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Homelessness
Introduction
Homelessness is a situation whereby people lack a permanent dwelling such as an apartment or a house. Homeless persons are unable to obtain and maintain adequate, secure and safe housing. Since these people have no regular housing, they usually spend their night time in discarded buildings, vehicle, homeless or warming centres, cardboard boxes or even in a tent. A home is critical because it provides security, sense of belonging, support of well being as well as identity. According to the enumeration study by the American government, homelessness also involves individuals who spend their nights in private or public places that are set aside for …show more content…
This goes hand in hand medical problems and the personal security. The homeless persons always have health issues that result from sleeping outside in the cold (Rossi, 2011). Sometimes the health issues escalate as they have no money to pay for treatments. The homeless are also faced with issues of hygiene and the sanitary facilities. They have no personal amenities such as beds for sleeping on or bathrooms where they can take baths in privacy. Sometimes they take a long time before they can clean and dry their clothes as there is no safety to their possessions thus they have to carry them all the times. Such people lack contact with their family members as well as the government services since they do not have a permanent mailing address or …show more content…
Moreover, more than one billion persons lack adequate housing, and therefore they live as refugees or squatters in a temporarily based housing. In the western countries between 75-80 percent of the homeless people are men (Rossi, 2011). Single men are the majority represented by that percentage. However, a number of countries provide different services to help homeless persons. Such services mostly provide shelter, clothing and food. In short, they provide the basic needs for them. These services are organized and coordinated by the community organizations by the assistance of volunteers, NGOs or the government agencies. Other organizations such as churches and individual donors also extend their acts of charities to the homeless. In some cities, they have come up with street newspapers which are published to offer jobs to the homeless persons. The employment opportunities that are provided by the local and federal government cannot accommodate everyone hence some people have to devise their own mechanisms of making a living. As a result, some have opted to beg or panhandle in the streets despite this method being declared illegal in various cities. Most of the times, homeless people usually have mental or physical health issues. Others have become substance addicts. Thus the policy of solving the homelessness issue has turned out to be