Homelessness in the U.S: An Annotated Bibliography

Kevin
English Comp I
23 Sept. 2013
Homelessness in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography

Boyd, Herb. "Obama: No Quick Fixes, No Silver Bullets, but a Plan and Policy. (Cover Story)." New York Amsterdam News 26 Mar. 2009: 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
In this news article, President Barrack Obama states that there are no easy solutions to the current economic recession the United States is in. According to the President, “Even before the economy went bad, that there was a major homeless problem.” He also believes, it is “not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.”
With that being said, Obama and his office plan on starting a variety of programs to help handle the homelessness problem. Obama’s first 64 days consisted of him trying to figure out where we currently are economically. His plan is to get more jobs out there and to open more businesses to “keep America safe.”
On top of all of that, Barrack Obama says we need to be truthful and honest about the budget spending, so we can acknowledge the “true cost.”
Cole, Wendy, and Richard Corliss. "No Place Like Home." Time 161.3 (2003): 58. Academic Search Elite. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
This article breaks down in-depth about how a family became homeless. It centers on De-Shawto Cochran and his wife, Phenom, and their 2 children. They became homeless when Phenom was pregnant and they could no longer afford to pay their rent due to it inflating “almost 50%.”
Ultimately, it comes to a point where they rented a storage facility and placed all their belongings within it. The Cochrans only kept what they needed with them, such as clothes, toys, and a small TV. Despite the hardships the family endured, they never failed to stay positive.
Eventually, the last resort was to go to a shelter. This article highlights the fact that being “homeless” doesn’t have to be someone in rags on a street, but could be anyone you or I know in school, work, or etc. Through the shelter, the family was put in a program to help find housing.
In the end, their wishes to have a place they can call “home” paid by a full time job are still on pause. Like the article says, “a family doesn’t have to be houseless to be homeless.”
Cuniff, Meghann M. "Helping the homeless: Official says cities must have political will to fix the problem." Spokesman-Review, The (Spokane, WA) 12 Oct. 2007: Newspaper Source. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
In this newspaper, Philip Mangano, the nation’s homeless czar says homeless is “a moral and social wrong.” He looks to try and eradicate it rather than just simply “managing” it or delaying it. In N.C, a study shows that 37 homeless people cost the city $400,000 over the course of 1.5 years. Mangano notes that he’s tired of the same repetitive process they have been doing which yields little to no effects. "If good-natured and well-meaning programs and well-meaning gestures could end homelessness, it would be over decades ago," according to Philip. An idea he promotes is to gather up federal resources and make them available to house the homeless. However, according to the text, “the country has operated under the assumption that the problem can 't be fixed for too long.”
Deam, Jenny. "Homeless In The Suburbs." Parenting School Years 23.6 (2009): 60-65. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
In this article, the author makes remarks about homelessness in the suburbs and families offer an insight of their lives. According to the article, "Suburban homelessness is among the most invisible because it doesn 't fit our stereotypes." Even with families making up a large part of the homeless population, it still doesn’t clearly show the economic recession. More than 170,500 children stayed in shelter at least once during a 6-month period in 2007. Ellen Bassuk started researching homelessness in the 1980’s where families didn’t account for 40% of the homeless. At the time, it was a less than a percent. According to studies, homeless students may tend to be behind on math/reading, more likely to have behavior issues, may repeat a grade, and “more than half will not graduate high school.” The article emphasizes the point of how hard it is to travel in suburban areas. Despite being homeless, the one thing Heather Bodiford made sure of was, “is that the kids know no matter what, we are a family.”
Graham, Ginnie. "Study: 4,900 Homeless In State: In What Is Called The First Such Assessment In 10 Years, About 744,000 Homeless People Were Tallied Nationally." Tulsa World (OK) (2007): Newspaper Source. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.
In this newspaper source, it contains information about homelessness in Tulsa and the country. According to the article, “nationally, about 744,000 people were homeless, 56% were living in shelters, and 44% were unsheltered.”
