Essay Sample on Homelessness as Social Issue

Introduction

While not always apparent, homelessness is an issue that very much is a problem that exists in the United States. In the United States, a homeless person does not have a permanent roof over their head and is typically living on the streets. In the United States, a homeless person may still be receiving government services, and may even have a job. However, there are many things that could lead to a person being homeless in the United States despite receiving government aid, and despite owning property like a car or cell phone.

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One of the leading causes of homelessness in the United States is a mental disability. Unfortunately, many people who experience mental disorders find themselves on the street when their families or caregivers are no longer willing to provide for them. The United States lacks affordable programs to assist people with mental disabilities, as well as the resources to help diagnose mental disabilities early on. As a result, many people go undiagnosed and are left on their own to deal with the responsibilities of adulthood without ever properly addressing their mental health. They soon find that they are unable to keep up and end up homeless.

Homelessness has many negative implications for both the actual homeless individuals and for the cities in which they reside. As for homeless individuals, their lack of full-time access to warmth, clean water, bathrooms, hygienic resources, etc. leads to their increased rates of health issues. In addition to physical health issues, many people who become homeless as a result of their mental health conditions do not have access to treatment, and therefore the symptoms of their mental disorders become more prominent. These individuals may turn to drug use as a way of self-medicating. This has implications on the city in which they reside.

When a city's homeless population begins to dabble in drug use, they become a risk to the city's safety as they begin to rely more heavily on drug use. Additionally, drug use significantly reduces the chances of a homeless person finding and maintaining a job, which then contributes to the rising homeless population. Cities then find themselves in a position where they are spending more tax dollars on emergency healthcare for homeless, cleaning up after them, and taking extra measures to keep their cities safe.

Intersectional Perspective on Homelessness

Within the homeless population in the United States, there is a disproportionate number of homeless youth who come from the foster care system. Unfortunately, many of them end up in this situation because of unfortunate circumstances; almost always circumstances beyond their control. Regardless, due to the apathetic approach to addressing foster youth homelessness, there has been a national increase.

The increase in homeless foster youth over time has had lasting implications. First, there is an inverse relationship between the rise in homeless foster youth and the reduced level of education they receive. Without a stable home to stay the night in, and the constant worry of survival, school is rarely a priority for homeless youth. Countless days of school may be missed as a result of moving from foster family to foster family, vagrancy, or other issues. (Adams, 2018) As a result, these students are often late to their classes and drop out of school when they first get the opportunity to do so. Additionally, the time in school that they are able to attend is a huge struggle for these youth, who score between 16% and 20% below the average of their nonfoster youth peers. Less than 60% of foster youth graduate from high school and only 3% of foster youth end up receiving a higher education. Their lack of access to education, as well as a lack of proactiveness from social services to help guide them, lead to many of them struggling to find jobs, contributing to the overall rate of homelessness across foster youth.

The relationship between foster youth and homelessness is also apparent when one looks to a foster youth's ability to maintain a job. The previous adoptive care adolescence may find it hard or limited to work due to their histories, and no-job exercise chances. With their lack of stability, foster youth also lack the skills that are necessary to maintain a steady job. Further, foster youth lack the creative and educational groundwork to join a college, which for most serves as their "training package" for life on their own. Youth that does manage to get occupations may find jobs that have low payment or wages.

As a result of homelessness, foster youth may find it difficult to maintain physical health, interactive health, and overall well-being. Foster youth ages 19-25 have a higher occurrence of health issues in comparison to their counterparts who have not been in foster care. These include the following: hospitalization due to disease, chance, injury, and the use of drugs for emotional problems. Also, one study has created that one-third of the previous foster care youth have cerebral health illnesses which include: hopelessness, dysthymia, post-traumatic stress complaint (PTSD) alcohol abuse, community phobia, substance misuse alcohol requirement, and ingredient dependence.

Unfortunately, the Justice System is both a system that creates homelessness for foster youth and a result of that homelessness. Youth that is in temporary care that has experienced antiquity of mistreatment or neglect are at higher risk for an early onset of misbehavior. Youth who are liberated from adoptive care may be at danger of attractive complex by the unlawful integrity system due to an absence of provision links, and little employable services, then crazy living situations. Forty-one section had spent time in jail, 26 part remained complicated in the law court system, and are with official charges. And seven pieces were imprisoned.

