What is homelessness, what is the main cause of it, and how should it be solved are all some of the questions that have truly complex answers. Homelessness has traditionally been thought to be a personal decision. Homelessness is a decision that is entwined with arguments about deviant behavior and harmful disorders.
The homeless individual is either seen as a deliberate and immoral choice to be homeless or as a weak agent incapable of exercising choice. However, it has seldom been effectively defined what choosing homelessness entails and how homeless individuals make meaning of their decisions.
What Is Homelessness?
The definition of homelessness is inadequate accessibility to a safe and secure home. This exists when a person’s only source of housing:
- Is likely to harm the individual’s health.
- Endangers the person’s safety.
- Marginalizes the individual by failing to offer enough personal comforts or the customary economic and social support of a household, or
- Places the person in situations that jeopardize or negatively impact the sufficiency, safety, security, and cost of that dwelling.
- A person or family who is escaping or attempting to avoid domestic abuse has no other place to live and has the resources or support networks to find an alternative permanent home.
What Causes Homelessness?
There are several myths and misunderstandings about homelessness. Some feel it is a choice; they believe that homeless men may just pull themselves up by the bootstraps if they want to and that they are houseless merely because they are lazy.
Homelessness, on the other hand, is not a choice, and there are numerous reasons why people become homeless, including a lack of support beams for all those suffering from poverty, loss of employment, and inadequate care plans for those leaving hospitals, detention institutions, and mental health facilities. The inability to deal with several difficulties at once can push individuals and families over the brink. Even before being homeless, a person may be living on the outskirts of society, with limited ties to family and the community. Social isolation might mean that they lack the essential support to help them get through stressful times and manage recurring difficulties.
How To End Homelessness?
Housing is the foundation of happiness, and long-term solutions to reduce homelessness must go beyond providing a place to sleep. Individuals must have access to services such as healthcare, education, and work to achieve independence and effectively reintegrate into society. Finding efficient crisis response solutions aids in the identification of persons suffering from homelessness, the prevention of at-risk situations, and the provision of critical shelter and resources as soon as feasible.
Following are some ways you can at least reduce homelessness:
Supportive Housing:
Supportive housing programs are specifically designed as the solution with permanency to ending homelessness in the commune. Services like these offer rental assistance for the long term in affordable and cheap housing, health, and customized case management for community members that are in weak positions suffering from prolonged homelessness. Develop a long-term solution for homelessness as participants re-enter society by offering tools that improve skills for independent living. Permanent supportive housing not only bridges the housing gap and lifts individuals out of homelessness, but it also reduces federal and state expenses associated with emergency shelters, prisons, and hospitals.
Educating Youngster:
Graduating from high school is a determinant of whether a youngster will become homeless at some time in their life. Children and teens who do not obtain high school diplomas are more likely to be homeless than those who do. Furthermore, school-based support for children who do not have a stable family can help them develop the skills needed to become secure and independent, and therefore climb out of homelessness.
Health Care for Everyone in Need:
Homeless lady is most likely to contract infections and disease since they don’t have the basic hygiene and health care necessities. Homelessness, on the other hand, can affect general health and reduce the longevity of life by 30 years on average. In many circumstances, housing also serves as health care.
With a free health care plan, homeless individuals can get their basic health care needs and with better health and some support, they can become independent and off the roads and alleys.
Create More Career Opportunities:
Financial insecurity is frequently the cause of housing instability. Finding a consistent income in the present economy is challenging due to a lack of work options, and even if employment prospects exist, it does not always guarantee escaping poverty. By stabilizing income for persons experiencing homelessness, many will be able to qualify for further rent subsidy programs and, as a result, move out of places where the homeless sleep and live independently.
Homelessness can never be a choice. Just think about it why would anyone like to live on the street with poor food and health conditions completely at the mercy of others and unprotected? So, the next time when you see homeless signs be empathetic towards them and help them if you could.
