Domestic Violence and Homelessness

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While exploring Jenck’s theories regarding what the causes of homelessness are and discussing how relevant or accurate his claims are today, I came across several statistics relating to domestic violence.

A report from 2009 comprised by the National Coalition for the Homeless elucidates that one out every four women will experience domestic violence at some point in her life. This shocking statistic directly correlates with homelessness rates, because many women are forced to flee their homes to avoid further violence from partners. Often these women make the decision to be homeless in order to remove their children from the perilous and volatile home situations. In fact, in 2008, 28% of families reported that they were homeless as a result of domestic violence (U.S Conference of Mayors, 2008) and 39% of cities of cities cited domestic abuse as being the primary reason for homelessness in their area (U.S Conference of Mayors, 2007).

These numbers have only increased since the reports were made. Sadly, funds allotted to aid homelessness have not increased and so many women are faced with the horrible decision as to whether they are better off risking more violence by remaining at home with an abusive husband or boyfriend or relinquishing their homes and taking to the streets. The women who choose to leave their homes are often left with almost no resources and as a result are incapable of helping themselves out of their dire situations. This becomes even more difficult when children are present. As we have studied in class, attending school and being a successful student and learner is nearly impossible when your family and home life is unstable and inconsistent.

Despite all of this blatant evidence that homeless victims of domestic violence desperately need help, on any given day, approximately 1,800 people can not be provided with emergency shelter and 1,500 people could not be given any transitional shelter either (National Network to End Domestic Violence.) It is obvious that more needs to be done to offer relief to the courageous women who have left violent situations and need a hand getting back on their feet and rebuilding their lives.

Interview With a Homeless Woman and Victim of Domestic Violence

Causes of Homelessness

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There are many causes of homelessness throughout the world. Some causes may have been sudden and other were a series of events that led to homelessness. Time after time we hear and are brain washed to believe that homeless people are homeless because they chose to mess up in life or simply are low-lifes that are lazy. All those nasty stereotypes are spread from generation to generation making homeless people have a bad representation to who they are and how they got to be on the streets. Homelessness is an issue that many choose to ignore and be ignorant about. After reading  Reeve Vanneman’sonline summary of Christopher Jencks’ “The Homeless,” i was able to understand some of the earliest causes of homelessness.

As time passes new causes have began to appear. Many of the causes mentioned by Christopher Jencks are still very common. The assignment given to us brought me to some really interesting findings. Some of my findings came to a surprise although many , after doing the assignment, were  obvious causes of homelessness. One of the most obvious ones was natural disasters, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and many others can cause many to become homeless. I think it is also important as mentioned in class, to understand that there are causes that make you become homeless instantly and then there are little factors that add up and can lead to one becoming homeless. One of the ones that is a minor cause/factor is roommates. I was initially taken back because i currently have roommates. It made sense after reading about roommates as a cause of homeless because at any point in time they can decide to move out and i am then left to try to gather the money for my apartment and try to find new roommates.
Every individual homeless has a story to how they became homeless. Although many individuals think homeless is or should be blamed on the individual themself who is currently on the street they need to research different causes. The best way to open up the eyes of society is by educating them about this.

 

Giving the shirt off your back

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Over the past week, our class explored many various statistics and information concerning homelessness. As those numbers put at our heart strings, they can only tell us so much. Personal accounts and stories are the only way that a message can truly be conveyed. Additionally, the statistics offer no solutions to the problems. After our class discussion, I realized there is no true way to end homelessness. Programs, initiatives, and support can only do so much; they cannot simply make the problem vanish into thin air. It is similar to giving food to a wandering cat and it develops the pattern of coming back for more and not learning from its experience.

This morning I was listening to 97.1 KGGI FM and they have a segment called “Random Acts of Kindness.” One listener called in and told the story of how he started donating to the homeless. He said he met a homeless person who had worn the same shirt for three months. One day when he came home, he used his own t-shirt to wipe the sweat off his brow and proceeded to throw his shirt away. At this moment, he realized how wasteful he has been and decided to change for the better. Pulling his friends in the cause, they were able to give shirts to everyone in need within their town.  It is nice stories like this that convey the passion necessary to start instilling this behavior in children from the start so giving to those in need is not abnormal or difficult to accomplish.

