The authors interviewed the homeless girls who describe their fear and how serious is being homeless. One young woman who found herself living in a squats at the age of 15 or 16 described how bitterly cold it was inside during the winter, while another reported being in a squat fire where she almost lost her life, and another describe living in a squat full of garbage and bloody needles. Other young woman talked about being sexually assaults while sleeping in park. She described how her fear of arrack prevent her from falling sleep when she is sleeping outside. One talked about how as a teenage girl she would burn free newspapers to stay warm on the street.…
Stewart, M., Reutter, L., Letourneau, N., Makwarimba, E., &Hungler, K. (2010).Supporting homeless youth: Perspectives and Preferences.Poverty, 14(2), 145-165.doi:10.1080/10875541003711631…
This research assessed the struggles of homeless children. The study compared the educational struggles of a random sampling of children living in stable environments to children who are considered “homeless.” Homeless refers to any child or youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The study revealed the number of homeless children is steadily increasing. However, despite the instability of a home life, a positive school environment for children and youth impacts their success as adults. It is recommended to promote community awareness regarding child…
“On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the U.S.” (Quigley, 2014). Most find themselves sleeping in homeless shelters, short-term transitional housing or someplace uninhabitable. While there are many circumstances that can create homelessness, the major causes are high poverty rates, racial disparities, single parenting, domestic violence, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, and other traumatic experiences. In cases where the homeless person is single, lack of affordable housing, poverty, and unemployment were the leading causes. In cases where families are homeless, substance abuse, lack of affordable housing and mental illness were the top cause. In this research paper, I will try to unveil the factors that…
Substance abuse and being homeless are indistinguishably intertwined. One triggering factor of substance abuse is the consequence of being homeless. Most adolescents who are homeless usually have other disorders such as; serious mental illnesses, chronic physical health problems, and some even have a history of trauma. They need safe housing, appropriate interventions, and client-centered care. It is estimated that half of all people who are homeless have diagnosable substance use disorders at some time in their lives. It is also estimated that alcohol abuse occurs in half of the homeless and drug abuse in a third of this same…
It is important to find an early exit out of homelessness because a longer stay can make it less likely for an exit out of homelessness. Many who enter into homelessness first encounter youth hostels, emergency accommodations and Out of Hours Services (OHS). In these accommodations, it is very likely for a young person to engage with other peers living in the hostel or care setting and get involved in the ‘homelessness scene’. In these accommodations, a young person is typically provided with a bed at night, but has the entire day from early in the morning until late at night to be on the streets and find things to do. This is a period that many individuals in the study talked about getting involved with other homeless individuals and partaking in drugs, alcohol, criminal activity and violence. One young man who was 19 at the time said, "Everyone that was in it (adult hostel) was on it (heroin) ... Yeah, looking at them stoned and they’re all talking about it. The relief that it’s supposed to bring them so I just tried it and liked it”(Mayock et al 2008:130). This is a common statement that so many of the homeless youth individuals experience because they don’t feel that they have many other options. They are put into ‘risky’ accommodations and meet several individuals who are participating in these risky behaviors. One young man aged…
My friends and I left the restaurant, laughing. It was getting dark and the city was beautifully lit. We smiled and chatted as we walked through downtown. Suddenly my eyes fell on a young woman arranging her sleeping quarters in the middle of the sidewalk. She looked barely older than me - she could have easily been a college student. The girl sat down and pulled a few dirty blankets over her body, preparing for the night’s sleep. I was staggered by the similarities between the two of us. Her face stuck in my memory as I got home and climbed into my comfortable bunk bed. People my age weren’t supposed to be homeless, were they? Where was her family, her connections? Why would she be on the streets? Were there more people like her or was she an anomaly? I realized I knew nothing about homelessness and had instead been subconsciously analyzing it with my own preconceptions as a basis. But I wasn’t the only one allowing myself to remain so misinformed. Research shows there are almost ubiquitous misconceptions concerning homelessness and the stigma against it, especially when it comes to the demographics of the homeless population, the amount of crimes…
The homeless adolescence left the massive bill at a restaurant without paying for her meal. Homeless teen refuses help from a local homeless shelter and food bank agencies. The teen wants to prove to her parents that she does not need help from them.…
Runaway youth is a serious problem that America faces today. Whether it’s just a youth’s way of trying to hurt their parent’s feelings, threating to run away is no laughing matter. Sometimes it’s not a threat to run away, sometimes they leave unannounced leaving the parent usually with grief, anger, and confusion. Between 1.6-2.8 million youth run away each year in the United States (The Truth About Runaway Teens, 2013). Those numbers are just the numbers of youth running away. Even when a youth runs away, they have to fend for themselves on the streets, which sometimes have some devastating results. In order to stay alive some of them have to resort to robbery, sexual acts, and sometimes those things can lead to death unfortunately. There are plenty of reasons why a child might run away; however, a common issue is their sexual orientation.…
Youth homelessness is a significant issue in Canada by comprising 20% of the overall homeless population (Gaetz et al., 2013a). Unique to youth homelessness is causation and solutions, as traditional adult interventions are not developmentally appropriate. The Federal government’s HPS fails to meet youths’ needs by prioritizing adult housing first to reduce chronic homelessness by 50% within ten years (ESDC, 2017c). There is an opportunity to address youth homelessness, as the 2017 Budget has provided an unprecedented $2.1 billion allocation to the HPS redesign (ESDC, 2017b). The writer was appointed to the Federal advisory committee on homelessness to provide youth-specific recommendations for the renewal. This paper’s objective is to critically…
In 2012, more than 1,600 people were turned away from homeless shelters because of lack of space.…
Youth are homeless not necessarily because they choose to be, but because of the factors in their lives that lead up to homelessness. Few factors could…
Unfortunately, many homeless youth are “befriended” by drug addicts or encouraged into prostitution. For many of the runaways due to abuse, many wonder how bad their situations must be if they would face addiction and sexually…
In a section titled “Causes of Youth Homelessness,” it first stated that the “same factors that contribute to adult homelessness such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, low education levels, unemployment, mental health, and substance abuse issues, can also play a role in the occurrence and duration of a youth's homelessness.” These were good points that brought up questions in regards to parent-youth relationships and some of the long-term effects, which I decided to come back to later. Furthermore, it said that beyond these factors, “the phenomenon of youth homelessness is largely a reflection of family dysfunction and breakdown, specifically familial conflict, abuse, and disruption,” which I agreed with. Though the article did not specify further, some types of conflicts that came to mind were disputes over risky behavior such as promiscuity, opposing views on discipline, and sexual orientation. When it comes to domestic abuse there are many layers including physical, emotional, sexual, and mental that, along with the conflicts, leads to the deterioration of families. The brief continued to say that youth usually enter a state of homelessness as a result of running away from home- which the desire and reaction of escaping from these predicaments is understandable- or from being abandoned by their guardians. Additionally, it stated that family conflict is “more critical for youth than adults since they are, by virtue of their developmental stage in life, still largely financially, emotionally, and, depending on their age, legally dependent upon their…
Crisis happens to everyone and depending on the severity; it has the potential to render individuals and families without the resources to overcome adversities, which can result in homelessness at any given time. The homeless population lives at the edge of poverty often losing connections with family, neighborhoods, and friends. They face a stigma inflicted by society, which often leads to them being isolated and/or rejected. This paper will examine the meaning of homelessness, multiple perspectives on the issue, what is currently being initiated in the field of social work, and explore ideas on possible solutions.…