The problem of homelessness in contemporary America is one of the biggest social issues with statistics indicating that it is not only increasing but in some of cities such as North Charleston, South Carolina it is has become one of the major issues. In retrospect, homelessness, as a social problem is intrinsically connected to a myriad of other issues that usually act as causal agents such as unemployment, unaffordable housing, mental health, substance abuse and most importantly. Primarily, homelessness is mainly as a result of poverty that definitively refers to the inability to meet one’s basic needs as the subsequent discussions will show. However, albeit the aforementioned factors, homelessness is also as a result of poor individual choices including laziness though in many cases the choices only account for a very small population. To this end, unaffordable housing, unemployment and poverty feature as the leading causes of poverty that significantly increases the vulnerability of one’s homelessness.
The statistics of cities eviction rates show that the cities with the highest levels of homelessness are as a result of unaffordable housing. In cities such North Charleston, the cost of housing is relatively higher than other cities ("These cities have the highest eviction rates in America," n.d.). Notably, in most of the cities with affordable housing, there are relatively lower levels of homelessness because even the poor population segment can afford housing (Trawver et al., 2019). Thus, with the rising cost of housing, there is a higher likelihood of homelessness. High cost of housing, as a major factor of homelessness, accounts of for the high level of homelessness in America. In light of this observation, it is accurate to assert that the assumption of homelessness being the result of poor personal choices such as laziness is in accurate. More precisely, it does accurately represent the underlying social issues that cause homelessness. Unaffordable housing is therefore one of the leading causal factors responsible for the high levels of homelessness in the American society.
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Rising unemployment in America is also a major factor that accounts for a high level of homelessness across major cities in America. In retrospect, as Glynn & Fox, 2019 observes the high eviction rates in most of the American cities closely associates with an increase of unemployment rates. Research show that as a result of unemployment, most of the homeless people are unable to meet their most basic financial obligations including housing thus leading to eviction (Glynn & Fox, 2019). The common American in the poor social classes live pay check to pay check thus in the event of a job loss, they are rendered homeless. Therefore, from this point of view, it accurate to hypothesize homelessness as a result of an influx of unemployment levels in America.
Other factors that account for the increase of homelessness include poverty as a result of mental health related issues especially among the veteran community who are the highest number of homeless individuals in America. In Oklahoma City, the eviction rates stand at 6. 13 % which is relatively lower than other cities (Lab, n.d.). Primarily, the lower eviction rates are mainly as a result of a stable work environment with unemployment rates being relatively lower than other cities with high eviction rates. More so, the housing rates are also relatively lower and thus affordable even to the poor population. ("U.S. metros with the highest eviction rates 2017," n.d.) Collectively, these various factors account for the high prevalence rats of homelessness in the American society. Reversing these rates require that the American legislative policy frameworks come up with such policies that help to lower the housing cost especially in at risk population. Arguably, by reducing the cost of housing and adopting such policies that increase employment the issue of homelessness may be adequately addressed. Also, adopting health policy frameworks that allow for the increased access to the treatment for the at risk populations especially veterans may help to reduce the rates of homelessness in American society.
To conclude, as the discussions above show homelessness is one of the major social issues in American society because the primary causal factors are mainly related to unemployment, unaffordable policies and poverty; all which are part of the sociological spectrum. In retrospect, to address these issues, it is important for the adoption of such policy frameworks that address the roots causal factors of unemployment, unaffordable hosing and poverty.
References
Glynn, C., & Fox, E. B. (2019). Dynamics of homelessness in urban America. The Annals of Applied Statistics , 13 (1), 573-605. https://doi.org/10.1214/18-aoas1200
Lab, E. (n.d.). Eviction rankings . Eviction Lab. https://evictionlab.org/rankings/#/evictions?r=United%20States&a=0&d=evictionRate&lang=en
These cities have the highest eviction rates in America . (n.d.). mediafeed. https://mediafeed.org/these-cities-have-the-highest-eviction-rates-in-america/
Trawver, K. R., Oby, S., Kominkiewicz, L., Kominkiewicz, F. B., & Whittington, K. (2019). Homelessness in America: An overview. Homelessness Prevention and Intervention in Social Work , 3-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03727-7_1
U.S. metros with the highest eviction rates 2017 . (n.d.). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/785719/metro-areas-highest-eviction-rates-usa/
