Homelessness has been around forever but often looked over as something that isn’t a big issue, but why is the public just now becoming more informed in recent years? We are being informed more and more about it because the population is becoming larger and larger. However, we often neglect the severity of homelessness. On a single night in 2018, more than 372,000 individuals were estimated to be homeless, representing sixty seven percent of the total number of people. The Homeless population is based on different factors such as age, location and annual income.
Evidence has shown that teen homelessness across america is on going and impacts youth of all cultures and backgrounds. According to the HUDs, 34 percent of the homeless population is under 24. Every year, over 2 million teens experience a period of homlessness. (Covenant House). Teens typically experience homlessness for a couple reasons and it usually leads back to parents. The main role for parents is to make sure that their children grow up with a comfortable life and when they cannot provide that, their children struggle which could then lead to homelessness later in their life. Studies also show that more than half of homeless teens have witnessed drug users and abuse in the household, whether that be the parents, siblings, other family members or even friends. Another reason teens become homeless is because they end up in foster care. Foster care seems like a good idea but it does not always help for the better. According to Covenant House, more than 25 percent of children who undergo foster care become homeless within two to four years after leaving the system.
Since homelessness in America has immensely grown, many different political members have shared their views on the subject and how to improve the situation. Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, had his opinion but seemed to not work out as planned. A month after Garcetti delivered his rousing State of the City address, California released its annual homelessness count, revealing that after an encouraging 4 percent drop from 2017 to 2018, Los Angeles’s homeless population grew by 16 percent in 2019, bringing post-2011 growth up to 52 percent. These numbers would be alarming in any city, but in Los Angeles they are especially so, because the city is the focal point of a particularly brutal style of homelessness.
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Seventy-five percent of the city’s homeless population is unsheltered, typhus and typhoid threaten to create a public-health emergency, and a growing number of homeless people are either the perpetrators or the victims of violent crime. A more popular political view would be our president, Donald Trump. Mr. Trump’s administration has proposed cutting federal housing dollars and undoing Obama-era rules that aimed to desegregate neighborhoods. Another proposed policy would deny federal housing aid to households that include anyone living in the United States illegally, even when other members are eligible for aid as lawful residents or citizens. And the administration would let homeless shelters refuse shelter to transgender people.
Making homelessness rare also requires becoming more effective at targeting prevention services to households, including individual adults, that are identified as most likely to become homeless. Through rent assistance, legal help, and other services, individuals can be supported in their own homes. With the right mix of early services and limited financial supports, many individuals can avoid the traumatic experience of homelessness altogether.
