The homeless problem costs society millions of dollars, predominantly through medical bills. Society assumes homelessness is normally distributed. However, that is not the case. Homelessness follows a power-law distribution, meaning the problem is not concentrated in the middle but rather at one extreme. This distribution pattern is also evident in police violence allegations. The power-law distribution of homelessness is created by the time people spend in the shelter system. People may spend a few days in a shelter or stay for a short period of time and return occasionally, who are known as episodic users. But the distribution and problem is centered around the chronically homeless, who cost the system the most money and generate costly medical …show more content…
The underlying argument is that it costs less to solve the homeless problem than it does to manage or ignore it. Society needs to stop funding programs that continually provide services for all the homeless and direct the money towards ending the problem by renouncing the current policies and target the chronically homeless. Philip Mangano, the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, advocates for renting apartments for the homeless. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless provides apartments to the chronically homeless for free as long as they follow the …show more content…
The solution targets the chronically homeless, who cost the health-care and social service systems the most money. The program of providing apartments to the chronically homeless is selective due to limited money, but requirements must be met to be eligible. The program creates dependency under supervision to get people back on their feet. Gladwell assesses the problem by conducting marginal analysis to weigh the cost and benefits. The benefit of spending less money to solve the problem outweighs the opportunity cost of serving all the homeless with a shelters and soup kitchens. In other words, it costs less to solve the problem than manage it. It is efficient to spend a lot of money on a few people than it is to spend a little money on a lot of people. The huge part of the decision should be bottom-lined oriented, but it should also be based on the outcomes of the solution. If the program betters individuals to be productive citizens it would benefit the economy and society in the long
The purpose of their study was to establish a better understanding of the characteristics of the mentally-ill homeless adults. Upon the collection of data through a review of the archived shelter medical records of the 74 subjects included in the study, the researchers aggregated and analyzed the data, calculating the medication adherence rates for the previous 30days. Mental illness and substance use disorders in the study were identified in 67.6 percent and 44.6 percent of the participants respectively. These findings prompted the acknowledgement that homeless individuals suffering from mental illness that specialized transitional shelters serve constitutes of population whose psychiatric, social and mental needs are complex. Thus, the characteristics of homeless populations are complicated by the numerous needs that need systematic assessment and thoughtful addressing to enhance the likelihood of successful outcomes (Viron, Bello, Freudenreich, & Shtasel, 2014).
Atlantic Times staff writer, Alana Semuels, gives her opinion on how America can reduce the number of homeless famlies in her article “The Best Way to End Homelessness”. According to Alana Semuels, America has the largest number of homeless women and children in the industrial world. (Cite) She mentions how the government has attempted to solve homelessness by initiating many different studies and programs. " The Best Way to End Homelessness " lists initiatives such as housing choice vouchers, temporary rental assistance, time limited housing, or interventions.
The topic of interest that will be presented in this paper will be that of Homelessness. Homelessness is a worldwide issue that affects the lives of many people. Although it is mostly found to be present in Third World countries, many citizens across the United States face it and are suffering from it as well. From families to veterans and even children Homelessness can happen to anyone as a result of many different events/for many different reasons. Through this topic we will be able to examine the McKinney Vento Act of 1987 and how it affects Homelessness in the U.S..
Previous studies have shown that homeless individuals are frequent emergency room (ER) users and this leads to high health care costs (Thakarar, et al., 2015). Several clinical trials have shown that interventions such as intensive case management programs, assertive community treatment teams, or supportive housing can reduce frequent ER visits and hospital costs. (Thakarar, et al., 2015). The cost of providing case management needs to be weighed against the value of
As time goes on, the rate of homelessness rises as the population rises. Homelessness then was mostly caused by a family’s history of being homeless, drug abuse, mental disorders, and tyrannical leaders forcing his people into poverty. In modern times, several organizations are now trying to end homelessness by building cheaper housing projects more affordable to the poor and homeless shelters; these projects usually cost a fair amount of money.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Million- Dollar Murray” he takes on the plight of chronic homelessness. He uses Murry Barr as an example of how much money is spent on those living in chronic homelessness. Murry Barr had the larges medical bill in the entire state of Nevada; “It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murry.” Reported officer O’Bryan. The reason for this claimed is that it might be more cost affective to take the homeless off the street and give them a home.
The article “The State of Homelessness in America” provides
Homelessness is a complex social issue with a variety of economic and social factors such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, physical and mental health, addictions, and community/family breakdowns. Homelessness has increased its number by at least a 1% since last year, reached nearly 554,000 people who are living in harsh conditions. The government and its policies/bans only harm the homeless instead of being beneficial to them. With the “City wide bans on camping in public have increased [along with the]… city wide bans on sleeping in public…, sitting or lying down in particular places… [and,] bands on sleeping in vehicles have [all] increased”(Wiltz).
Homelessness is a product of social inequalities. Karl Marx stated that the capitalist society produces two prominent classes which are in conflict with each other, bourgeoisie and proletariats. The bourgeoisie are the oppressors who own the means of production and the proletariats are the oppressed workers who labor for the bourgeoisie. Capitalism is distinguished not by privilege but instead by individuality of property ownership and that those who create the conditions of the oppressed group express this power in the form of laws that function to serve the bourgeoisie’s interests (Marx, 2004, p.129).
Should We Help The Homeless? As once written by Andrew Carnegie, “The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship” (Carnegie) Homelessness has been around for centuries, just like the debate over Americans helping the homeless or letting them fend for themselves. There are many aspects must which should be considered in the argument of whether we, the American people and higher class, should help them or not; such as the ethical values of the situation from both the poor and those involved in helping, the cultural and social causes, and effects on their lives.
Homelessness is one the most ignored problems in the United States with citizen and politician. Homeless people are walked by and ignored. Nobody ever thinks that they will be homeless. Due to the economy, people live paycheck to paycheck making house payments very difficult. Most people will want to believe most homeless people are drug addicts or alcoholics, but most people will be surprise to know that it is no all true.
In the United States homelessness has been a substantial problem for decades. The reason for homelessness is greatly debated especially
Homelessness is not a new issue as it has already existed for many years ago and the existence of homeless people is often being ignored. The reasons why they end up sleeping on the streets is largely because of individual factors (Main, 1998), which is contributed by structural factors (Cyndy Baskina, 2007). It is unsure whether homeless people choose to end their lives in this way or are among the victims of situations? Many researchers contribute homelessness to structural factors but advocates of human rights debunk this and highlights that the main reason for homelessness is due to mostly individual
The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S.
Goodman 4 Richard Goodman English Comp II S. Cravens 5 March 2018 Ending Homelessness Homelessness is everywhere and it’s a growing problem in America. There are many reasons in which become homeless, and many of us ask ourselves should we help the homeless. We must remember that they are people too, and some time or another in life we all need help, even then homeless. In order to end or prevent homelessness, there are a number of things we must fix, the main thing being the affordable housing.