The Pros And Cons Of Homelessness

In a study discussed in USA Today in reference to the year 2007, roughly 1.6 million individuals entered shelters or other forms of homeless housing (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2011). It is impossible to measure with 100% accuracy the amount of individuals who have experienced homelessness over the years, however research has shown that over the past few decades the capacity of transitional housing and emergency shelters has tripled, in order to attempt to accommodate the rising rates of individuals without homes. Although the exact amount of individuals who are considered homeless cannot be calculated, it can be estimated that nearly 3.5 million individuals experience homelessness every year, 1.35 million of them being children (National …show more content…
In an article written by Blake Ellis, he discusses the laws that have been created to prevent people from living on the streets or begging for money. He describes what these laws aim to do by stating they, “ban homeless residents from sitting or lying down in public, loitering, sleeping in vehicles, and begging for money or food” (Ellis, July, 2014). As of two years ago, there were a total of 187 cities implementing such laws into their communities. Such arguments go hand in hand with the arguments made in Miller’s article, the solution to solving homelessness doesn’t start with financial aid from the government through efforts such as government-funded housing support, food stamps, and welfare checks through acts such as the Title V Act or the McKinney Act, but rather from communities coming together to stress the importance of homeless individuals working on their self-discipline and work …show more content…
Homeless service programs, some the first of their kind, are operating in Title V properties in 30 states plus the District of Columbia” (National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, 2013). These statistics show that acts such as this one are proving beneficial in aiding the problem of homelessness, yet it is still such a large issue to this day. Researchers discuss in this report that a portion of that is due to the federal government and local agencies not being on the same page. This is because not all agencies and local governments are aware that they are eligible of receiving excess federal property, for free. Under this act, federal governments are required to implement outreach programs that provide different types of aid to homeless service providers about the properties that are available to them, something that is not currently happening. Because of this the report states, there are large gaps between the ability to decrease the amount of homeless people living throughout the United States, and what the government is choosing to do about it. Those who believe more