A homeless person is one who lacks a specific, regular, and convenient nighttime residence ( National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016). Individuals who meet this description constitute the homeless population. These people could be living in an area not intended for a human dwelling such as parks, abandoned buildings, cars, sidewalks, and under the bridges. They could also be sheltered in an emergency or transitional housing programs. Slightly more than 500 000 US citizens were homeless, 65 of whom were in transitional shelters while the remaining 35 % were without shelters at all ( Lurie, Schuster & Rankin, 2015) . The highest concentration of homeless individuals is on the cities along the West Coast, but the cities of New York, Boston, and Washington have the highest rates of sheltered homeless. The biggest drivers of homelessness include high housing prices, tolerability of sleeping on the streets, available substitutes to housing through the provision of shelters for the homeless, and individual factors such as drug use, mental illness, history of incarceration, or low income.
Homelessness in itself is not a social issue, rather a reflection of social biases and injustices inherent in society. In the United States, the race is the most established demographic profile that reveals the discriminatory aspect of homelessness, especially on the marginalized groups. Statistics by HUD show that African Americans, who make up just about 12% of the general US population, account for 42% of the homeless population in the US ( Lurie, Schuster & Rankin, 2015) . A similar trend is witnessed among the Hispanics, who contribute to less than 10% of the overall US population but represent nearly 20% of the homeless population ( Lurie, Schuster & Rankin, 2015) . These minority races are disproportionately disadvantaged for reasons of poverty, employment discriminations, and federal housing programs, all of which contribute to the larger picture of residential segregation. It is more difficult for the people of color, immigrants, and refugees to climb out of homelessness than their mainstream whites, primarily due to the disparities created by residential segregation.
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Homelessness and Residential Segregation
Residential segregation primarily refers to discriminations in the provision of quality and affordable housing on the grounds of racial differences ( de Leeuw et al., 2007) . Reports may be estimating gradual declines in racial prejudice, but the effects of this type of discrimination continue to pervade almost all aspects of the US housing market in several ways. The US government has a history of creating and implementing policies to propagate the exceedingly biased residential patterns witnessed today. As early as 1934, the mortgage insurance programs for federal housing administration changed the housing market to be broadly accessible to whites only, while it remained inaccessible to the people of color outside the upper social classes. The African Americans were further reduced systematically from the GI Bill loans through the bank’s refusal to approve loans for the blacks during the 1950s and 1960s ( de Leeuw et al., 2007) . Additional housing programs that have contributed to residential segregation and eventually disproportionate housing include: (a) public housing- the government has deliberately concentrated family public housing in areas of concentrated poverty, which are predominately inhabited by the people of color ( de Leeuw et al., 2007) ; (b) the section 8 housing choice voucher program- section 8 program has the potential to reduce residential discrimination. However, the government has reduced the budget for participating in this program, thereby restricting participation in affordable housing choice and mobility; (c) zoning - zoning gives the local governments the authorities to define who inhabits their territories, and has alienated the people of color from certain neighborhoods where there is sustainable housing ( de Leeuw et al., 2007) .
The government is still slow in responding adequately to the factors contributing to residential segregation. The Latinos and the African Americans continue to encounter segregation, whether they attempt to rent or purchase homes, secure funding, or secure insurance for a home purchase ( de Leeuw et al., 2007) . The government is obliged to ensure that every citizen enjoys the right to proper housing and property ownership without distinction as to race. However, failure to cease the systemic discriminatory policies and procedures continues to deprive the minorities of such a vital right and send them out to the street or to the homeless programs.
History of Homelessness
The modern era of homelessness emerged in the 1980s. Two major factors contributed to the rise in the cases of homelessness during this period: economic recession and de-institutionalization of the mentally challenged persons. The economic recession from the 1970s led to a rise in the rates of unemployment. A majority of the unemployed could not afford rent or home purchase and ended in areas not deemed suitable for human residence. The HUD budget for housing assistance was also reduced during this period from $29 billion in 1976 to $17 billion in 1980, then to about $11 billion in 1990 ( Murphy & Tobin, 2014) . These budget cuts reduced the opportunities for subsidized housing among the poor, leading to an upsurge in homelessness. The Federal government further allowed for the discharge of a large number of mentally ill persons in 1984 but did not lay sufficient systems to support them. Part of this population lives in the streets to the present day. Afterward, the creation and implementation of discriminatory policies have made it nearly impossible for the minority populations to pull themselves out of homelessness ( Lurie, Schuster & Rankin, 2015) .
