Sophie Miles

4

Homelessness in Norfolk, Virginia

India Williams

Walden University

Hunm-4003

Professor Vermillion

August 14, 2021

Homelessness in Norfolk, Virginia

The problem of homelessness in United America has continued to worsen ethical issues in the nation. Norfolk community is one with homeless populations in the city being uncountable. The previous homelessness report in the United States shows that the Norfolk community had more than 2000 homeless people. This included a population of person who lives in shelters, motels, and streets without a roof on their head (Erickson & Wilhelm, 2017). I believe this number to be untrue because of the cases that are not being reported. The homeless people in this community comprises families, single individuals, and veterans who have low access to decent homes. The core cause of homelessness in Norfolk is unemployment, poor access to high-quality education on healthy living, and high cost of living. People living in cars, sleeping on a friends couch, or in a tent are going unreported because they do in fact have a place to lay their head.

In the Norfolk community, some human services programs have been developed to ensure the motivation and needs of the homeless population. Adults services are one program that reports incidents of suspected adult abuse at family levels. Children's Services offers needs and motivation for youth at risk with their families and supports them for stability through a state pool of funds in the City of Norfolk. According to Martineau et al. (2019), community links and resources ensure the homeless are connected to the local government resources within the Norfolk community and its exterior. Armed forces veterans who become disabled and homeless are eligible for human services of real estate tax relief in Norfolk district to ensure homelessness among veterans is reduced and catered to. Family services are the most famous human service in the Norfolk community, with the ability to support, protect, and prevent actions that can increase homelessness.

To provide a compelling needs assessment, it will be paramount to understand the nature of needs that Norfolk homeless people express. Norfolk community of homelessness has different types of conditions. Normative conditions are related to the norms the people copy within their daily living. To ensure adequate assessment of normative needs, assessing housing stability, employment nature, and nutritional knowledge will be paramount. A report of human service professionals in 2018 showed that the Norfolk community requires basic needs such as clothing, better foods, and resources. The homeless people in this community experience challenges meeting their basic needs making them go to different cities to look for food and better life (Moroney & Martin, 2017). Nonetheless, due to insufficient qualifications, they end up in the streets as life hardens in the city.

To ensure adequate data collection, I will employ questionnaires for interviews of the people on the streets and those in the rural areas. This will be effective as I will have adequate time to ask relevant questions that can motivate the understanding of the person's needs and the person's prerequisites. Using questionnaires to collect data of homeless persons in Norfolk will elicit quantitative analysis of the findings (Havlik et al, 2017). This is because of the need to calculate the percentage of the homeless population and the nature of needs within the Norfolk community. The answers collected from the questionnaires developed will enhance understanding of the cause of homelessness to the interviewed person and be generalized to the larger population for the study's conclusion. This will help evaluate the paramount human services programs that will need to be developed to control and combat the increase in homelessness within the Norfolk community.

The motivations and norms of homelessness in the Norfolk community are conceived in the poor infrastructure development. Norfolk community lacks adequate schooling in some areas that can enhance people's knowledge and power to understand healthy living needs. Where a person attends school depends on the area in which they live or lack thereof. Besides, lack of sources of employment is another motivation for homelessness. The lack of these facilities makes individuals in the Norfolk community have challenges in having a good life. As expressed and perceived, people in Norfolk community have poor housing indicating their living standards are below the poverty level. Relatives' needs like inadequate clothing and the inability to get basic needs like food are perceived and expressed in the Norfolk community, indicating poverty. This leads to increased homelessness in Virginia.

A logical model can be used to ensure some evaluation strategies are achieved.

Logic Model

Inputs	Outputs	Outcomes
· Time · Money · Equipment · Homeless persons · Strategies for permanent housing	· The homeless person identified with the Norfolk community · Resources put into practice · Programs for developing permanent housing	· Stable accommodation developed · Increased self-reliance for housing · Decreased need for housing assist within Norfolk community.

The mission of the evaluation program will be to provide solutions to homelessness in Norfolk community through the development and construction of affordable houses for all individuals at lower costs. This will ensure all people in the streets and models will have the ability to own a home within five years. The program's goal is to provide all persons with the ability to access good decent houses at an affordable price in the Norfolk community. The purpose of the program is to reduce the number and rate of homelessness in Norfolk community and ensure Virginia has no street families anymore. This program will address social changes through its practical application in the Norfolk community. The inputs will provide an essential foundation to support social changes like time and money will provide educative programs to the Norfolk community on the importance of healthy living (Hawes, Flynn, Tedeschi & Morris, 2019). Other equipment will support social change by ensuring housing projects are developed within the community to provide accessible and affordable houses to the people. This will ensure some social issues related to homelessness are controlled. Therefore, the implementation of the program will provide better housing and reduce the social problem of homelessness in the Norfolk community.

References

Erickson, J., & Wilhelm, C. (2017). The Extent of Homelessness in America. In Housing The Homeless (pp. 125-143). Routledge

Havlik, S. A., Rowley, P., Puckett, J., Wilson, G., & Neason, E. (2017). “Do whatever you can to try to support that kid”: School counselors’ experiences addressing student homelessness. Professional School Counseling, 21(1), 1096-2409.https://doi.org/10.5330%2F1096-2409-21.1.47

Hawes, S. M., Flynn, E., Tedeschi, P., & Morris, K. N. (2019). Humane Communities: Social change through policies promoting collective welfare. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1-13.https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2019.1680244

Kettner, P. M., Moroney, R. M., & Martin, L. L. (2017). Designing and managing programs: An effectiveness-based approach (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Martineau, S. J., Cornes, M., Manthorpe, J., Ornelas, B., & Fuller, J. (2019). Safeguarding, homelessness and rough sleeping: an analysis of safeguarding adults reviews.https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-006