Homeless College Students

About being poor, Homelessness, News link, People, Poverty

This article by Blake Ellis from CNN Money describes the issue of being homeless in college. I had never really given thought to homeless college students before reading this article. I suppose I had the assumption that if you could afford to go to college, you couldn’t be homeless. But after reading this article, I realize that this is assumption is just as flawed as the rest. I was shocked that there were 58,158 (reported) homeless college applicants in the 2012-2013 school year. The true number is probably even higher than this, since people often don’t consider themselves homeless if they are living in a car or in on friends’ couches. As Duffield says, “‘There’s an assumption that if you’re homeless, you’re so focused on basic needs like food and shelter that school isn’t a concern,’ said Duffield. ‘But for these youth, education is the answer — the jobs that are available don’t pay good wages if you don’t have a degree, so [education] is the only way out of their situation.'”

These students work harder than most others to get through school because they can barely even afford to pay the 15% (or more) of their tuition that financial aid doesn’t cover.
Yet, they can’t afford to stay on campus over breaks. I know that the University of Redlands charges students to stay on campus over winter break. This makes me wonder how many students can’t afford to stay here during the month long break and if any are technically homeless during that time. Though this is a fairly affluent university, there may be some students who have no home to return to during the breaks.

Causes of Homelessness

Causes of Homelessness, Uncategorized,

In the 1960’s Christopher Jencks presented his causes of homelessness in The Homeless. The causes discussed in his book included the closing of mental wards, the crack epidemic, marriage and jobs, as well as the decline in a variety of safety nets. Some new things to consider for today’s populations are the economic crash, the decline of the middle class, and the foreclosure crisis.  If surveyed, the majority of society may not include such causes. Many people tend to think homelessness is an individual circumstance. Through readings and class discussions, we are learning this is not the case. Each of these possible causes are all structural based sources.

Understanding the causes of homelessness if an important step to realizing the proper solutions to the issue. Many of these causes are structural and most of the solutions to these problems don’t take that into consideration. There are  many ‘band aid’ solutions, meaning that they will help the problem but they are not permanent solutions. Examples of this can include public aid/services. These band aids are important but they also allow for homelessness to continue as it is currently. There is little to no affordable housing or other more permanent solutions to the issue and the funding for ‘band aid’ programs continues to be cut year after year. What will happen to the homeless populations as funding continues to be cut and as more laws pass criminalizing the homeless? The current options for solutions are limited and do not seem to attack the structural part of the issue.

I think it’s important that when a community discusses homelessness they consider the structural causes rather than the individual causes. Such a gap in recognizing the true causes of homelessness can often result in more band aid type solutions. The permanent solutions won’t even be considered because many times the community fails to recognize the true issues.

To read a summary of Jenck’s The Homeless click here: http://www.vanneman.umd.edu/socy498/jencks.html

 

Tiny Houses for the Homeless

Causes of Homelessness, Homelessness, Organizations, Related topics, Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Poverty

In class during the past week, we began looking at the major and minor causes of homelessness today in comparison to what they have previously been. We found that decline in public assistance, mental illness, domestic violence, and lack of affordable housing were just a few of the main causes of homelessness today. While it was easy to find the top causes of homelessness and poverty, it was quite problematic to try to brainstorm strategies and solutions to alleviate these problems. It can become overwhelming because there are so many of these issues that choosing which to tackle first can be difficult.

While continuing my research on the different ways that non-profit organizations and individuals are working towards solving these wide array of problems, I came across a recent article titled Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On, the content of which is exactly what it sounds like. In several cities around the country, these villages of tiny, low-budget houses are being built to offer support to the homeless. These small communities offer safe places for the homeless to sleep, maintain hygiene, and form bonds with one another.

As for the costs of this effort, the article states that  “many of the building materials were donated, and all of the labor was done in a massive volunteer effort” (Lundahl 2014). In the article, the author discusses how even though the cost of each of these tiny houses can be around $10,000, the overall costs of these buildings is much lower than the alternative route of building apartment housing for these individuals. The cost-effectiveness of this plan is what is catching the eye of other city officials who are seeing the affordability and advantages to investing in these communities, which in the end will save them money.

After reading this article, I feel that this would be a good way to house the homeless and offer up a solution to the problem of the lack of affordable housing. Learning in our class that while the homeless population increases, the amount of low-income housing has actually decreased is very shocking and confusing. If there were more of these small communities of low-budget housing available in more cities, the effect would be dramatic. Clearly this is just one solution to one problem that the homeless are facing, but any efforts to push for these tiny houses would make an enormous impact of the lives of these homeless.

