Child Homelessness: A Global Challenge - Research Paper

Introduction

Child homelessness is defined as the inability of a child to acquire a permanent, routinely, and adequate nighttime residence. In most events, the children find themselves either roaming on the streets or moving from one relative to another because of a lack of a fixed house or rather place to settle. Child homelessness is also a challenge that is linked to the high rate of poverty levels across the globe. As such, it is a problem that is not only linked to the third world states but even those with an advanced level of the economy considering the existent of high poverty levels.

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Causes of Child Homeless

The first issue that causes homelessness is poverty. Poor families have the inability to provide for most of the necessities. For example, those touching on food, shelter, education, and even medication. At times, poverty may lead to the consideration of difficult choices due to limited resources. One of the difficult choice is on opting to do without shelter in preference for food. The other cause is based on the failures of a System. For example, the inability of the government to take care of its vulnerable citizens (Bassuk 496). Some of the examples of system failures are based on the inadequacy in discharging planning programs and poor coverage of children's welfare. The other cause may be deduced from domestic violence. Many at times, some of the homeless children who live in the streets have homes but cannot stay with their families due to the increased incidences of domestic violence. As such, they find the household environment unbearable and resort to streets where they can find peace although with little or no comfort.

Traumatic events also exist as a significant cause. Examples of such events include job loss of a breadwinner parent, house fire, family break-up and to a greater extent, domestic violence. The events may deprive the family breadwinner of the sense of financial freedom or may come with depression, which may later develop to other health complications. The last cause is based on the existent of housing shortages or those that are accessible go for expensive rates. Most families, therefore, find themselves in a situation where the little they have cannot guarantee a quality, safe, and affordable housing and are left with the option of resorting to a temporary residential arrangement or a total lack of place of residence (Grant et al., n.p). The temporary residence may not befit the child's need, for example, the guarantee of security and food to mention but a few and as such may decide to resort to the streets.

Effective Solutions for Addressing the Problem of Child Homelessness

Child homelessness is an issue that calls for collective efforts from all quarters. The government needs to play the greatest role in ensuring that its citizens receive adequate and effective housing. One of the solutions is for the government to consider the implementation of federal housing programs. Some of the two largest federal housing program plans are the federal housing vouchers and public housing. The federal housing voucher is equally referred to as the section 8 vouchers or the Housing Choice Voucher (Perlman and John 875). The housing vouchers provide opportunities to low-income earning citizens to acquire shelter in the standard market-rate housing of their preference and at the same time, offer subsidies that are flexible based on their family income over a while.

The other issue is based on permanent supportive housing. The program was first pioneered by New York City in the 1980s and has proven to be a success over the years based on its cost-effectiveness. The permanent supportive housing framework brings together housing assistance services with significant support services for people with different degrees of health complications. Examples of such complications may be noted on those living with HIV/AIDs, cancer, and other diseases that have fallen within the frameworks of national disasters. The government can also consider starting compulsory saving schemes to assist those families who may get faced with different degrees of disasters at different stages of life. The compulsory savings can be used in aiding them to acquire permanent housing when in need (Perlman and John 880). Non-governmental organizations should also consider coming up with programs that can mitigate child homelessness to relieve the government of the burden of dealing with the menace.

How Conflict Theory View Child Homelessness

The theory was brought forward by Karl Marx. It put forth a claim on the society being in a situation of perpetual conflict following the competitions that come with few resources. It equally opines that the maintenance of social order is through power and domination. The maintenance goes against the norm of conformity and consensus. The theory also views individuals with wealth and power as attempting to hold on their status by all circumstances. The maintenance of the state affects the poor because their state must remain the same or get worse for the rich to remain richer. A primary premise of the theory pertains to everyone working for their benefit; as such, there is no progress made in changing the status quo (Wildeman 76). Conflict theory, therefore, views child homelessness as a condition that comes to existence following how the social order exists where the rich continue to amerce wealth at the expense of the poor. As such the gap between the rich and the poor either remains the same or continues to widen.

Social Problems Caused by Child Homelessness

One of the social problems is based on the poor upbringing of the child which may lead to poor mental and physical health. The other issues are based on the missed educational chances that the child would have acquired for career development. There are also chances of engaging in deviance (Wildeman 79). The examples of deviance include engaging in criminal activities and resorting to drugs and substance abuse, to mention but a few.

Socio-Economic Problems Caused by Child Homelessness

The primary socio-economic problem caused by child homelessness is based on increased crime rates. The homeless children may end in the streets and join street gangs and develop to dangerous criminals. The future of a country's economic system may also be in limbo when there are many cases of child homelessness (Wildeman 81). It means the future contributors to its economy are getting wasted each day and missing opportunities that can enable them to steer forward the country's development agenda.

Conclusion

In summary, child homelessness is a problem that deprives children of the opportunity of having permanent residence. They miss the opportunities that can make them responsible citizens and as such bringing uncertainties to a country's future. The government should, therefore, come up with initiatives of mitigating child homelessness to guarantee a better future.

Works Cited

Bassuk, Ellen L. "Ending child homelessness in America." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 80.4 (2010): 496. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01052.x

Grant, Roy, et al. "Twenty-five years of child and family homelessness: where are we now?." American Journal of Public Health 103.S2 (2013): e1-e10. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3969115/

Perlman, Staci, and John Fantuzzo. "Timing and influence of early experiences of child maltreatment and homelessness on children's educational well-being." Children and Youth Services Review 32.6 (2010): 874-883. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/47825211/fulltext_stamped.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTiming_and_influence_of_early_experience.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20191130%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20191130T173246Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=89105b61d2b580359f2fdcb3dd72ef621e9475a9db790c90564ca35be69f78c9

Wildeman, Christopher. "Parental incarceration, child homelessness, and the invisible consequences of mass imprisonment." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 651.1 (2014): 74-96. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8fb3/325c477f4b8666ff55f9eb5e85e5125dbe75.pdf