Homelessness And Poverty Essay

Lacking a fixed income, adequate nighttime residence, and access to food is an aspect that is considered when determining whether or not an individual or family are in poverty. Society has created a standard of poverty or that the family is a low-income family, which low income is . “Poor” is the term that our society uses to describe an individual or family that lacks not only material assets and health but also capabilities, such as social belonging, respect,and dignity. Homeless shelters and food banks are organizations that are trying to apprehend the poverty issue. Unfortunately, the homeless shelter's and food banks do not have enough resources to fulfill the needs of their organization and of the people coming there. However, theses organizations are trying to decrease the issue and inform the community and individuals by spreading awareness, giving the people life skills, and using a variety of strategies to assist those in need.
Homelessness is an increasing issue within the United States. It mainly pertains to teenagers, which 40% of them are LGBT stated by
The Williams Institute. Within the 40%, nearly 7 out of 10 teenagers receive a families rejection, which in turn increase the population of teenagers who decide to run away. Furthermore, the increase in teens who decide to run away also leads to the increase in the homeless population . However, they do not always run away because of the rejection it may be that they are getting abused whether that be emotional or physical abuse. That then causes the teens to start to abuse drugs or to even do self-harm because they try to escape from that pain that they are feeling.
Homelessness is also increasing in families, and even 68% of that population has children that are under the age of 18.
Most families become homeless because of the housing cost “kills” them because they do not or cannot pay the correct amount to pay for that housing area. However, if they do find housing areas they are considered to be in poverty. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0% that leaving 46.2 million individuals in poverty( “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States”). The United States Census Bureau, acknowledges, in 2014 out of the 68% of families with a child under the age of 18, 44%(31.4 million) of those individuals lived in low-income households and 21% lived in poor families(15.4 million)(“From the level of education to the cost of housing, the American Community Survey provides 10 years of local statistics to every community in the
nation”).
Furthermore, children under the age of 18 are more affected by the family being in poverty or worse homelessness. Children see what happens and they do not try to go over it, for example, the mom struggles to get the money to pay rent, but she does not pay in time so they are now out of a home. Now the child takes from this that if I do not have something I should not try my hardest to fix it or to get better because I am just gonna fail. This mindset is what triggers kids it can give them depression,they could start showing delinquent behavior, but most of all intellectual disability. However, this is not a learning disability this is children just giving up and this not only affects the child, but this also affects the society because that child is the future for our society. Then if they give up what hope is there for the future society. Also, if this child gives up then what is there for the next generation.Even though this topic is not mainly focused on children they are the ones that learn from it especially if the parent is not able to get into a shelter or is hindered from getting food from food banks.