The Homeless and Psychology (Essay Sample)

The Homeless and Their Psychological Problems
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The Homeless and Their Psychological Problems
There is nothing so paramount than to have a shelter where one lives. It is a basic need in human life. Having a home is an advantageous thing as it boosts privacy of the owner. It also protects those who live from diseases and harsh weather conditions. There are various different versions of homes depending on the region and culture. Homes can be permanent or temporary. However, not everyone owns a home. There are people who are in one way or another lost or has never owned a home (Begin et al., 1999). They are referred to as the homeless. This essay will examine and analyze in depth the homeless, the cause of the phenomenon, direct and indirect impacts on people’s social class. It also seeks to cover vividly on the harms homelessness has brought into the society, how the homeless can be helped. Finally, it will examine how this problem can be approached and solved for once so as to reduce social pressure.
Different authors have written about the subject for years since it has been a common problem is various countries. Although their descriptions for the homeless differ in the wordings, they revolve around the fact that these are people who do not have regular dwelling places (Begin et al., 1999). They are mostly found in streets, tents, amongst other unsafe housing conditions. In other sources, they have been depicted as people who are not in a position to maintain a regular, secure, safe and adequate housing (Baum & Burnes, 2007). In most cases, the homeless people mingle with the public during the day, but they spend their nights in places such as homeless shelters, warming centers, vehicles, domestic violence shelters, tarpaulins and other places (Baum & Burnes, 2007).
Other versions depict the homeless as people who are dwelling in an inadequate place or those whose current arrangement of living have no tenure or initially have a short tenure that is not extendable (Baum & Burnes, 2007). Some are considered homeless when their current living places deny them chances of owning or being in control of as well as access to more space for social relations (Begin et al., 1999).
Studies have shown that diversity of the homelessness can be categorized into three divisions. Those include the primary homelessness, secondary and tertiary homelessness (Begin et al., 1999). The primary homeless people are basically those without formal accommodation and may be residing in improvised shelters and possibly sleeping rough due to the harsh night conditions. People in these categories are usually found living in the streets without shelters (Baum & Burnes, 2007). They fall within the scope of living shelters. The second category of the homeless, secondary homeless entails those people who move from one shelter to another especially temporary shelter. Temporary secondary shelters for these people include emergency accommodation, living squatters, and youth refuges amongst other dwelling places. Residents in this category have no place of usual residence and thus move frequently between varied accommodations. The third category of the homes sums all those people whose accommodations do not satisfy the minimum standards in that community (Begin et al., 1999). For instance, if the standard of a shelter where one stays falls below the minimum set community standards, the residents are rendered tertiary homeless. Caravan parks and boarding housings are examples of accommodation considered to fall below the community standards.
Through a series of researchers, it has been noted that, in 2005, approximately 100 million people in the entire world were homeless (Baum & Burnes, 2007). It has further been proved that in western countries, men constitute the largest percentage of the homeless averaging to 75% to 80%. However, in the USA, researches have overrepresented the youth with 39% of the homeless.
Homelessness among people or citizens of a country is a problem and governments have tried to curb it. It has a lot of consequences that come along with it. As a strategy to approach this impending problem, possible causes of homelessness have been identified. Although these causes may vary from one region to another, they are centered to the standards of life in a country and its citizens (Baum & Burnes, 2007).
A major cause of homelessness that has been identified by researchers is poverty (Morse, 1992). Poverty can be simply defined as the state of being poor. Many people who live below the poverty line are vulnerable to being homeless. Being poor will mean that one is prone to illnesses, accidents or simply away from living to the streets. Homelessness and poverty are closely related. In many cases, the poor people are usually not in position of maintaining their housing payments (Morse, 1992). Again, they go through hard ways in trying to cater for their food, health care childcare as well as education. Their resources are limited and thus these people encounter difficulties in decision making. In most cases, housing expenditure is the first to be dropped since they are normally high (Morse, 1992). For instance, in the US, research conducted in 2005 pointed out that 13.3% of the population lived in poverty. This translated to over 38 million people, a higher value as compared to 2003’s reports. In 2003, 12.5% of the people or 1.1 million were living below the poverty line. This insinuated that the rate of poverty increased, leading to an increase in the number people living in low standards of life (Koegel, Burnam & Baumohl, 1996).
Additionally, these research reports revealed that of the persons living in poverty, 38% are children. Facts supporting these findings showed that in 2004, children under 18 years constituted 17.6% of those living in the abject poverty. This value was higher than those of other age groups. There are factors accounting to the increasing poverty among people in a society. A major factor is the eroding of job opportunities ranging from large segments to small scale segments in the workforce (Morse, 1992). Media reports of a growing economy and low unemployment mask a number of the paramount reasons why homelessness persists. These reasons range from either stunted or falling income. It also covers those jobs with less or no security and thus offers fewer benefits. The other factor attributed to causing poverty and thus homelessness among people is the decline in public assistance. In the recent past, there have been concerned programs which offered assistance in terms of cash for the poor families with children. Among these concerned programs is the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). It was the largest cash assistance to the poor. However, in 1996, it was repealed courtesy of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. It was replaced by a program referred to as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Consequently, welfare caseloads dropped sharply since the passage and implementation of welfare reform legislation (Morse, 1992). This in turn resulted in declining of welfare rolls leading to fewer people receiving benefits. Following their loss of benefits, unsecure and unstable employment, significantly low wages, most of the families leaving the welfare tend to struggle to maintain and get medical care, food, as well as housing. Many lose health insurance despite medical eligibility (Koegel, Burnam & Baumohl, 1996).
Inadequate affordable housing units and the limited scale in the programs concerned with housing assistance have too caused an impact to the current housing crisis and to homelessness (Morse, 1992). This is common problems in most towns and cities. There has been a gap between the people in need of affordable housings and the available housing units. This has consequently created a housing crisis for poor people. Studies on housing have revealed that between 1973 and 1993, close to 2.2 million affordable units disappeared from the United States market (Morse, 1992). It further described that these units were either converted to apartments, abandoned, or that they simply became unaffordable due to increase in housing costs. Between 1991 and 1995, rental costs that were paid by lower income renters rose by 21% consequently leading to increasing in the number of low income renters. Other researches done on the subject shows that there has been a steady rise in the gap between the amount of low cost housing units and the number of renters whose earnings are low. It was noted that between 1970 to early 1995, it rose from no existing gap to a shortage cumulating to 4.4 million low cost housing units (Koegel, Burnam & Baumohl, 1996).
Lack of housing has made it possible for overcrowding and substandard living among the low income renters due to high rent burdens (Morse, 1992). This condition, consequently, forced people to be homeless and think of ways of surviving the condition. Although housing assistance has been implemented, the impact is significantly smaller as compared to those in need of the help. In other cases, housing assistance has had difficulties in offering assistance to all the people in their long waiting lists. It has been noted that a prolonged waiting lists and time for public housing will in turn translate to people remaining in inadequate shelters for a longer time (Koegel, Burnam & Baumohl, 1996).
Lack of affordable housing units is another factor attributed to cause homelessness among people (Morse, 1992). Families with low income struggle to maintain their housing. In case of an accident, a disability or a serious illness which require a greater financial attention, it turns out to be an impending danger. It can start a direct downward spiral into homelessness through factors, including los...