Homelessness can be categorized as a complex social problem since it is one of the things closely connected to poverty. This is caused by the societal barriers such as high rates of unemployment, where most of the homeless people are unemployed. Thus, they are forced to live in the streets due to lack of finance and affordable housing. In addition, homelessness is associated to changes in economy, housing market, and the significant shifts in policies that address poverty. Finally, homelessness is reflected as a complex reciprocity between structural factors such as discrimination and economic shifts, system failures such as inadequate support for immigrants and refugees, and personal circumstances (Korgen & Furst, 2012).
A vast range of programs to address homelessness involves government policies and funds. However, other ways can be used to fund the homelessness programs. For instance, cities could increase the task rates for businesses earning more than 20 million in order to fund programs that raise funds for the homeless. Further, appropriate use of funds is using it to benefit other than using it for emergency shelter, temporary and permanent housing, they can be used appropriately to cater for job training, providing proper mental health care, drug treatment, education and other support programs (Bernhardt, 2011). Inappropriate uses of such include using them for parties, buying alcoholic beverages and personal use by leader. The concern about government policies is that, the funds are used to pay for beds and rooms for the homeless while these funds could be used to provide adequate permanent housing for them. Thus, these policies might never end the problem of homelessness.
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Homelessness is a social problem since the forces that bring about homelessness are complex and tend to be social in nature. These forces include addictions to drugs, family breakdowns, and mental sicknesses, which are intensified by structural forces such as insufficient affordable housing, poor economy, and inadequate mental health resources and facilities. These factors when combined, they increase the levels of homelessness (Korgen & Furst, 2012). Groups of people affected by the issue of homelessness include of the mentally ill people and the unemployed since they do not have the capital to cater for their health bills nor afford shelter.
One of the policies intended to reduce and eliminate homelessness that seems to be effective is the permanent supportive housing. The afore-mentioned policy was pioneered in New York City, and has been proven the most successful and cost effective solution ( Sternheimer, 2013) . It is a combination of affordable housing assistance together with critical support services for people living with mental health illnesses, HIV/AIDS, and other serious health illnesses. Further study shows that it costs less while compared to other policies for it saves taxpayers the hustle of paying money that could have been spent on expensive shelters and hospitalization.
References
Korgen, K. &Furst, G. (2012). Social problems: Causesand responses
C.B.C. Television. (2008). Homelessness is a Symptom.
Bernhardt, E. (2011, September 14). Applying Sociological Imagination to Homelessness.
Sternheimer, K. (2013, March 28). The sociological imagination and personal crises.
