In your opinion, what are the causes of homelessness and how can it be eliminated?
Context: I was attending the APHA conference in Philadelphia (USA) in the city's biggest Convention Center but right in front of the Convention Center, in the covered street, dozens of homeless people were taking shelter, shivering in the cold weather. "Why this much inequality, or inequity?" I asked myself. All homeless were humans like the conference attendees, staying in the comfortable hotel rooms, enjoying the discourse on eliminating health disparities right across the glass wall. Why these two drastically different faces of humanity? Who is responsible? How can it be addressed? I kept asking myself.
Every part of the country homelessness is signal to poverty .Government aid to the institute & also thru there political program cover the minimum requirement of the needy . Philanthropist institute ,charitable programming plan & donation offer the relief to such people where by they may get the home ,medical facilities , education to such poor people .
This is my personal opinion
The primary cause of homelessness in any country is poverty. Other causes include poor government policy, environmental disaster, war, drugs and family conflict. In all, government has a major role to play in eradicating homelessness. This can be done by putting up a friendly housing program to entice private sectors and individual citizen. A good land use policy and good land layout will also go a long way in reducing homelessness.
@ Gulzar
the top four causes of homelessness among unaccompanied individuals were (1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, (4) mental illness and the lack of needed services, and (5) substance abuse and the lack of needed services.
Prevention – Stopping people from becoming homeless in the first place. Emergency Response – Providing emergency supports like shelter, food and day programs, while someone is homeless. Housing, Accommodation, and Supports – The provision of housing and ongoing supports as a means of moving people out of homelessness.
https://www.homelesshub.ca/solutions/prevention
I support to Segun Michael Abegunde 's comment . In addition to that it is a great
prblem of economical modelling research thru out the world .
Enjoying decent and adequate housing is a universal right. Thus, for example, in the 1978 Constitution of my country, in Title I (On fundamental rights and duties), in its Third Chapter (On the guiding principles of social and economic policy), in Article 47, it includes : "All Spaniards have the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing. Public authorities shall promote the necessary conditions and establish the relevant rules to enforce this right, regulating the use of land in accordance with the general interest to avoid speculation. ". This universal right is expressly recognized, as well as the obligation of public authorities to promote that this right be effective and the fight against land speculation is established. Simply comply with this constitutional mandate!
The causes of homelessness include individual and relational factors, broader population-based structural factors, and the failure of many public institutions to protect people from homelessness. This suggests that homelessness prevention must not only include interventions targeted at individuals, but broader structural reforms directed at addressing the drivers of homelessness. That not only communities but all orders of government, and most departments within have a responsibility to contribute to the prevention of homelessness is in keeping with a human rights perspective.
https://www.homelesshub.ca/solutions/prevention
Perhaps, this framework could be useful. The risk of homelessness or relative poverty is strictly linked to the equilibrium formed between three major life domains, the equilibrium of the three “ws”:
- work, job placement, job stability, terms of contract, security and level of income afforded;
- well-being and social support, health conditions and well-being of individuals, informal support systems – family, friends and neighbours – resilience is the main capital each individual should rely on. A lack of family and weakness of informal family support networks constitute the most significant factors in the stabilization of temporary states of poverty, implying the strong likelihood that individuals will not be able to change their condition;
- welfare, the extent of welfare assistance, the ability to protect the individual against a series of risks and represent an opportunity for social growth and integration.
All life domains are capable of partially compensating for or accentuating the hardships of a given condition. A crisis in any of these domains does not necessarily result in the onset of poverty: likewise, stability in any one of the above domains will frequently not suffice to guarantee satisfactory life conditions.
له العديد من الأسباب منها عدم استقرار طبيعة الظروف النفسية والاجتماعية والبيئية والاقتصادية وغيرها ومن وسائل توفير تلك الظروف السابقة الذكر
Poverty due to loss of work or inability to work
Difficult access to health care
Misconduct by the government or influential people
Wars or armed conflicts
natural disasters
Mental illness, without adequate health care.
Disability, especially when there is no adequate health care
Homelessness is often attributed to personal failures of homeless but I think structural factors setting people up for unemployment, inability to pay rent or mortgage, stress, mental health issues, and drug addiction. Sadanand Pandey
has nailed it.
causes :
1-Family disintegration in various forms, including abandonment, divorce, death or travel of a parent.
2-Poor living conditions and high unemployment. There are whole families living without a breadwinner, pushing their children to the streets for work, begging, etc.
solutions :
1-Establish educational and rehabilitation institutions for displaced children.
2-The creation of speedy school dropout laws, which is an important step in the problem of homelessness.
3-Establishing bodies dealing with family and social problems to reduce the number of separated families.
The causes of homelessness are poverty, unemployment, wars, disasters, corruption, loss of breadwinner, divorce, drugs, earthquakes, fires and other factors.
The treatment is the study of poverty cases individually and collectively and then the therapist eliminated the cause of poverty
My greetings
WE in the US did not see ubiquitous homelessness when we had a policy of providing public housing. This was discontinued under Nixon and REagan. We should be calling homeless camps Reaganvilles, the way they called them Hoovervilles during the 1930s depression. Now public housing is developed thru non-profits, and there will never be enough. Time to tax the rich enough to improve the lot of the poor.
