Homelessness

Homelessness 1

Rebecca Walker

Homelessness

SOC331

Steven Ulrich

5/27/2013

Homelessness 2

Homelessness is a major problem facing many US cities today. With its many causes, homelessness is an extremely diverse problem that has proven difficult to remedy. Though some homeless people find themselves in unfortunate situations, others are homeless by choice. Those who choose homelessness do so either indirectly, by making decisions that result in negative consequences, or directly, by opting to be free of life’s responsibilities. This belief is not commonly found in print since society most often feels compassion and pity toward the homeless. Still, assistance is offered on a federal level, as well as on local levels. Although there are many charitable organizations, along with the government, that offer assistance to the homeless nationwide and in Pittsburg Pa, homelessness remains a prevalent problem mainly due to the fact that some of the homeless choose that lifestyle.

The Stewart B. McKinney Act, which provided assistance to protect and improve the lives of the homeless, defines a homeless person as “one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings” (Blau 8). These people can usually be categorized into two types: “the episodically homeless and the chronically homeless” (Rossi 45). The episodically, or short-term, homeless make up the majority of the homeless population and are described as “persons living in poverty whose month-to-month finances are precarious and for whom short-term reversals of fortune result in episodes of...