Ignoring Homeless Families By Greg Kaufmann
The article “Ignoring Homeless Families,” by Greg Kaufmann explains the difference of a family unit that is homeless, a single homeless adult, and how each other differs when it comes to the strategies used to find a solution for homelessness. He goes on to say that “Since 2007, there has been a 19 percent decline in chronically homeless single adults. In contrast, family homelessness has increased by more than 13 percent over the same period” (256). So why is there such a difference between the two different types of homeless groups? It has been stated in this article that certain programs have helped the single homeless adults, like for example the “Housing First” approach, but that doesn’t mean it will work for the homeless families that
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It seems that the system is setting these families up for failure. It needs to be addressed that families come with a lot more obstacles and more people to take out of the shelter or off the street. But ultimately keeping them out of shelters and off the street is seeming to be the biggest challenge. Like Volk said “We’re moving people out of shelters too fast and then wonder why they don’t succeed. They don’t succeed because we didn’t give them enough time and enough support before they oved out. We need to rethink how we work with homeless families” (258). While I read this article it seems that homeless families are not getting the extra support they need just for the simple fact that there is more homeless people in a family. We want to get them out into society by giving them their own home and all these materialistic things but not helping them maintain the ability to keep up with those things. I can see why it is easier to help one person than a family of 5 because of the mainly needs a family has but when children are involved it makes it such a bigger issue. For me seeing a family that is homeless with little children pulls at the heart string and makes me have an uncontrollably urge to want to help. No one, especially a child should have to endure the life of being
It seems that the system is setting these families up for failure. It needs to be addressed that families come with a lot more obstacles and more people to take out of the shelter or off the street. But ultimately keeping them out of shelters and off the street is seeming to be the biggest challenge. Like Volk said “We’re moving people out of shelters too fast and then wonder why they don’t succeed. They don’t succeed because we didn’t give them enough time and enough support before they oved out. We need to rethink how we work with homeless families” (258). While I read this article it seems that homeless families are not getting the extra support they need just for the simple fact that there is more homeless people in a family. We want to get them out into society by giving them their own home and all these materialistic things but not helping them maintain the ability to keep up with those things. I can see why it is easier to help one person than a family of 5 because of the mainly needs a family has but when children are involved it makes it such a bigger issue. For me seeing a family that is homeless with little children pulls at the heart string and makes me have an uncontrollably urge to want to help. No one, especially a child should have to endure the life of being