 

* http://truth-out.org/news/item/22050-tiny-houses-for-the-homeless-an-affordable-solution-catches-on

Money Issues

About being poor, Homelessness, Poverty

This past week we spent our time looking and researching statistics and percentages on the causes of homelessness. There are an incredible amount of things that can result in a person becoming homeless. But from looking at our graph we put up on the screen, it was clear that the number one cause of homelessness was from losing a job/financial struggles. I then decided to search a bit more research and see what I can find about this situation. One of the websites that I have found is a website that is dedicated to the homeless issue in Hillsborough County, Florida (found below). Here they talk about the variety of issues that cause homelessness, but focus mainly on the financial situation. They found from asking during their 2011 homeless count that nearly 50% of the homeless who answered were out there due to employment/financial reasons. This is huge because nearly a fourth to a half (ranging differently in other areas) are out on the street because they are not able to afford housing. On this website they put a chart up which displays the amount needed per hour to afford housing in their city. For a 0 bedroom apt it is $714 while for a 1 bedroom apt it is $793 respectively. To make enough to pay rent, the money earned an hour would have to be $13.73 for 0 bedroom apt. and $15.25 for 1 bedroom apt. Making minimum wage or even a little above, or not even having a job at all is a huge problem to trying to make enough to make rent. There needs to be a way where there can be more affordable housing available to all so people are not forced out to live on the streets.

http://www.homelessofhc.org/~homeless/index.php/get-educated-information-homelessness/causes-of-homelessness

Musical protest against homeless evictions in Fresno

Dumping, Harrassment, How we should treat each other, Music, News link

Reprinted from Teatro de la Tierra (http://teatrodelatierra.net):

Agustin Lira & Patricia Wells sing Lira’s song “Don’t Come to Fresno if You’re Homeless” with the students of their music project “Generaciones” at the November 16, 2012 Annual Fundraiser for the Community Alliance Newspaper and Pacifica Radio station KFCF @ the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno. This video is of the City of Fresno’s demolition of homeless encampments in August and September 2013 .The pictures are by Mike Rhodes and independent photographers/contributors to the newspaper.

Reactions and Solutions

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After realizing the intricate and interdependent nature of the causes of homelessness, we can start to see how the individual and structural causes start to reinforce each other.  With wages falling and the system failures of our time being exacerbated by an unequal system of disparity, what can be done?  I was looking at some different sites and read an article that posted a very similar story to one that Samantha had posted, but it was not in HP, it was in Nation of Change.  The article describes what we are actively becoming aware of and describes how Utah, a republican state, has reduced homelessness by 78% in the last eight years.   It is even proposed that homelessness is to be ended in Utah by 2015.  http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183

Another aspect of that article and of another video I saw recently is touching on this aspect of how to react, and it gives us a good test of how the public or figures are looking at and how they generally view homelessness and the stigmatic nature of this issue.  I’m talking about passing legislation such as what we saw in Santa Monica and many other cities that make homelessness either illegal, or the assisting of said homeless persons illegal.  This particular avenue of moving all homeless away and into camps is rather scary, and not something I am supportive of or would want to be part of as an American.  So with these two contrasting stories I hope to illustrate the various routes that can be taken, and the effectiveness of one over many others.

http://truthia.com/its-now-illegal-to-be-homeless/

How Utah Will Soon End Chronic Homelessness: A First Step?

Causes of Homelessness, Causes of Poverty, Homelessness, Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Poverty, Uncategorized

Our Data Exercise #3 assignment pushed my level of being overwhelmed to a new height. When we ended class on Thursday with thinking about ways to possibly end these causes, I had no idea where to start or even which one to choose. Therefore, I decided to focus this week’s blog on what others are doing to end these causes. Affordable housing was one of the most common causes that were seen from Jenck’s 1980s research and the class’ updated research.
In focusing on affordable housing, a 2011 article on The Huffington Post surfaced and discussed How Utah Will Soon End Chronic Homelessness. The state of Utah has had a 26 percent drop in homelessness since 2010 and credited it to its “Ten-Year Strategic Action Plan to End Chronic Homelessness”. According to this plan, Utah will reach its goal of eliminating chronic poverty by 2014 by implementing Housingworks programs. With the Housingworks programs, the state is giving the homeless access to their own apartments that tenants will pay 30 percent of their state-facilitated income for rent, so the housing isn’t freely given. The state will also provide job training and social services to assist in keeping a job and social life. Huffington Post Blogger Anna Bahr also reports that Utah’s homelessness is at a four year low, as of 2011.
It seems that this plan had been showing progress and would help with other causes of homelessness besides just affordable housing. Does this mean we cannot just focus on eliminating one cause at a time? That these causes of homelessness are too related? In further research to see how Utah’s plan has either been successful or unsuccessful, my research fell flat. But is Utah’s plan the first step to ending these causes?