Description:
We go through our through cities center and we see the Homeless and the working poor sleeping or socializing in the parks or panhandling on the streets and we lump them all together in our minds eye as being Homeless.
Do we really know who they are, where they came from. The word Homeless has come to be a convenient catch phrase for a group of people that allows us to see them in a pigeon hole without actually knowing who they are or where they are from. We have de-personalized them to the point that we do not know who they are.
No one really knows how many Homeless there really are. HUD has mandated that each state provide a census of their Homeless population but they did not provide the means to do it. So each states efforts are a lackluster and none to accurate count. So the numbers that you see in publications and in the media are generally extrapolations based on what is considered known numbers.
Homeless Male Veterans
A third of the Homeless men in the US are veterans to look at it another way one out of three Homeless males are veterans and as many as 200,000 go to sleep at night with no place to call home.
Homeless Female Veterans
The risk of Homelessness is two to four times as much for female veterans as for other women. About 8000 women veterans lack permanent shelter and those numbers will increase as more of them return from war.
Right now, the number of Homeless male and female Vietnam era veterans is greater than the number of service persons who died during that war. Atlthough many Homeless veterans served in combat in Vietnam and suffer from PTSD, at this time, epidemiologic studies do not suggest that there is a causal connection between military service, service in Vietnam, or exposure to combat and homelessness among veterans. Family background, access to support from family and friends, and various personal characteristics (rather than military service) seem to be the stronger indicators of risk of Homelessness.
Homeless Alcoholics and drug addicts
.In their book, A Nation In Denial, Alice Baum and Donald Burnes shatter many of the myths surrounding the root causes of Homelessness, which have little to do with the economy, governmental social policies, lack of affordable housing, and so forth. According to their research at least 65-85% of all homeless adults suffer from chronic alcoholism and drug addiction. Forty to fifty percent of these individuals are "dually diagnosed" - suffering from addiction to alcohol and/or drugs, as well.
Homeless Mentally Ill
Approximately 20 - 25% of the single adult Homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (National Resource and Training Center onHomelessness and Mental Illness, 2003). While 22% of the American population suffers from a mental illness, a small percentage of the 44 million people who have a serious mental illness are Homeless at any given point in time (National Institute of Mental Health, 2005). a new wave of deinstitutionalization and the denial of services or premature and unplanned discharge brought about by managed care arrangements may be contributing to the continued presence of seriously mentally ill persons within the homeless population.
Homelessness and Poverty
Poverty and Homelessness are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. Being poor means being an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.
I don't have access to numbers on number of poverty stricken people that are Homeless which is ok because I have already stated that the numbers are inaccurate because there has not been any real effort to get a good count.
Homeless Children
There are at least 1.35 million children that are Homeless every year Homeless children get sick twice and hungry twice as often than other children. They also have many more mental health problems than other children. The vast majority of Homeless children and youth live in shelters, doubled up with friends or relatives, or in situations such as motels and campgrounds.
Homeless Families with Children
One of the fastest growing segments of the Homeless population is families with children. A 2005 study revealed that of the counted homeless population there were 98,452 Homeless families, making up 41% of the entire Homeless population. Recent evidence confirms that homelessness among families is increasing. Requests for assisted
housing by low-income families and individuals increased in 86 percent of the cities during the past year. The same study found the requests increased by an average of 5% in 2005 (U.S.Conference of Mayors, 2005). While the average number of emergency shelter beds for homeless families with children increased by 8% in 2005, an average of 32% of requests for shelter by homeless families were denied in 2005 due to lack of resources.
Homeless Drop Outs
There are also the Homeless individuals that want to not have responsibility for the life style that we in the mainstream maintain. They don't want to pay utility bills, rent or be responsible for any of the trappings of mainstream civilization. They prefer to be free to come and go at will and to be only responsible for the bare necessities of their well being. Many of them are not addicts or mentally ill. They just got tired of the rat race that we compete in and dropped out. Sometimes I look at the individuals in this group and realize that they are not fraught with the insecurities, neuroses, migraines and pressures that our civilization is air to. I wonder sometimes if I adopted their ethos would I be less bent than I am.
I have placed a face on the Homeless now they are more than just a lump of people in a pigeon hole, now you can see the scope and the depth of this despicable condition. I have brought the condition a little closer to home for you. There also may be other sub groups that I did not mention possible some that I am not aware of even after all my years working in the field of Homelessness.
Now when you see the Homeless on the streets I want you to see them as individuals with their on subset of problems and reasons for being where they are at. Please be compassionate and kind when you come in contact with them. We are part of the problem we can also be part of the solution.
