Homelessness in America free essay sample

Later, the industrial revolution caused more homelessness, industrial accidents left many former hard-working families with a dead provider, or with severe disabilities, and then the economy entered a recession in the same time period (Street News Service, 2010). Wars always left a large number of veterans homeless. Later, in 1927, there was an astronomical flood along the Mississippi River, across multiple state, leaving about 1. 3 million people without a home (Street News Service, 2010). Natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the Asian tsunami in 2004, and the earthquake early this year in Japan are still a major cause of homelessness. One of the first times the federal government stepped in to help deal with homelessness was during the Great Depression, and did just this when they instituted the Federal Transient Service, which funded work training programs, shelters, health centers, housing, and work camps from 1933 to 1936 (Street News Service, 2010). This program was shut down in 1936 when the Roosevelt administration decided to fund Social Security (Street News Service, 2010). Later, as the National Coalition for the Homeless reports, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is one of the only major federal legislation in response to homelessness, and it’s been amended four times since its original introduction (National Coalition for the Homeless, McKinney-Vento Act, 2006). The McKinney-Vento Act has nine different titles, each with various programs and goals, such as providing a specific definition of homelessness, authorizing various programs, and delegating what government agency will be in charge of running said programs (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). This act has been amended four times since being signed into law in 1987, in 1988, 1990, 1992, and 1994. The amendments in 1988 were relatively minor, and added a few additional places where funds from this act could be distributed (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). In 1990, the amendments changed far more of the act than with previous amendments, and many new programs were created, including Shelter Plus Care program (providing assistance to those with disabilities and addictions), and the Community Mental Health Services was amended and given a new name, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). The amendments in 1992 both expanded and modified Title IV, which included several programs that were overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to include the creation of â€Å"safe havens†, which are very low-cost shelters available to people who do not wish to utilize other services, and the Rural Homeless Housing Assistance grant program (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). The most recent amendments to the McKinney-Vento Act took place in 1994, and these amendments focused on Education of the Homeless Children and Youth program, and the Surplus Property program (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). These amendments allowed local educational administrators a more flexible way to use their funding, and empowered homeless parents to have a voice when it came to their child’s education and placement (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). The McKinney-Vento Act is not something that is scheduled to end, but must be re-authorized every year when the budget is analyzed (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006). Homelessness is a devastating problem that can have a multitude of causes. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, these reasons can include (but are not limited to) mortgage foreclosure, poverty, eroding work opportunities, declines in the availability of public assistance, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, and a lack of affordable health care (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). More families than ever are just one disaster away from homelessness. According to a personal interview dated 11/22/2010 with Linore Lounsbury, director of the Genesis House homeless shelter in Olean, more people than ever are experiencing homelessness for the first time, people who are normal, hard-working people who have experience a devastating job loss or health problem that wouldn’t have led to homelessness before the economy started to slip. The United States Code Title 42, Chapter 199, officially defines homelessness as †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, or adequate nighttime residence; and individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is – A. supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill); B. an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or C. a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings† (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, n. d. ). One of the problems for defining homelessness was a lack of a consistent definition between states and counties, though one has finally been provided. Another is how exactly to count how many homeless people there are. Unfortunately, homelessness can be a very difficult problem to track. Not only is there a stigma related to being homeless, but many have cognitive disabilities that interfere with them helping themselves, and many also would rather not be located. Homelessness levels are essentially impossible to track, especially on a grand scale with any accuracy, as both the definition of homelessness and the number of people without shelter in a given time frame varies greatly. In addition, there’s no way to know exactly where homeless people will seek shelter. We do, however, have ways of making a very educated guess. Jodi Fuller, the Chief Operating Officer of Developmental and the Director of the Transitions Department for Cattaraugus Community Action, and her staff participate in a Point in Time study annually, which attempts to estimate the number of homeless people in a given county over the course of 24 hours in January by speaking to various agencies regarding the number of homeless people they are currently helping, and by driving around to locations where homeless people are known to seek refuge (Fuller, 2010). According to this point in time study, Community Action discovered 120 homeless people in Cattaraugus County, 67 of which were adults, and 53 were under the age of 18, and they were grouped into 29 families and 37 adults who were alone (Fuller, 2010). This means that of the total population of 81,534 people in Cattaraugus County, 0. 