October 09, 2010
Homelessness in our Community 1. Introduction A. My name is Jane Smith and I’m a community health nurse in our community working with the homeless. B. Homelessness has been described as a chronic illness affecting all communities regardless of the degree of economic development and overall wealth of the nation. C. Homelessness is a tragic aspect of our community, in addition to their suffering from the hardship of their condition they are subjected to alienation and discrimination by mainstream society. D. We are here to discuss strengthening the vagrancy ordinance, in order to promote tourism. E. I’m against strengthening the vagrancy ordinance to avoid discrimination, alienation, and a destruction of ethics for monetary gain. F. Programs to assist the homeless at with Federal, State and local programs 2. Homelessness A. What is homelessness? B. 415,202 individuals were homeless in shelters, transitional housing programs, or on the streets on a given night in January 2008 (Kristen, 2010). These homeless people are men, women, and children C. Federal law defines a homeless person as one whom "lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence… and has a primary night residency that is (a) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations... (b) an institution that provides temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or (c) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings" (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], n.d). 3. Ethics A. Autonomy 1) Autonomy means that decisions should be made by those most affected, by the individuals, families, or groups (Anderson &
References: Anderson, E. T., & McFarlane, J. (2008). Community as Partner: Theory and Practice in Nursing (5th ed.). Philadephia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Brent, N. J. (2001). Nurses and the Law (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders. Congressional Research Services. (2005). Homelessness: Recent Statistics, Targeted Federal Programs and Recent Legislation. Retrieved from http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/ResourceFiles/wjvh3rab.pdf Homelessness. (2007). Retrieved from http/:www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/homeless.shtml Kellyann Day. (n.d.). Written Testimony. Retrieved from http://help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Day.pdf Kristen, P. (2010). Current Statistics on the Prevalence and Characteristics of People Experiencing Homelessness in the United States. Retrieved from http://homeless.samhsa.gov/Resource/View.aspx?id=48841&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 Lexicon Publications, Inc,. (1992). The New Lesicon Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language. (Deluxe ed.). Danbury, CT: Lexicon Publications, Inc. The Principle of Beneficence in Applied Ethics. (2008). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/principle-beneficence/ U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (n.d.). Federal Definition of Homeless. Retrieved from http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/topics/homelessness/definition