Dear Collogue it is very important discussion on the part of society. Make a policy and list out first provide them a suitable job then implement the policy in a possible way how to provide the same
I think it is not easy job and need further research at grassroot levels
homelessness is not a homogeneous condition. As we do with poverty as a whole, a distinction based on the time is necessary. In many cases, it is a temporary condition and it can be solved with housing, welfare economic benefits or work solutions. In other cases it is persistent, lasts for years, mainly caused by serious addictions or mental illnesses and the solutions refer primarily to the health system with the collaboration of the local care system
Dear Gulzar Shah ,
This is something very challenging work to prevent it but definitely requires a tailored approach to each cases.
A good percentage of homeless people have low IQ, do not have family support and probally were abused during their early childhood.
Segun Michael Abegunde poverty is not necessarily the main cause, I mean there might be a rich country with a lot of resources but either corruption or mismanagement has lead to the emergence of a very rich people on the expense of the homeless we're talking about.
In our countries homelessness is often due to mental disorders and addictions that make it difficult to survive in a normal way in the society. Also lack of knowledge how to apply for help (when you have no permanent address) is a cause.
Homelessness is due to the lack of public support for people who are unable to care for themselves, and those who are unable to afford housing although working. It shows the uncaring values of our society. No public housing. Some homelessness,, in California is due to the Petris act, giving civil rights to the mentally ill. So now it is very difficult to legally get support for those unable to care for themselves. Even family cannot act to provide this care.
In many cases, homelessness is a temporary condition and it can be solved with housing, work solutions trying to solve complex procedures for accessing welfare benefits. In other cases, it is persistent, mainly caused by serious addictions or mental illnesses and the solutions refer primarily to the health system with the collaboration of the third sector and local care system
In developing countries, this problem persist due to inadequate resources to take care of them. If they are in employed or engaged in work they may not feel homeless. Poverty from childhood, education etc are some of the factors. complete eradication is not possible. Its up to central or state gov policies to help. Rendering themselves into self service may help to reduce this condition
There are many causes that make a person homeless and that does not mean they have fewer rights than other people. Poverty, unemployment, domestic violence are some of them. It can be eliminated with well-executed and coordinated social policies.
I believe that Margot's comment best captures the essence of homelessness as a housing policy problem. If you compare nations that have similar GDPs and histories (ex. Finland vs Canada vs U.S.) yet varying housing policy you will see vastly different rates of homelessness. Finland has excelled because unlike almost all other developed nations, they never stopped developing new social/public/government housing. This is the gap facing most developed nations yet few are building more of this, preferring instead to do public-private partnered 'affordable' housing that is usually just below market rents (and therefore not particularly affordable for those in greatest need).
Gulzar, a whole range of factors account for or could be used to study and explain the homelessness problem across cities, towns and villages globally. It is not only a developed economies' problem; it is also a developing economies' problem especially in nations where the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, where capitalism or other forms of economic systems have not worked for the benefit of the many, where health systems have been under-invested over decades of neglect, where a growing political elite are pandering to the interests of the few and leaning towards political dispensations whose interests are not those of the marginalised and underprivileged. Interesting.
In many parties of the world strategies to prevent and reduce homelessness are increasingly less effective and the struggle for stable housing, financial stability, employment opportunities, fair wages, access to health care are growing. As it happens for the environment, these trends are not irreversible, they can certainly be changed but, they require a large-scale collective commitment. Unlike environmental problems, they can also be effectively addressed by a single government. Effective strategy is focused on the equilibrium formed between three major life domains, the equilibrium of the three "ws":
- work, job placement, job stability, terms of contract, security and level of income afforded;
- well-being and social support, health conditions and well-being of individuals, informal support systems - family, friends and neighbors - resilience is the main capital each individual should rely on;
- welfare, extent of welfare assistance, ability to protect the individual against a series of risks and represent an opportunity for social growth and integration.
A crisis in any of these domains does not necessarily result in the onset of poverty: likewise, stability in any one of the above domains will frequently not suffice to guarantee satisfactory life conditions.
How Can the U.S. End Homelessness?
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/end-homelessness-us/479115/
Poverty can be seen as a cause and Federal housing assistance can be seen as a way of eliminating it
There are many different welfare responses. People experiencing homelessness are a heterogeneous social group, characterised by very different life trajectories, divergent lengths of deprivation, as well as variations in routes into and out of poverty. People experiencing homelessness may remain in the same condition for many years or may leave it after a few months. Each group need a target approach.
A problem in the US is the division of services into separate bureaucracies. We need help offered to the whole human, not addiction, mental health, poverty, unemployment, etc. all separate bureaucracies. There must be a model for this somewhere.
Poverty is a very key causative factor of homelessness. To eradicate homelessness you have to eradicate poverty
We had very few homeless people before the presidency of Ronald Reagan who shut down mental hospitals and cut off public housing. He threw the mentally ill on to the streets and made no public provision for housing the poor, and we see the results today.
The causes of homelessness are different and there are different forms of poverty. In my opinion , it is critical observe poverty and housing deprivation not as a state but as a dynamic process with significant variations in intensity across time. This can evolve not only into a deep social drift for an individual or household, but may also include frequent fluctuations and exits from poverty and housing exclusion. Apply a dynamic approach is very useful to distinguish and to design and implement effective welfare services.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354849874_Consoli_and_Meo_2021_Homelessness_in_Italia_Biografie_Territori_Politiche_Milano_FrancoAngeli_pp_253_32
The causes of homelessness are economic deprivation, recklessness on the side of the youths, and Natural disasters.