Fluidity of Welfare Reform Many believe that “welfare expands and contracts in response to changes in the economy and the political climate” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 42). One of the largest “federal relief programs began during the Great …show more content…
Comer 2014 stated that 5% of the homeless suffered from schizophrenia or other mental illness (pg. 394). Is it even possible to calculate how many people are truly homeless? Currently many people will “live in cars, camps, parks, boxes, caves, box cars or double up with relatives and friends” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 245). The national alliance to end homelessness stated that in 2005 “they estimated that 2.3 to 3.5 million people were homeless” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 247). This acquaints to about “1 to 2 percent of the total U.S population” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 247). “Many children, who have aged out of foster care, are now homeless since leaving the stability of their foster families” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 247). Another group of people “that is experiencing a rise in homelessness are veterans” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 247). Veterans may not be getting their mental health needs met and can’t function in society without special services to assist them with reentering civilian life. Nunez and Fox (1999) reported that there are “400,000 homeless families currently in shelters, which equates to roughly 1.1 million homeless American children” (Nunez & Fox, pg. …show more content…
244). They got some attention, “in response congress passed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act in 1987” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 244). Amazingly, this was the first legislation that has singularly addressed the issue of homelessness” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 244). One program in the 1990’s “funded supported housing programs called housing first, this program focused on chronic homelessness and severely disables people” (Mandel & Schram, pg. 244). It would lease hotel rooms to the homeless, but in 2010 common ground began a campaign to place 100,000 homeless people in permanent supportive housing by 2013” (Mandel & Schram, pg.