Foster youth struggle with a lack of community connections. Lasting relationships with confident adults are an essential defensive influence against adverse outcomes and can deliver serious sustenance to youth as they develop into adulthood. Youth in adoptive care often rely on the adult they had who offered specialized support, but those adult roles often exit the youth's life as the youth exits the system. Although the adult's positions in the child's life are at the time very brief, the transition is more successful when he or she has a strong link to a trusted adult that offers them support. The founding of this association before deliverance is important, and luckily an easier connection to make given that many youths have had intense involvements with many adults in the past. Youth who have a trusted adult actively present in their life are more likely to avoid homelessness by way of accessing resources provided to them by a said adult.

Next, all foster youth have to handle aging out of the system, whether or not they are prepared to. Every year approximately 20,000 adolescents age out of foster care and lose their legal protections. In the past this occurred when a youth turned 18 years old; today the emancipation age is 21 years old. Those adolescents fare poorly when compared with other 18-21-year-olds who have not spent time in the foster care system (Greeson, Garcia, Kim, & Courtney, 2015). The developmental theory suggests that the foster home environment may actually create more turmoil for the foster youth and contribute to the poor transition into maturity (Ollendick, T. H., Grills, A. E., & King, N. J. (2001)).

The increasing amount of foster youth has not escaped the notice of those in elected positions. As a result, there has been a national policy response to the raised rate of residents that are in foster care. Youth that has not transitioned from adolescence behavior and normalize it have not have had the proper guidance, employment opportunities, financial literacy and other areas that are required for individuality (Okpych, 2015). The self-governing living package in 1986 provided the state with a foundation to prepare homes for the adolescents that are aged 16 years old and above who are in the foster care so that they would not fall to the waste side (Okpych, 2015).

The current study to examine the incidence of accommodation unpredictability and rootlessness amongst a countrywide characteristic illustration the youth leaving the child well-being system. The typical nationwide example of adolescents who are subjected to mistreatment and neglect are often those who are involved with some teenager protecting service.

While the link between foster youth and homelessness is undeniable, it is not a lost cause. There are many nonprofit groups and legal agencies that are trying to generate approaches for youth that can combine into Strategy and training for state crossways of the country. These organizations utilize what is now known about youth development in an effort to contribute to them positively.

Some examples of what these organizations utilize include the ideas of youth elasticity, public connections, and reasoning and social-emotional capability. The first concept, youth elasticity, involves stress management being challenged with the stressors, the challenges, or hardships. The consequence may be individual growth and positive change. In regard to public connections, having the healthy sustenance in a relationship through people, institutions, the public, and a power greater than oneself encourages an intelligence of trust, belonging, and the sensation that he or she matters. Reasoning and social-emotional capability are the obtaining of skill and arrogance that are necessary for creating a sovereign identity and having a productive, responsible and satisfying adulthood.

New Jersey the mainstream of our adolescence in NJFC are qualified for both educational training Voucher (ETV) and teaching Waiver (TW), which funds their case past worthiness remains nine months or extra of adoptive upkeep afterward the age 16. In most gears, the time disbursed in foster care after the age of 16 is far advanced than nine months. In many of the cases, the youth themselves don't consider themselves homeless, despite not having a permanent address. Alexis Barry said that the number of homeless youth that the study represents is misleading because there is more homelessness among the foster youth if you include those who don't have a continuing address, live at school or purely couch surf. In many of these cases, the child doesn't reflect those homeless, despite not having a remaining address. Barry then desires the foster care youth to keep their case open, if they can do so. In New Jersey, foster youth can keep their case open until the age of 21 years old. Although they have the option of freely closing it at the 18 years, however, once they close their case lose all the financial, schooling and support services that fail all the economic, training and support backing they have become relaxed to their money.

As she points out the many stages that can help the adoptive youth to escape rootlessness, with an autonomous living salary Adolescence .that is between the ages of 16 to 17 years of age in the self-governing current assignment and child between the ages of 18 to 21. That is getting their sovereign living qualified to receive the currency for rental, diet, and additional things.

The paths to homelessness are more complicated than you think:

Now everyone can realize that homelessness often manifests itself as a series of events that

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