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Homelessness In America
Kristal Kulik
SOC 331
Alicia Brown
July 2, 2014

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Homelessness started to become a larger issue back in the 60s. When budgets
and organizations began to be cut, so did the help for those below the poverty line.
Within this time frame, people began to look at the streets and shelters with no other
options available. Virtue ethics, distributive, retributive, and commutative justice are all
engrained and part of finding a solution to the crisis situation of homelessness. The pros
and cons of each will be seen and determined as to which would better for the homeless
community and working to end homelessness overall.
In the article Outlawing Homelessness, 1999, they discuss the pros and cons of
arresting homeless people and the effects that it ultimately has on them and the
community as a whole. In different parts of the country, the same laws can be seen in two
different views completely. While a law stating that you cannot sleep or sit on the
sidewalk in one city brings a citation with it if doing so, in another city this is deemed
unconstitutional and against the persons rights. Same with sleeping in parks or begging
for money or food in certain areas of cities. Each comes with their own laws and can be
seen as acceptable or unconstitutional based on the state and city you are in. These
actions, when seen as crimes, tend to show a lack of distributive justice. Their
communities as a whole should be working together with law enforcement in order to
prevent these actions from being seen as not only crimes, but from occurring as well. As
a society, they should be working to end homelessness or at least dramatically reduce it
within their cities. In distributive justice, the society should be giving back to those who
need it, in this case the homeless of their communities. It is everyones responsibility to
come together and help those in need and find ways to assist them. Shelters, access to
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medical and mental health treatment, access to hygiene facilities, and access to meals are
main priorities to start with.
In Seattle, Washington, the government along with the community suggested a
tax increase in order to provide public washrooms. These washrooms have showers,
sinks, toilets, and laundry facilities in order for those who do not have these simple
luxuries to be able to stay clean and have clean clothes. The community as a whole did
this and paved the way to start bettering the homeless population. This is a prime
example of distributive justice. With this though, they will continue to need to meet other
needs of the homeless in order for them to succeed. If they added on workplace skills
offered through the communities and outreach programs, they would be able to hopefully
see influx of people leaving the streets and be able to start fresh with new outlooks.
There are downsides to this though. With these washrooms for instance in Seattle,
there comes an increase of funds needed in order to continue to operate these places for
the homeless. These funds will ultimately come from the taxpayers. This could mean
another tax increase, or it could mean having to decrease the budget somewhere else in
order to ensure these remain free to the homeless. Also, some people will want to know
where the extra personnel are going to come from that will be maintaining these facilities.
Will it be an additional duty for city workers or will they have to budget even more to
hire personnel to clean and maintain the facilities daily.
In America today, there are no approximate numbers of children who are
homeless. This is a big issue. Children who are homeless tend to be arrested more, have
substance abuse problems, lack basic health needs and education, along with this a large
majority of homeless children have been the victim of some sort of abuse that either
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made them homeless or while they have been homeless. The homeless children
population is continuing to grow and have begun to have larger numbers than those of
veterans, convicted criminals, and those with mental illnesses. This is a situation that
needs to be addressed sooner than later. According to an article in the Journal of
Advanced Nursing, Homelessness in children has several common risk factors for in all
countries including poverty, family discord, abuse and neglect, parental mental or
physical illness and death, or parental substance abuse (Ensign, J. and Ammerman, S.
2008). In this case, the US has a program that they use nationwide in attempt to lessen the
amount of children in the homeless situation, Interagency Council on Homelessness.
However, there is skepticism on the true agenda of this agency. Some think that it is
politically motivated and does not see the real cause of homelessness. However, they
have voiced the need to have more research about youth homelessness in order to get a
better handle on it.
With more research on youth homelessness, the need for ethics comes into play.
These children usually have strong issues against authority figures and adults in the same
sense. Most believe that they cannot trust anyone but themselves. Herein lies the problem
of how to figure out what is causing these youth numbers to rise. Most health clinics will
offer some type of incentive to the youths in order to receive the information needed for
their research. The same is done with a lot of outreach programs. Health care providers,
researchers, and other administrators have to also follow certain legal and ethical
guidelines when researching youth. However, there are no real guidelines when it comes
to homeless youths. So they have to determine what type of compensation is best suited
for these youths, especially when some can and do have substance abuse problems. This
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is an ethical problem that has emerged why trying to research homeless youth.
Some believe that youths should have the ability to be taken care of in the same
way as a homeless adult, but the matter is that they do not have the same mentality level
as an adult. The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a huge public organization
that devotes its time to not only adults but youths as well. They believe that the
communities should work to improve the crisis response, prioritize family reunification
or support as the initial intervention, expand the reach and effectiveness of transitional
living programs, improve data collection and performance measurement, and collaborate
with mainstream systems such as child welfare and juvenile justice. This is a great
example of reformative justice and ethics all in one. Instead of punishing these youth for
being on the streets, this initiative is working to provide a better outcome for them and
get them back to their homes where they should be or in cases of neglect or abuse, get
them into facilities where they can continue to grow and learn, not having to worry about
the problems faced when they were homeless. This is a nationally run organization and
the public can see exactly where their funds go in this case. People are more into saving
children and young adults from the streets than they are for other adults. This shows signs
of compassion to an extent. From this point, the community needs to get involved more
and set up better shelters, with medical care and continuing education efforts as well as
job skills.
