Homelessness Research Paper

Have you noticed the homeless people on Park Boulevard in Downtown? Have you noticed them walking around City College looking for a nice patch of grass to lie down and doze off for a few hours? Have you seen them in clusters in front of Petco Park as if to cheer on the greatest major baseball team in the country? They are all part of a population of homeless people who are victims of not having a home because of many problems and issues. There are many different circumstances that cause a person to become homeless. It isn’t always caused by drugs or alcohol. It happens to individuals, as well as families, of all different nationalities and backgrounds. Some fall into this predicament and stay there because they lack the knowledge of organizations ready to help. Through developing programs, government officials, private organizations, and individuals are all working to solve the challenging issue of homelessness. There are a definite number of effective programs available in San Diego helping aid all categories of homeless people into getting their life on the right track. San Diego has many vulnerable people living on the streets. Homelessness is an enormous issue that America has come to face. Thousands of people live day after day without food, water or a roof over their heads. A pedestrian today can hardly walk very far down a street in Downtown, San Diego before encountering a homeless person asking for spare change, selling a street newspaper, gathering cans and bottles for recycling, or sleeping under a blanket on the
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sidewalk. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, homelessness is defined as a person without a home (“homelessness”). Poverty is defined as the state of being extremely poor, inferior in quality or sufficient in amount (“poverty”). The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) list several definitions in their annual fact sheet review including one that states, “homelessness is the condition of being without a permanent place to

Cited: "Homelessness". Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 4 Oct 2012. "poverty." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 4 Oct 2012. Herbert, Bob. Opposing Viewpoints Series: Poverty. San Diego. Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1999. Print. Homeless Shelter Directory. San Diego California Homeless Shelters and Services for the Needy. HSD, 2012. Web. 8 Nov 2012. Meyer, Susan, Christopher Jencks. War On Poverty: No Apologies, Please. New York Times 9 Nov. 1995. New York ed. Print. National Coalition for the Homeless. National Coalition for the Homeless. NCH, 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012.