The states with the most number of homeless are Alaska, Colorado, California, Hawaii and Idaho. This source claims that the solution to ending homelessness is to make housing less expensive and more available. “Homelessness.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2013): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, homelessness is defined as “the condition of not having a permanent place to live.” Although the approximate numbers of the homeless are vague, it has ranged from “700,000 per night to 2 million per year.” This is a major problem in large towns and regions. This later led to lower job wages, increasing unemployment rates, more drug & alcohol abuse. Homeless families are largely made up of single dads, moms, or families who have kids. In reaction to the rising homeless, the McKinney Act (1987) was brought up for the building of emergency homeless shelters.
Kramp, Kelly. "Homeless Women Face Tougher Path Than Males." High Point Enterprise (NC) (2007): Newspaper Source. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.
In this newspaper, the author, Kelly Kramp, starts explaining how the government doesn’t record the statistics for homeless or alcoholic females. According to Becky Yates, executive director of Caring Services, she estimates “as many as 30 to 40 women are on the street on any given night.” And “at least 125 women are in the Guilford County jail at any time, and about 99 percent of them are homeless.”
The author of this newspaper article claims that being a woman and homeless is harder than being a man and homeless. In my personal opinion, I agree, because women are a lot more powerless than males. On that note, they’re more susceptible to getting raped, beat, etc., and could possibly lose their child. To make matters worse, most of the time, a woman who does get a job “don’t make enough to make ends meet.”
Loftus-Farren, Zoe. "Tent Cities: An Interim Solution To Homelessness And Affordable Housing Shortages In The United States." California Law Review 99.4 (2011): 1037-1081. Legal Collection. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
In this article, it centers on “tent cities” in the United States. Men and women who lost their jobs and have no where to stay resort to establishing their “home” or tent in a empty area, which “shows a vivid symbol of a financial crisis otherwise invisible to most Americans.”
However, I agree with the author of this article. Tent cities should indeed be a temporary solution as long as the government is not able to provide housing assistance. “Municipalities must not use tent cities as an excuse to avoid stronger, more equitable, and potentially more expensive, action.” These solutions with the tent cities are going to be different city to city.
With these temporary tent cities, this would give the government time to work on a real, permanent solution. This source claims tent cities need to be supported so it benefits the homeless.
Morgan, Pat. "A Permanent Solution." Journal Of Housing & Community Development 59.6 (2002): 19. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
This article by Pat Morgan notes solutions towards homelessness. The article says over the course of a year, “2.5 to 3 million people in America will be homeless for at least one night.” Many people are chronically homeless which means “an unaccompanied, disabled individual who has been consistently homeless for a year or more, or who has been homeless four or more times in the prior three years.” The solution that Morgan brings up is to build more permanent housing solutions for the chronically homeless.
TresniowskiMcCausland, Christianna. "Street Savior." People 59.8 (2003): 75. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Sept. 2013 In this magazine, it highlights an ex-druggie, Lonnie Davis, fixing up the homeless shelters he used to reside in. Davis fixed five homeless shelters. Soon as the first one was fixed, the officials reopened it and gave him 4 more to work on. Eventually he gets a job of taking over the shelter. I think that it’s really amazing how this man can go from spending 13 months at a single shelter himself to doing the initiative and transforming 5 run down shelters into decent places. As it’s said in this article, you can really change the world for the better.

Bibliography: Boyd, Herb. "Obama: No Quick Fixes, No Silver Bullets, but a Plan and Policy. (Cover Story)." New York Amsterdam News 26 Mar. 2009: 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. Cuniff, Meghann M. "Helping the homeless: Official says cities must have political will to fix the problem." Spokesman-Review, The (Spokane, WA) 12 Oct. 2007: Newspaper Source. Web. 7 Oct. 2013. Graham, Ginnie. "Study: 4,900 Homeless In State: In What Is Called The First Such Assessment In 10 Years, About 744,000 Homeless People Were Tallied Nationally." Tulsa World (OK) (2007): Newspaper Source. Web. 22 Sept. 2013. “Homelessness.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2013): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Sept. 2013. Morgan, Pat. "A Permanent Solution." Journal Of Housing & Community Development 59.6 (2002): 19. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. TresniowskiMcCausland, Christianna. "Street Savior." People 59.8 (2003): 75. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Sept. 2013 In this magazine, it highlights an ex-druggie, Lonnie Davis, fixing up the homeless shelters he used to reside in