Regardless, there have been response actions aimed at alleviating homelessness. Both federal initiatives and offers from social workers have been employed in the fight against homelessness. The very first federal ruling which aimed at curbing homelessness was the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1977 ( Bloom, 2005) . Through this act, the federal government defined and allocated resources to shelter the people experiencing homelessness.
Social workers, too, have made significant steps in reducing chronic homelessness by adopting policies such as:
Outreach
This has been the first step in linking the homeless people with the services they need. Most social workers have structured outreach programs to include multidisciplinary teams that increase engagement. These teams have always set out to develop positive relationships with the homeless and link them with housing, treatment services, and other social work resources ( Caton, Wilkins & Anderson, 2007) . Although just a small fraction of the population has been empowered to take up outreach social work, their effort has always directed homeless persons to access permanent housing.
Housing
Models such as Safe Havens have attached supportive social services with housing to help residential stability for the chronically homeless population ( Caton, Wilkins & Anderson, 2007) .
Discharge Planning
Social workers have made an effort to organize for effective processes for discharging persons from prisons, treatment amenities, and health centers in efforts to prevent the most vulnerable homeless persons from ending back into homelessness. The assessment of client needs has seen appropriate post-release housing arrangements come about as alternatives t discharging the homeless to the streets or emergency shelter ( Caton, Wilkins & Anderson, 2007) .
However, the major disadvantage of such social work is that they have provided tolerability to homelessness. Due to the supportive efforts of social work, a majority of people who could work hard to afford proper housing have been lured to the streets as they look up to the social workers for assistance ( National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016) . Thus, while social work is positively contributing to the reduction of homelessness, it also has a reverse effect of attracting others back into it.
More to the federal initiatives, the President Obama administration also rolled out a strategic plan to end homelessness in 2010. The plan had four principal objectives: (a) prevent or end veteran homelessness within five years; (b) end chronic homelessness within seven years; (c) end child, youth, and family homelessness in 10 years; and (4) create a perfect channel for ending any other type of homelessness. While there is evidence of success in these strategies, their full implementation has is yet to be realized. As a consequence, the Trump administration decided to reverse the failed policies for addressing homelessness. The president signed an executive order to offset the burdensome policies, which are the principal regulatory barriers to affordable housing ( National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016 ) .
Rationale for Choosing Homelessness
I chose homelessness as a topic because of its sensitivity to the quality of human lives. Homelessness comes with fatal consequences, as a majority of the homeless stand higher risks of dying when compared to the properly housed population. Several factors, such as drug-related poisoning, suicide, and infections, are significant contributors to the precarious health patterns of those sleeping on the streets. Some of these conditions are preventable, but the widespread failure to tackle them shows a failure of the current health system to intervene in the needs of the homeless. Practices such as unsafe discharging of the homeless back to the streets is a failure to safeguard their future health and should be delayed when it is not safe. Every citizen holds the right to dignity and respect. Therefore, when the government fails to tackle the determinants of homelessness such as child poverty, poor education, and poor housing programs, not only does it deprive the homeless of their rights to proper housing but also deprives them of their right to dignity and respect.
Conclusion
In sum, the trends in homelessness in the US have captured the essential failures by the government to create equal opportunities for proper housing. Specifically, the country is slow to ensure that the people of color have ease of access to quality housing. The current lag has led to the ongoing rise in the homeless population. Despite the attempts by social workers and frail efforts by the government to offset the trends, the future of the homeless remain volatile.
References
Caton, C. L., Wilkins, C., & Anderson, J. (2007, September). People who experience long-term homelessness: Characteristics and interventions. In Toward understanding homelessness: The 2007 national symposium on homelessness research . Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
de Leeuw, M. B., Whyte, M. K., Ho, D., Meza, C., & Karteron, A. (2007). Residential Segregation and Housing Discrimination in the United States. Poverty & Race Research Action Council. December .
Lurie, K., Schuster, B., & Rankin, S. (2015). Discrimination at the margins: The intersectionality of homelessness & other marginalized groups. Available at SSRN 2602532 .
Murphy, J., & Tobin, K. (2014). Homelessness in the US: A historical analysis. American Educational History Journal , 41 (1/2), 267.
National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2016). The state of homelessness in America.
