Homeless in San Diego

Numerous problems have been created due to the economic crisis that almost everyone in the United States has been suffering from. San Diego in particular, hit hard with the crisis, has faced a number of foreclosures and evictions which have consequently increased the number of homeless people on the streets. "America 's Finest City" has always faced a homelessness problem, but like all chronic problems with the homeless, it is merely acknowledged in times of recession and economic demise. “In down times like today, focus is on the struggling middle-class homeowner, not on the housing problems of the longstanding ill-housed population" (Shaw). USLegal.com defines “homeless” under Section 11302 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act as an individual “who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence or a person who resides in a shelter, welfare hotel, transitional program or place not ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodations, such as streets, cars, movie theatres, abandoned buildings, etc”. Our deteriorating financial market has led to more and more people being laid off of work, leaving the homeless community to grow in San Diego. But although the financial crisis can deepen the homeless situation in San Diego, it is not the sole reason for it. It can be said that at San Diego could even be the creator of its own chronic homelessness problem. The homeless population in San Diego can be attributed to a number of factors, such as the attempts to attract tourism or to keep San Diego "America 's Finest City”. What people do need to focus on is creating a solution to this problem. Even during the prosperous economic times in the Clinton administration, the number of homeless people was still high and there have been many proposed solutions to pacify the problem, yet pacifying the problem is not enough. We must not only prevent homelessness, we must accommodate those who are already without a dependable place to live. The city of San Diego

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