Causes of Homelessness Apa

Causes of Homelessness

A Review of the Literature

Chatavit Assavavasin

National University

Author Note

This paper was prepared for English program, taught by Jack Kuykendall

Causes of Homelessness

A Review of the Literature

Homelessness is the condition of people who do not have a permanent house. The homeless  cannot obtain safe, secure, and sufficient housing. The homeless may live on the streets, in abandoned buildings, in shelters, in vehicles, and so on .The government has estimated that 1.56 million people are homeless in the United States. The homeless come from all kind of communities. There are many reasons why people become homeless including:

1. Lack of resources
2. Macroeconomic Factors
3. Mental problems
4. Substance abuse problems with alcohol and drugs.
5. Runaway youths.
6. Legal problems

Lack of Resources

The homeless are people who do not have enough resources to take care of themselves. Poverty and the lack of resources are the main cause of homelessness. One problem is declining wages and changes in government welfare programs. Declining wage make it difficult for many people to afford a house or an apartment. In the United States, the average minimum price of rental apartment in Los Angeles area is more than twice the minimum wages (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2000). In addition to rent, of course, there are many other living costs. Marc (2012) explains that people without a job still have to pay for water, electricity, medicine, gas, food and so on.

Macroeconomic Factors

During the recession, some people lose their houses because of macroeconomic factors. The number of homeless people increased during the recession. Some people who have lost their homes stay with friends, family, or in a cheap motel ,but others live on the street, in a car, or van in a parking lot ,or other such circumstances. In a recession, business usually slow down for six months or more. Chizoba (2016) writes that there are many effects from a recession, such as lower interest rates, lower consumption, reduced wage, lower taxes and so on. Chizoba also noted that during a recession people control their spending more carefully. When business firms see consumption declining, for example, they make fewer new investments because both revenue and production are falling. Firms may also reduce their work forces, causing the unemployment rate to increase. As a result of low wages and unstable employment, many people face difficult times.

        Mental Problems

           Mental illness is also a main cause of homelessness. The National Coalition on Homelessness (2008) have observed that metal illness is the third biggest cause of homelessness for single adults. The Treatment Advocacy Center (2014) has observed that mental illness was mentioned by 12 percent of cities one of the top three causes of homelessness for homeless families. Many homeless are suffering from schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or major depression. Serious mental illnesses reduce people ‘ability to do their routine tasks such as self-care and household management. Mental illness can prevent  people from maintaining relationships, so it often pushes the mentally ill far away from their families and friends, this may force such people to become homeless. Treating the homeless who are mentally ill is difficult because they do not have permanent house .Without a permanent residence it is difficult to maintain treatment help, so only thirty-three percent of the homeless people who have the serious mental illnesses receive proper treatment. In addition, a University of Pennsylvania (2001) study of 5000 homeless people who suffered with mental illness, found that each homeless person cost an average $40,500 a year because they of the services they used; for instance, emergency rooms , psychiatric hospitals , shelters ,and prisons . Moreover, some of the homeless who received treatment and were released from mental institutions became homeless within 6 months because they did not have access to continued treatment.

Substance Abuse Problems

        Nowadays, people have to cope  with many stress factors; for example, maintaining the household, having a family, doing a job, or so on. People may think that drugs and alcohol can relieve stresses yet these substances can have many side effects; for example; drugs and alcohol effect the brain and if abused they can cause abusers to experience mental problems. However substance abuse actually exacerbates their problems and decreases their ability to succeed in career. As a result, drug addiction and alcohol addiction disrupt relationships with family and friend, and it often causes of people to lose their jobs, so they may go out to live in the street. As Fisher and Roget (2009) have explained, people who become homeless may use drugs and alcohol to be accepted among the homeless people. When they want to stop using drug and alcohol, breaking an addiction is very difficult for them. Moreover, many homeless people do not have motivation to stop using drug and alcohol because they lack support from their family and friends. Didenko and Pankratz (2007) have noted that recovering from drug and alcohol addiction is very difficult .Although, addicts may be able to curb an addiction while in a rehab clinic, for example, they may have a difficult time to maintaining sobriety while living in the streets.

        Legal Problems

Many prisoners released from jail are at risk of homelessness because they do not have a residence. According to The Bureau of Justice Assistant (1997) in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the percentage of paroled persons who are homeless is thirty to fifty percent; moreover, up to 20% of the people released from jails each year in New York City are homeless. When paroled prisons go back to a community, they have difficulty finding a job because they have limited access to job training and proper education. As Nino and Brenner (2003) have explained that other factors also make finding a home difficult for ex-prisoners, particularly for those have been incarcerated for one or more years. Few of these people are employed in the labor market, so they do not have the financial resources to rent an apartment, especially in a large city .Moreover, ex-prisoner who live in government shelters or on the street, they do not have a permanent address or phone number, so labor agencies cannot contact them to get an interview. Even those given assistance may not have a proper clothes or maintain personal hygiene to go to work or even interview. All of these situations make it difficult for ex-prisoners to find a residence.