Homelessness Policy Analysis Essays - , Term Papers

Homelessness Policy Analysis Stephen F. Austin University Abstract Individuals that are a part of the homeless population in rural areas could be homeless for a various amount of reasons. These reasons may vary from not having enough income, drug addiction, mental health problems, divorce or separation, and even natural disasters. The McKinney-Vento Act was created in the 1980s to help the homeless community. The McKinney-Vento Act offered several programs to assist the homeless with housing, health, and education. Sadly, rural communities only can offer some of the programs included in the act due to limited resources. The reasons for homelessness is the same in rural and urban areas. Low visibility and the lack of adequate representation, ensures that the problem of rural homelessness will continue to be ignored by programs designed to help the urban homeless. The Problem The homeless population in rural areas have been on the rise since the 1980s. Rural areas have limited resources to help those who are in desperate need. Rural homelessness is a growing problem for both adults and children who are forced to live on the streets. Homeless rural community individuals are homeless for any number of reasons, although the primary reason is believed to be economic issues. Surprisingly, not all homeless individuals are without jobs. Homeless individuals who still have jobs are suffering, because minimum wage is just not enough for them to get by each month. The cost of living is raised almost every year, but the minimum wage amount doesn't. Therefore, it's harder on those individuals with actual jobs to find affordable housing. Mental issues, natural disaster, drug addiction, domestic abuse, lack of employment opportunities, and unexpected eviction notices are just a few other reasons as to why families maybe become homeless. 25% of the homeless suffer from some form of mental illness (Center for Public Interest Research, nd). There are also women and children that are homeless due to fleeing domestic violence relationships and there not being adequate shelters or programs to provide assistance in rural areas (Center for Public Interest Research, nd). Very few rural areas have some form of homeless shelter. Rural families that are homeless end up on the streets, living in their car (if owned), or living with other family members. The biggest problem with homeless in rural communities is the lack of shelter options for those in need. Several rural areas don't have a place for those who are homeless to live. Women who are homeless due to domestic abuse don't have the abilities to have shelter at a safe hav en for women just like them. Homeless individuals in rural areas would have to travel just to seek a form of shelter. 40% of the homeless in America consist of families. Leaving more than 1.3 million children without a home each year. There are least 800,000 Americans, including about 200,000 children are without a home in America (Bassuk Friedman, 2005). Unfortunately, rural homelessness can be a very difficult to track. Rural homeless individuals remain homeless because they are scared to ask for help, in addition to the shame that they feel for being homeless. Homelessness levels are impossible to track, especially on a grand scale with accuracy therefore, some of those that are homeless remain homeless due to not wanting to be classified as homeless. In addition, there's no way to know exactly where homeless people seeks shelter. Social welfare policies have been put into place throughout the course of history to attempt to deal with the present problem of homelessness. Homelessness reports go back as far as the 1600s when we only had 13 colonies. One of the governments first attempts to help the homeless was the Elizabethan Poor Laws, which placed the difficulty of the poor to responsibilities of the community. The federal government finally stepped in to help deal with homelessness during the Great Depression with the Federal Transient Service, which funded work training programs, shelters, health centers, housing, and work camps from 1933 to 1936. (Street News Service, 2010). Then Social Security Services came about during Roosevelt's presidential term, resulting in the end of funding for this program. The policy that had the most impact on the homeless population was the McKinney-Vento Act.