America's Homeless Crisis: Half a Million People Sleep Homeless Every Night - Essay Sample

Introduction

Decades of faulty and misguided policies in the United State has made the issue of homelessness a serious issue. According to Nasar et al. (2019), almost half a million people become homeless every single night in the United States. Out of this number, 65% found in a homeless shelter, while the rest found in sidewalks, abandoned buildings, parks, and in their cars. With the current global pandemic as a result of COVID-19 has not made things any easier for Americans. Today more people are losing their homes than ever before. One of the organizations in New York aimed at addressing the issue of homelessness in the country is the Coalition for the Homeless.

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Apart from updating people on the state of homelessness in New York City, the Coalition for Homeless, through its website provide an avenue for well-wishers to donate towards providing shelter to the homeless. Homeless people can also use the website to seek help for the organization (Coalition for Homeless, 2020). The website is easy to navigate, and major operations of the organization are well highlighted for ease of use. For instance, for people in need of help, a click at the “I Need Help” menu directs to a list of possible scenarios in which the company can intervene (Coalition for Homeless, 2020). These scenarios include cases where a person is being evicted, a person needs shelter, housing, food, disability right, fleeing from an abusive partner, or any person needing help with anything else.

As a potential donor to a passionate person towards the issue of homelessness, the Coalition for Homeless provides a roadmap that can bring people together in ending the state of homelessness shortly. The website provides real-time statistics about the issue. Through their websites and social media platforms, the organization enlightens people on the menace of homelessness by visualizing data on the trend of homelessness in the country and providing a way forward in reducing it. The company also provides an avenue through which people can donate to housing people in society.

The company also provides several programs aimed at educating people on the issue of homelessness. These programs include food, crisis services, housing, job training, youth, and advocacy. Under the fool program (Grand Central Food Program), deliver 800 to 1200 health meals of hot stew, bread, fresh fruits, etc. to people struggling to survive rough on the streets around the New York City. Under the crisis program, Coalition for Homeless provides immediate, lifesaving help to homeless people at-risk women, children, and men (Coalition for Homeless, 2020). Coalition for Homeless also has three housing programs, whose sole purpose is providing people with the dignity and stability of a permanent home as well as the provision of supportive services to families around the city. The organization also offers job training programs to homeless and people with low income in the bid to provide them with a tool for a better job that can help to support their families. Under the youth program, the coalition for homeless helps homeless kids overcome the obstacles of living in the street to building a brighter future for them. Finally, the advocacy program is aimed at advancing a sensible long-term solution to the crisis of homelessness and defending the rights of the homeless in the city of New York.

In essence, the Coalition for Homeless uses its website and social media platform to provide baselines parameters for reporting its activities in helping the needy in society.

This is in the bid to meet the requirements by the government to reports and answer the need to inform donors of the impact their philanthropic investments have on the people of New York City. One of the primary donor stewardship is effective and transparent reporting. Apart from helping to communicate to the donor what their philanthropic investment has on the people of New York, reporting through the website and highlighting all their programs helps in attracting new philanthropic investments. A study by Carmona, (2018) indicated that reporting can be used at several strategic points in the donor cycle to cultivate for more donations.

The Website and the company’s social media platforms also act as guide to the homeless people on how, where, and what kind of help they can get from the organization.

Studies have shown that homeless people access internet services and computer at public university libraries, social services agencies, coffee shops, and hotel lobbies, and can, therefore, access information on the types of help they can access from Coalition for Homeless (Raven, Kaplan, Rosenberg, Tieu, Guzman, & Kushel, 2018). As such, the organization’s website has helped in responding to the web-based needs of their current client and those of prospective clients. The user interface of the website, the language used, and the general appearance of the website also plays a major role in determining whether people experiencing homelessness will seek help. The graphical design of the Coalition for Homeless website is appealing and well detailed, which helps in compelling homeless in the street of New York to seek their help.

References

Carmona, L. (2018). Building the donor pipeline: A case study of how Wayne State University built a donor relations programme from the ground up. Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing, 3(2), 110-120.

Coalition for Homeless. (2020). About Us. Retrieved 2020, from The Coalition for Homeless: https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/

Nisar, H., Vachon, M., Horseman, C., & Murdoch, J. (2019). Market Predictors of Homelessness: How Housing and Community.

Raven, M. C., Kaplan, L. M., Rosenberg, M., Tieu, L., Guzman, D., & Kushel, M. (2018). Mobile phone, computer, and internet use among older homeless adults: results from the HOPE HOME cohort study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6(12), e10049.