicates we cannot completely eradicate it but we can try our best to control the population of homeless. By the way, we should realize that society, as a whole is to blame for the homelessness situation and refrain from placing the blame on individuals.BibliographyBrenda M. Booth, J. Greer Sullivan, Paul Koegel, M. Audrey Burnam. (2002). Vulnerability Factors for Homelessness Associated with Substance Dependence in a Community Sample of Homeless Adults. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.Burt, M. R. (1993). Over the Edge: The Growth of Homelessness in the 1980s. NEW YORK: Russell Sage Foundation.Capdevila, G. (2005, March 30). More Than 100 Million Homeless Worldwide. Retrieved 10 24, 2010, from ipsnews: /interna.asp?idnews=28086Gilbert, R. (2001, May). WHY HELP THE DISASTER HOMELESS? Retrieved October 26, 2010, from Doing More for Those Made Homeless by Natural Disasters: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/LGEL-5JVE4E/$file/wb-home-may01.pdf?openele mentKusmer, K. L. (2003). Down and Out, on the Road: The Homeless in American History.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Office of the Law Revision Counsel . (2006). United States Code.American: U.S. Government Printing Office.Seymour, G. (2010, April 9). The young and the homeless. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from onlineopinion: .au/view.asp?article=10256READING AND RESEARCH JOURNAL。