Homelessness in America SOC331: Social Justice & Ethics

The Homeless situation has become increasingly disturbing in the past twenty-five years. At this point, we as citizens must find a way to address this growing concern before its too late.

We can start by looking at several alternatives; first we will address the history, its objectives, and any information positive or negative that can shed some light on dealing with this conflict; it will also address homelessness from the perspectives of distributive, commutative, and retributive justice. The homeless conditions started sometime in the 1870s. In England, the first mission was established in 1872 to assist the number of homeless. There has always been assistance for people displaced or simply hungry; churches and libraries were among those places that would assist. The end of the civil war caused many families to become homeless, the name given to these misplaced people were called hobohemia. Hobohemia, is a name given to wandering wage-earners during the 1890s; Josiah Flynt, author of an article entitled Hobohemia: Riding the Rails. Mr. Flynt, explains how these guys and some families used the railroads to travel from one state in the Union to another. The price .10 cents per hundred miles and this would be done by some crewman that accepted money; others would take a change and hope they are not caught. Riding the rails can be very dangerous, from 1901 to 1903 there were an estimated 25,000 hobos killed or maimed. Most of the bulls (part of the crew) didnt care for the hobos; in fact they were often violent towards them. Last fun fact, The Famous Tramp" was a nickname of a man that claimed to have traveled 500,000 miles for $7.61. Although, some would dispute this, he did lay down slang terms for those injured while riding the rail, some of those names are Sticks: Train rider who lost a leg; Mitts: Train rider who lost one or both hands; Righty: Train rider who lost right arm and leg; and Lefty: Train rider who lost left arm and leg (Flynt, J. (n.d.). During the Great Depression of the 1930s, people would travel the migrant trial in search of work to provide for their families; some families would travel together because of the loss of their homes and property. After the Great Depression, between 1960 and 1970 congress passed

laws that put more people in the streets after they were removed from mental facilities. Many of the homeless people are associated with drugs and alcohol, this makes it difficult for these people to receive adequate living conditions because of the element associated with drug and alcohol abuse, because New York has a large population of homeless people the majority of them live in the Bowery (http://www.npach.org/american-history-of-homeless.html). What makes this situation unpleasant is there are policies in place that make it harder for these people to be placed. Today we face so many negative challenges, global conflict, no jobs, higher education cost and the never ending story of poverty in the United States. This epidemic does not affect a certain group, we all feel it; all age groups, ethnicity, and religion (http://www.studentagainsthunder.org/page/hhp/overview-homeless-america). According to this article, there is as much as 13% of the population that is experiencing poverty; along with that figure, there are a large amount of homeless that sleep under bridges, in parks and if some are blessed to have an automobile they have the security of shelter (http://www.studentagainsthunder.org/page/hhp/overview-homeless-america). Homelessness does not attract a certain kind of person; homeless people come from all works of life. For instance, 35% are families with children; 23% veterans; along with 25% who are under the age of 18. The problem with the under 18, is a serious problem because these children have no one to turn to for assistance and what will happen to the majority of these children without the proper care and education is they will turn to illegal activities such as stealing, or robbing. Many young women and some young men turn to selling their bodies in order to survive. Others involved in domestic violence make up 35% and the other 20-25% are mental and suffer some form of illness with no aid from to improve their mental stability (http://www.studentagainsthunder.org/page/hhp/overview-homeless-america). The most serve

problem facing the homeless problem are homes, the economic condition surrounding our nation has a grip on affordable housing, not only contributing to that factor is the earning potential of the average family. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the average family would need at least 15.00 dollars an hour to sustain a consistent two bedroom apartment and utilities. In the article, Hunger and Homelessness it uses West Virginia as an example of the lowest rental state in this country and a person would need to earn at least three times the minimum wage in order to afford a two bedroom apartment (http://www.studentagainsthunder.org/page/hhp/overview-homeless-america), the President is looking to raise the minimum wage from 7.25 an hour to 9.00 an hour, but of course he is getting resistance from the other party, this would give consumers more spending power and able to afford food and make rent without having to make choices of whether to eat are pay rent. During research for this assignment, there was an article entitled, the course of recognitive phronesis: Ricoeur's response to the hyper-moralization of inequality. In this work, the author explains that there is no one should be excluded from the distributive institutions of health, education, housing, and social transfers. In other words, no one should go without assistance if they happen to fall on hard times; he further explains that anyone can become sick, lose their job, etc. but does that mean we should be at a disadvantage because of negative costs associated with illness or losing your job? (Mann, M. H. (2009). Ricoeur's Aristotelian interpretation of distributive justice undermines the common good for citizens access to such diverse goods as health, education, personal fulfillment, creativity, and so on (Mann, M. H. (2009), there has to be a fundamental good of civic inclusion, if not there will be a great disadvantage between the haves and have-nots. There is an essential trait associated with the Theory of Justice and that is equality of liberty and equality of opportunity (Mann, M. H.

