Homeless Essay, Research Paper
As the world population grows exponentially, people are finding it harder to maintain a job and a place to live. Many must face the harsh reality of having to live on the streets. Others are fortunate enough to find shelter with family or friends. However, society is being forced to figure out what to do with these homeless people. Some believe it is society’s problem to take care of these homeless people. Others believe they are responsible for their situation and should be forced to take care on their own.
In America today, many of these people had no choice but to become homeless. Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing had lead people to live on the streets. Many of the homeless are women that have become divorced or have left home because of physical abuse. These women have no education because they have not been given the chance to go and get the education that it takes nowadays to get the job, so they are forced to live on the streets. They have no family to help them and they are left with no other choice. People with mental illnesses also become homeless quite often. These people are incapable of handling the stress of living on their own. These people get kicked out of their homes and are to ashamed to go to their families because of their illness, so we see them on the streets struggling to stay warm. Teenage mothers are also forced to live on the streets because their families will not help them; the fathers are not there and that forces them to live on the streets. As a result, they must resort to prostitution to pay for the food that their young ones need to stay alive. There are many other people that become homeless for many different reasons. Some of these people cannot help becoming homeless. Some of these people are the illegal immigrants who come here from other places to get a better life but end up not having enough money to make it in this hard world that we live in. Teenage runaways have different reasons for leaving home but all have the same reason for becoming homeless. They simply just do not have enough money. Others are drug and alcohol abusers and disabled people. With this list of people there must be some way that we can help these people.
There have been many programs that have been available to help these homeless, but only have only succeeded in the short run and have failed in the long run. For instance, Social Security was adopted and is still going. It is where you pay into it while you work and when you for some reason become unable to work you will have this money. There are also AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and Welfare, which give federal money to homeless and poor and helps them get back on their feet. But these programs seem more to help the poor with home and not the poor without homes. We must think of ways to help the poor without homes – the homeless.
Homelessness is a big problem America today, but there are very few programs set up to help them. We all need to work together to help those less fortunate because you would want someone to help you if you were in that position, so we should do our best to help them.