The Problem With Homeless Today - 1209 Words

Week 7 Assignment: The Problem with Homeless in America Equilla Simmons Boston University One of the basic human needs is shelter. While many people take having a roof over their head for granted, there is a plethora of people that have no place to call home. However, America has become a place where Social Darwinism is vastly accepted, leaving several people that are homeless with limited resources. â€Å"In January 2013, 610,042 people were homeless on a given night. Most (65 percent) were living in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs and 35 percent were living in unsheltered locations â€Å"(Cortes, Morris, Henry, 2013, p.1). While this is a decrease from last year in which there were, â€Å"633,782 people†¦show more content†¦Homelessness has no age limit. â€Å"Nearly one-quarter (23 percent or 138,149) of all homeless people were children, under the age of 18. Ten percent (or 61,541) were between the ages of 18 and 24, and 67 percent (or 410,352) were 25 years or older† (Cortes et al., 2013 p.6). This shows how the problem affects every cohort and it’s sad that children have the highest rate of homelessness. Many people tend to blame the homeless person for making the wrong decisions in their youth. However, the youth have the highest rate of homelessness and they haven’t even had the chance to make some of those decisions. 20% of homeless youth are LGBT, mostly due to severe family conflict They are the most vulnerable along with older people and â€Å"being older increased the risk of experiencing a violent attack† (Meinbresse et al., 2014). In addition, the veterans that risk their life for the American system make up a certain percentage of homeless people. According to The Department of Housing and Urban Development, â€Å"there were 57,849 homeless veterans on a single night in January 2013. Sixty percent were located in shelters or transitional housing programs, and 40 percent were in unsheltered locations. Just under 8 percent (4,456) were femaleâ€Å"(Cortes et al., 2013). Many of them travel to serve and protect and come back to nothing, but the streets. While there are