(2009), every citizen should have an equal amount of everything that is available when times are hard; our government should allow those without the opportunity to live as everyone else regardless of their circumstances. In understanding Disadvantage from the standpoint of distributive justice, this paper will turn to the studies of Jonathan Wolff, Avner de-Shalit. One particular theory that is interesting is that of corrosive disadvantages," disadvantages that increase other disadvantages (Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit (2007). In other words, why make the problem worst then it has to be? The issues involving the disadvantage are basic needs such as living, food to eat each night; employment and adequate medical care. This, if done in a proper manner will bring families closer to living a normal and productive life; this is all most homeless people want, to be allowed to support themselves without much assistance from different governmental agencies. But, it stands to reason that many of our citizens are in need of assistance in order to live in a productive manner. There is a bill that was passed by congress, the 1996 welfare reform legislation; this bill was passed during the time of the Clinton era. One part of the bill in particular targets persons convicted of drugs, they are placed on a lifetime ban from receiving any federal assistance from the government, and this is a perfect example of making sure the have-nots continue to have not. How can someone released from prison with a drug conviction on his/her records afford to feed themselves or their families when its harder to find employment once released? And the same governments that is in place to help those who are in situations such as these are not moving on the issue. There are some states that have lifted the ban, but it really is a futile ban. If one is released from prison and cannot immediately find employment and cant receive allowances from the food stamp program, what are they to do? People need to survive and they will the best way they know how, thats going back to more

drug selling. This has the potential to send the ex-offender back to prison; instead, give them the tools that are needed to make an effort to becoming productive. From the perspective of Commutative justice, the majority of the homeless are just as we are, some loss employment others because of medical conditions. Whatever the case, there needs to be a way to recertify the situation; In this article, the author explains how the church has and always will support a fair wage, family wage and a living wage; our government should follow suit; Remember, those who are just give others what is due to them. When individuals do this for one another, it is called commutative justice (commutative means reciprocal) Olmsted, B. T. J. (2007). This paper has addressed both distributive and commutative justice, now it will address that of retributive justice. The first thing we should focus on is, being homeless is not a crime; its a circumstance brought on due to factors that were possibly uncontrollable. The next move would be to decriminalize homelessness; the National Healthcare the Homeless Council has posted a summary of recommendations that on paper looks great, but at what cost and who will foot the bill? These recommendations consist of: reversing all statutes involving activities that are allowed in the privacy of a persons home done by the homeless. This includes sleeping or securing personal property under park beaches; communities should provide more support to the plight of the homeless, especially with policies in place that tend to incarcerate instead implement policies that are more effective; affordable housing, treatment for addition and mental healthcare; discrimination in employment, this is the most important aspect of being homelessno money. Many homeless people feel worthless not able to support themselves or their families with the necessities of life and reentry programs on once released from jail or

prisons. The homeless should be provided with case managers to assist them with their transition (National Healthcare for the Homeless Council (2011). The never ending story of dealing with our homeless and how to approach this delicate subject has put our nation in a clasp that is frightening, but we have the resources to provide for these unfortunate citizens. We have discussed the plight of the homeless from the theories of distributive, commutative, retributive justice and different objectives to this difficult situation along with several solutions that could work if this nation will come together and apply some recommendationsanywhere is a start.

References http://www.npach.org/american-history-of-homeless.html National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness. (2012). Homelessness in America. Retrieved from http://www.studentsagainsthunger.org/page/hhp/overviewhomelessness-america Mann, M. H. (2009). The course of recognitive phronesis: Ricoeur's response to the hypermoralization of inequality. Philosophy Today, 53, 201-206. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205393022?accountid=32521 Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit. (2007). Disadvantage. Retrieved from http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/ Olmsted, B. T. J. (2007). The Virtue of Justice: Comutative Justice. Retrieved from http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7751 National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. (2011). Criminal justice, homelessness & health. Retrieved from http://www.nhchc.org/wp content/uploads/2011/09/CriminalJustice2011_final.pdf