Anna Lehman
What comes to mind when you hear the word “homeless”? Perhaps you imagine a man sitting on the street with a bag and a sign that reads, “Anything Helps”. Or maybe you think of someone begging on a corner with a tin can and a dog? While sometimes this does describe the face of homelessness, it is not always the case. Would it surprise you that you probably know someone who has been either homeless or on the verge of homelessness? Homelessness can happen to anyone, and it affects society in many ways. Homelessness is an equal opportunity problem that can be a result of violence, drug use, mental illness, racism, job loss, or any life crisis.
Homelessness is defined as “lacking a regular nighttime residence or having a primary nighttime residence that is a temporary shelter or a place not designed for sleeping” (Gu et al., 2023). According to Ding et al. (2022), more than half a million individuals experience homelessness in the United States Homelessness can be caused by numerous factors. Generally, a personal crisis occurs that leads to instability in a person’s life. The loss of a job, the death of a family member, and the lack of insurance paired with a serious health condition can all be detrimental to the average person or family. On top of these factors, homelessness often follows a cycle that repeats itself and so people may find themselves homeless more than just once (Wong, 2022). People are even born into homelessness or environments that are unstable with a high risk of becoming homeless.
In order to attempt to prevent homelessness, the causes must first be understood. Unless a person is born into it, becoming homeless usually involves a personal crisis. For this reason, some people may view homelessness as a personal problem and not a social problem. According to Kushel (2020), the main causes of homelessness are poverty, the lack of affordable housing, and the ongoing effects of structural racism. Wong (2022) notes that domestic violence is a leading contributor to homelessness. Domestic violence includes “physical assaults, threats, harassment, humiliation, and sexual, emotional, or economic abuse (Wong, 2022).
Violence is not only a key factor in the cause of homelessness but also a symptom. Unsecured housing leaves individuals and families more susceptible to violence in places like shelters or on the streets. According to Swick (2008), violence changes the relationship between family members, and mothers who are treated violently tend to be more aggressive in turn with their children. Essentially, oftentimes the relationship becomes strained, and the children tend to learn to be more aggressive and even violent. Women report that they are so absorbed in the violence that they notice little in other aspects of life and children who witness the violent behavior and abuse see more tension and anxiety in their relationships with their parents (Swick, 2008). Not all domestic violence victims are women, but most reporting cases are women. Either men do not report domestic violence cases as much as women do, or the cases are recorded more often when women are the victims.
There are other factors that are both a cause of homelessness and a symptom as well. For example, mental illness and drug and alcohol use can both cause homelessness and become an effect of homelessness. What’s more, homeless people with substance abuse problems are less likely than those without an abuse problem to gain stable housing. According to Meija-Lancheros et al. (2022), “people experiencing homelessness frequently have a high prevalence of mental and substance use disorders, which often cluster with other poor health, behavioral, and social characteristics” Examples of poor social and behavioral characteristics are adherence and reliance to rehabilitation programs and criminal activity. The stresses of homelessness in turn can create an environment where the likelihood of abusing drugs and alcohol increases as a person’s well-being and mental health decreases. This cycle makes it extremely difficult to overcome the threat of homelessness.
Poverty and the lack of affordable housing are real threats to becoming homeless. “Low-income people who spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent are unable to save money, leaving them vulnerable to losing their housing when they face setbacks, such as a job loss, sickness, or death of a spouse or partner” (Kushel, 2020). After the Great Recession of 2007, the economy recovered but, in the process, rent and mortgage rates skyrocketed. It is not surprising that the 10 states with the highest housing cost also account for the highest rates of homelessness and for most of the nation’s homeless population (Pruitt et al., 2020). According to Kushel (2020), there are only 35 units of housing out of every 100 units that are available and affordable nationwide. There is a severe lack of affordable housing for those Americans with the lowest of incomes.
Structural racism has also been found as a cause for the lack of adequate and affordable housing. Kushel (2020) points out that Black Americans are at a significantly higher risk for homelessness than White Americans because of discrimination in housing markets through practices of residential covenants and redlining, and because of poor enforcement of policies like the Fair Housing Act. Redlining restricts Black households from obtaining mortgages, ultimately leading them to pay more for the same type of housing as a White, or other, household. Kushel adds that banks targeted Black and Latinx households through predatory lending practices and that their properties were the first to foreclose in 2008.
