Homelessness In America.

Essay by IamAjenyesJunior High, 9th grade October 2003

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A recently widowed mother leaves her deserted, vacant house with her 3 young children in tears not knowing where they would end up or if they would even survive. After her husband died suddenly with no insurance she had to sell everything to try and keep her family alive on the streets. While this may not have happened in real life, every night in America alone up to 600,000 men, women, and children go homeless. Homelessness is a major issue.

There is no one cause of homelessness. After a decade of research it was confirmed that there are many causes and varieties of contemporary homelessness. A person may have been raised homeless and stuck in a poverty cycle. Often when people are homeless because of a psychiatric disability, substance abuse, domestic violence, or a chronic illness it is even harder to get them off the streets again. However, poverty is the common denominator of homelessness.

In 1992 nearly 37 million Americans were officially classified as poor. That was a rise from 12.8% of the nation in 1989 to 14.5% in 1992. Single women with children were even more vulnerable to poverty. When a family has no insurance and their source of income suddenly dies, the family might have to resort to homelessness. The source of income walking out on the family would be another way single women with children become homeless. There are many causes for contemporary homelessness.

There are a lot of different effects homelessness could have on a person. Death is something many homeless worry about and see quite often due to their squalid living conditions. It would be easy for them to get diseases and health problems being on the streets and without treatment it could easily kill them. Also, their hygiene would suffer badly and...