1% were homeless, but this is not an entirely accurate number, as any attempt to locate and account for homeless people is truly just an educated guess (Fuller, 2010). Per Maggie McCarthy’s Congressional Research Services Report for Congress titled Homelessness: Recent Statistics, Targeted Federal Programs, and Recent Legislation, the closest estimate of homeless people in the United States in 2005 between 600,000 and 2. 5 million people (McCarthy, 2005). The average homeless population was estimated by the Report for Congress to be 49% African-American, 35% white, 13% Hispanic, 2% Native American and 1% Asian (McCarthy, 2005). Policies Regarding Homelessness in The United States There are many legislative policies regarding homelessness at the federal level. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, recent legislation includes programs like Section 8 voucher funding, Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs, Homeless Vets Legislation, McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance grants, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the budget passed by congress in April of 2011 included a renewal for $35 million for Section 811, which provides a rent voucher for low-income households (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). The vouchers given out to over two million participating households, and this program is the largest form of assistance toward housing for low-income families and individuals (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). The National Alliance to End Homelessness states that the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, which is administered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families) runs several programs to help support families and protect youth including The Basic Center Program, which assists runaway/homeless youth with the immediate needs related to being homeless, and supports families, The Transitional Living Program (which provides a place for homeless youths ages 16-21 to stay for up to 18 months), and the Street Outreach Program, which helps different agencies fund outreach programs that help move youths off the streets (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Homeless Vets Legislation allocates $50 million which allows for approximately 7,700 vouchers to provide shelter for homeless veterans through Housing and Urban Development- Veterans Af fairs Supportive Housing (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). Another bit of legislation called the Helping Our Homeless Veterans Act of 2011 has been introduced to help better-serve veterans and allow programs to contract out for the most appropriate services for each situation, but no action has been taken on this bill yet (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). The Department of Veterans Affairs has a goal of ending homelessness amongst veterans within five years, but this still requires much more legislation to be enacted (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). Most recently in the McKinney-Vento Act, funding for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants has been increased to $1. 905 billion per year, with Congress mandating that $225 million of that be spent towards Emergency Solutions Grant (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants help to fund homeless services at several different levels: local, regional, and state, thus making a more effective use of federal grant money (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). According to The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (found at Serve Center, n. d. ) funds come from the federal government for educating homeless children and youths as long as the state education agency applies for the appropriate grants. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers homeless services such as case management, mental health services and counseling, mental health services, and health care which are also linked to housing services (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2011). The above pieces of federal legislation are not scheduled to end, they are voted on every year when a new federal budget it passed. New York State Office of Alcoholism amp; Substance Abuse Services offers a variety of services for the homeless, including using federal grant money to create free-standing Sobering-Up stations in several large cities from homeless people who were inebriated in public as early as 1978, developing an alcoholism treatment clinic on the same site as a men’s homeless shelter and creating a long-term residential program for previously homeless people in 1981, and opening the first women and family homeless shelter in Manhattan in 1983 (New York State Office of Alcoholism amp; Substance Abuse Services, hereafter NYSOASAS, 2010). Works Cited Code of Ethics (English and Spanish). (n. d. ). National Association of Social Workers. Retrieved April 19, 2011, from http://www. naswdc. org/pubs/code/code. asp Federal Definition of Homelessness. (n. d. ). U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from portal. hud. gov/hudportal/HUD? src=/topics/homelessness/definition Legislative Updates. (n. d. ). National Alliance to End Homelessness. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www. endhomelessness. org/section/policy/legislative_updates McCarthy, M. (2005, May 31). Homelessness: Recent Statistics, Targeted Federal Programs, and Recent Legislation. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved April 23, 2011, from www. fas. org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30442. pdf McKinney-Vento Act. (n. d. ). National Coalition for the Homeless. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from www. nationalhomeless. org/publications/facts/McKinney. pdf Olivet, J. (2010, July 7). The History of Homelessness in America, 1640-Present Street News Service. Home Street News Service. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://www. streetnewsservice. org/news/2010/july/feed-240/the-history-of-homelessness-in-america,-1640-present-. aspx The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. (n. d. ). Serve Center. Retrieved April 5, 2011, from center. serve. org/nche/downloads/mv_full_text. pdf The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n. d. ). United Nations. Retrieved April 18, 2011, from http://www. un. org/en/documents/udhr/index. shtml Why Are People Homeless?. (n. d. ). National Coalition for the Homeless. Retrieved April 23, 2011, from http://www. nationalhomeless. org [ return to top ]