Homelessness is a drain on society financially. Many homeless people and families rely on publicly funded programs to function. Everything from eating to showering to acquiring needed toiletries can come from a public-funded resource. Those dealing with domestic violence may need community support that is not only physical support but also mental trauma-repairing support. As Wong (2022) notes, “It is imperative domestic violence victims are informed of and referred to health services within their community; however, there is some concern as to how these costs will be covered”. Not only are resources a drain on the public pocketbook, but the medical infrastructure also sees the impact of homelessness. According to Gu et al. (2023), “There is moderate evidence to suggest that housing instability is associated with higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, worse hypertension, and diabetes control, and higher acute health care utilization among those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease”. Stress factors associated with homelessness can affect all aspects of health while the lack of insurance and affordable healthcare force many homeless people to resort to hospital emergency room visits instead of preventative maintenance healthcare by a physician.
Overcrowding of homeless shelters has affected public transportation and even transportation employees. The geographic distribution of homelessness in the United States is uneven, with 47 percent of the unsheltered population found in California (Ding et al., 2022). Here, social service agencies and shelters are simply unable to meet the needs of the homeless. People are left to resort to seek shelter in public spaces including transit stations, bus stops, and transit vehicles (Ding et al., 2022). The coronavirus pandemic only exasperated the problem, leading to a rise in the number of homeless seeking shelter on transit (Ding et al., 2022). Fear of coronavirus infection in shelters also drives many homeless to unsheltered areas and public transport. Transportation employees are then left to enforce policy measures for their employers on a daily basis.
Homelessness is a health hazard to society. Many homeless people have limited access to clean water and sanitation. This in turn can promote disease and infection among the homeless population and the rest of society. Water and sanitation are important to prevent infection by fecal-oral pathogens, are necessary for handwashing, and are critical for maintaining public health (Capone et al., 2020). People may not realize that to some, running water or even heated water is a luxury at best. Those living in open areas with limited access to public toilets are often left with no choice but to result to open defecation. Oftentimes, the homeless are sharing public facilities that are not properly sanitized between usage. Even people who must resort to living in transitional housing or shelters are forced to share bathroom facilities that may not be clean and sanitary. Limited access to proper sanitation among the homeless has been linked to a nationwide outbreak of hepatitis A from 2017 to 2018, and proper handwashing has been shown to limit the transmission of SARS-CoV2 (Capone et al., 2020). The importance of handwashing procedures became all too apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and the years following. Businesses adopted new sanitation policies to stay open if they were lucky enough to stay open at all. The pandemic helped the general public realize that it is crucial for all people in society, homeless or not, to be provided with clean and sanitary tools to prevent the spread of sickness and disease.
To combat homelessness in America, there are housing opportunities and services such as Housing First. Housing First is a housing program for adults with mental illness that is “underpinned by a service user-driven, recovery-oriented and harm-reduction value system that prioritizes empowerment and self-determination” (Greenwood et al., 2022). It is a policy aimed to provide housing first, and then other services once a stable home environment is established. Once housing is established, the program also assists with access to health care, employment, and other supportive services that reduce recidivism (the tendency of a criminal to reconvict), promote long-term housing, and improve the quality of life (Donovan & Shinseki, 2013). Other programs use the Housing First model to promote housing stability. Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF), the Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH), unprecedented partnerships between federal and local partners, and rapid rehousing have yielded substantial reductions in veteran and chronic homelessness (Donovan & Shinseki, 2013). Because many veterans have experienced wartime trauma and oftentimes suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), they are at greater risk of experiencing homelessness than other adults. Ding et al. (2022) note that it is imperative that there is a rise in collaboration between agencies and organizations that often encounter the homeless and that since the homeless use public transportation to not only rest but to travel to work, pantries, or places of public assistance, that it is a social responsibility for travel agencies to ensure their services are easily accessible to the homeless and to help them access assistance and support.
No matter a person’s race or background, homelessness can happen to anyone. Sometimes the smallest setback in life can make the biggest impact on a person’s future. At other times it may seem that society is systematically against them because of factors that cannot be changed, such as race or the household and/or living conditions into which they were born. This problem not only affects the homeless but also society. What was once a stable household can melt down into chaos with the threat of domestic violence, substance abuse, economic loss, or even mental illness. This can happen to anyone after any crisis. Therefore, homelessness is not a personal problem; it is a social problem.
References
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