Different Types of Homelessness

The great debate, whether homeless individuals choose to stay homeless or not, is a concept worth tackling, which ultimally boils down to several main categories of individuals. As a society, we are aware that they are plenty of homeless individuals who accept money, where they then spend the money on drugs and alcohol. This stereotype of the homeless destroys the chance of giving aid to those who truly want to make a change and eventually recieve permanent shelter, since home-owners may be deterred. However instead of generalizing all homeless individuals as such, this article will examine each category describing a homeless individuals situation, which is tricky in-and-of-itself to generalize.

1. People with Families

According to the most recent annual survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, major cities across the country report that top causes of homelessness among families were: (1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, and (4) low wages, in that order. -HomelessLaw.Org

As listed by HomelessLaw.Org, there are 4 main reasons that a family is homeless. The first one is lack of affordable housing. Often these individuals either have an low paying job or lost their job due to the turbulent state of the economy. Although there may be mulitple causes for families facing homelessness, unemployment is often the most common. These individuals have families dependent on them, which makes their homeless siutation even more dire, since there are now children who are homeless.

The proportion of homeless people who used emergency shelters and transitional housing as part of a family increased from 30% to 35% from 2007 to 2010, with the majority of homeless families consisting of single mothers with young children. - HomelessLaw.Org

This quotation highlights the amount of families who are homeless, which is higher than most would expect. As said, most of these families usually are homeless due to lack of financial funds, which shows the side that most home-owners forget - that homeless individuals are like the general public with families but simply got unlucky. Usually these individuals will do anything to get their families a permanent shelter. They are like everyone else and are not choosing to be homeless. As for those without families and financial funds are usually in the same boat. They will do what they can to get a permanent shelter. However, this analysis also partially covered the other main reasons: unemployment, proverty, and low wages. These reasons all contribute to the same state of homelessness amoung families.

2. Those without Families

Yet, homelessness amoung individuals differs drastically. There are seven main reasons: lack of trustworthy relationships, illness and disability, abuse, low wages, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and personal hardship, acording to altantamission.org.

Often these individuals feel that they are standing alone facing a sea of possibilites but these options are too clouded by the fog for them to see clearly the horizon. The fog is the setbacks that they face such as getting a job or recieving access to medical care. Once the fog clears up, they can view the hoirzon, which is their end goal. However, getting to this end goal is difficult, since the fog does not go away as easily as some might expect.

One such component of the fog is the lack of trustworthy relationships. Often when individuals lose their homes, they usually move-in with a family member of close friend, as my mother and I did when I was child. Yet, not everyone has this options as a fall back when their lives go South financially. If she/he does not have close friends or family to relie on, he/she will have to go to the local shelters for housing. Even if he/she has a person that he/she knows well enoungh, there may be obstacles that complicate the situation, such as substance abuse or mental health issues. If he/she has substance abuse issues, then it is unlikely that a familiy member or friend will take him/her in. As a result, he/she will likely resort to using drugs or alcohol more to cope with the state of homelessness. Often homeless substance abusers use drugs or alcohol to numb the pain from the physical environment such as the cold or use substances to deal with the turmoil at the shelter, which is usually an unsafe place to be. They may even use substances more based on the fact that those around them are using drugs or alcohol more so than the general public. This fact makes it even more difficult to get a homeless substance abuser help, since they have no one close to him/her, who will be willing to get him/her help.

People will sooner aid a sick dog lying on the sidewalk than to try to find shelter for a sick person. It’s too much to deal with. – Michael Zaslow

Another complication that makes aiding a homeless individual hard is mental health issues. Often the care required to assist a severely mentally ill person is too much on a family member or friend. Due to this complication, a huge portion of severly mentally ill individuals go homeless. "According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness." As stated by SAMHSA, the homeless population is largely impacted by mental illness. When there is no support system to provide care to such ill individuals, then there is little chance that they may receive permanent housing again unless it is through disability on the government.

3. People who want to be Homeless

Lastly, there are individuals who are without any impairments and choose to be homeless. These individuals often strive to be Greenhorns, which are individuals who have lived on the street for generally 5 years or more. These individuals simply do not want to be a part of society, or as from my conversations from some of the homelss people that I have spoken to, they do not know how to successfully integrate into society, since it is too overwhelming for them. These individuals may have impairments that inhibit them from getting a job, so they choose not to try and opt out for being homeless. Sadly, there is very little that can be done to help these individuals who do not have the personal motivation to overcome their circumstances. All a home-owner feels he/she can do is offer them food instead of money. Usually, these individuals opt for using drugs or alcohol to numb the pain of being left behind so to speak. Generally, these individuals tend to lose touch from reality the longer they live on the streets. They forget what it means to strive for the comfort of having a home. They also lose touch with their family and friends, and soon only have homeless friends to talk with, which makes them detach from reality even more.

Overall, homeless individuals often do want to make a change to get help, but some do not. An individual who is willing to help should befriend a homeless individual to see why he/she are homeless before giving him/her aid. This is the best course of action to successfully help a homeless individual, or else the individual who is willing to help may be wasting their time. Some people simply do not want help.