People will say though, why just this group of people? Why not all people in
general who are homeless? The fact of the matter is that more people care about the
younger generation not being forced to endure what our generation or the generation
before us did. They have their whole lives ahead and if they are on the streets it is
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dramatically reduced due to multiple possibilities.
When people look at military veterans, some see a war hero who fought for his
country; others see a murderer, who killed innocent people in a war we shouldnt have
been part of. Each persons perspective is different and that is acceptable. However, what
isnt acceptable is the 30% of homeless people are military veterans. These men and
women fight for our freedoms and yet are cast aside and not given a second thought to
once they leave the service. Some will seek the help of services such as the VA should
they fall on hard times, but others will not, their wounds, scars, and mental anguish
consume them instead. These brave people should never have o beg on the streets or be
incarcerated due to losing their home to foreclosure due to falling onto hard times. There
are programs out there meant to assist such as the Wounded Warrior Program, and The
Vet Hunters Project, which is based out of California. These programs help assist
veterans in need. The Vet Hunters Project is a local organization that is slowly becoming
more known. They seek out homeless camps and look for veterans in particular who have
fallen on hard times, however, they will help anyone who is homeless as much as
possible. They provide as much assistance as they can and where they cant they get their
friends at the VA involved in order to move things along and get these homeless vets
back into homes, into jobs, until they can once again take care of themselves. It doesnt
happen overnight, and they work strictly off of donations with none of the money paying
them. Every dime they receive goes to the homeless and getting them back on their feet
or even getting them a shower, a hot meal, or someplace to sleep for a night. They have
spoken to leaders in Washington DC and are recognized in their area in California. They
take distributive justice and ethics to the next level.
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Some may argue that even though they are doing what they can, how is that
enough? They arent getting multiple homeless off the streets everyday and that doesnt
help enough. With everyone one person helped off the street, another becomes homeless.
There needs to be more involvement from the military and the VA in helping to secure
these soldiers and provide them with the assistance needed to get them off the streets. At
any given time, there are houses on post available, why could one not be converted on
each post to help assist? Most posts have medical facilities, so why could these men and
women not use them? The VA may be able to help work that piece. There are loads of
things that can be done in order to relieve this small portion from being homeless.
Guaranteed job placement when leaving the military for one. This would help and benefit
a lot of soldiers in the long run if the military were to help with finding a job before
leaving the military. Even though they have ACAP programs, these do nothing to ensure
that the soldier has a job when he gets out.
In thirty years when our children look back on our generation, they should be able
to see that we were trying to change and end homelessness. Even in the past ten years,
there is more information out there about homelessness and how they end up in that
situation. There are also more resources now for those on the streets to effectively use
and seek assistance with. There is more being done in order to make the lives of the
homeless a bit easier and show that we as a city, state, and/or country have not forgotten
about them and that we are trying to change the future for them and others in the next
generation. Shelters, medical, dental, education, and proper nutrition are the primary
things needed in order to survive. However, those who are homeless may need even more
and finding the money and capabilities to do so may not quite be within our reach just
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yet. When the future generations look back at this time period, they will see what we are
trying to do is just and moral, but not ten or even five years ago were as just. People of
this generation are the ones striving to make change now, but they generations before us
just kind of let the cards lay where they fall. This is in no way acceptable and should be
seen as unjust for their time. We should all be willing to look out for one another and
ensure that no one is without proper shelter and necessities.
While we are still a long way from solving the issue of homelessness, it is safe to
say that we are making great stride in learning how to prevent it and what to do and not
do in order to help absolve it. Arresting those who have nowhere else to go because of
where they fell asleep or where they were trying to beg at it not the answer to this
problem, nor is it even a solution. These people, young and old, need our help as a
society to be able to get them off the streets. With organizations like the National
Alliance to End Homelessness and programs like the Vet Hunters Project, we can begin
to work together to solve this problem. Homelessness will not go away overnight or in
the next ten years. It took several decades to get us to where we are and it will take
several more to get us back to a place where there are very few, if any homeless people.
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References:
National Alliance to End Homelessness: Youth
http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/youth
Ethical issues in research with homeless youths. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 62(3),
365-372. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04599.xal of Advanced Nursing 62(3), 365372,
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-
library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=30cbe5ce-2afd-4943-ae3e-
824ec1ff6fc7%40sessionmgr4001&vid=3&hid=4113
Brown, K. (1999, July/August) Outlawing Homelessness. National Housing Institute,
106, http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/106/brown.html