Homelessness
During the past decade, most Americans seemed to believe that homelessness was a new phenomenon caused by the combination of regressive governmental policies and the recession of the early 1980s. The truth is that homelessness is not new, nor are our efforts to respond to it substantially different from those of our forebears. Throughout history, society has been confronted by the problem of homelessness through, beggars, the dependent poor, the unemployed, and the unemployable. Americans have viewed them alternatively as a threat to their society and its strong work ethic, for they are heroic individuals on the path of the American dream. The shameful derelicts of skid row, and today's new homeless are viewed as an embarrassment, and as a society we try to force ourselves to not acknowledge that they exist. Only in the recent years has the public been willing to admit that social isolation, alcoholism, drug abuse, and mental illness were closely associated with homelessness, and from time to time reformers have designed programs intended to address these problems, some punitive, some generous. Today, fearful of blaming the victim, most people prefer to deny these conditions and view homelessness as a single p
Over the past twenty years, the supply of housing available to low income people has declined. In 1970 there were twice as many low cost units available as there were low income households. By 1983 this number had been reversed there were two households competing for every available unit. In the past twenty years, thousands of affordable units have been lost to abandonment, urban renewal, gentrification, arson and condominium and cooperative conversion. The result is that the cost of housing has risen, but unfortunately the earnings of low income people have not kept pace. While many localities have an adequate supply of housing, this housing is often beyond the economic reach of low income people. In the past, gaps in the supply of affordable housing were filled by either the federal government or the private sector, but their activity is no longer enough to make up the shortfall. One approach to solving the housing side of the equation is to create enough affordable housing to meet the demand. This can be done by increasing the capacity of nonprofits and community development corporations to develop such housing; by obtaining more public support for affordable housing; by creating more incentives for private sector involvement. When it comes down to it the number one issue for helping the homeless is to increase the amount of funding and aid for them. Homelessness remains to be a growing problem in the United States, because we refuse to acknowledge the fact they need more funding. It's a shame that the majority of society looks the other away when issues o
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1067
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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