Compare and Contrast Essay

Running head: ASSIGNMENT 2 1

Addressing the issues of Homelessness to the town council, my article in the local newspaper.

Introduction

Homelessness is a situation whereby an individual lacks a fixed, regular and adequate night time residence. It can extend to children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to economic hardship, loss of housing or both. They hence reside in trailer parks, hotels motels, abandoned hospitals, campaign grounds, due to lack of regular sleeping accommodation they become transitional and live in emergency shelters depending on the seasonal variations and weather changes in the area they do occupy (Andrew, 2004).

Homeless definition highlights the lack of what society defines as the normal place to live. Homelessness is a sign of poverty. In very rare occurrences does homelessness become a matter of choice. Those persons who lack the financial capacity to acquire a permanent structure end up in the streets searching for shelter. The issue of homelessness is a real delinquent that should be addressed by the local council. This will create a safety horizon to walk on public corners of the streets without bearing in mind that might appear to attack, when and how. If the local council can attend to the issue, then the aftermath of rising street children is catered for.

Effects of homelessness

There are several outrageous repercussions to the public about individuals being homeless. One major challenge that is most obvious to all in insecurity. Poverty and crime are interlinked. Homeless young people devote to crime. This hence limits their chances of them finding a job and also escaping their situation. They are always on the move trying to escape the long hands of the police. These are strong and energetic youths that would otherwise invest their energy in other resources apart from crime. Another aspect is the element of barriers to work. Poor qualifications and high support needs make it tricky for homeless young people to find work. Finding a job for a refugee for example can be very complicated due to a language barrier. Health is unjustifiable for the homeless. Due to their unstable and chaotic lives they could catch common cold diseases, tuberculosis, skin diseases and nutritional deficiency diseases.

Poor hygiene is the root to poor individual’s health. The youths also especially ladies may suffer mental illness to severe depression with regards to their problems. They are also prone to physical and sexual assault, thus contacting diseases such as HIV and AIDS. All these deprive a nation their sustenance and growth as they spend money, which they hardly have in medication.

Lastly, the combinations of very low revenue flows and disorganized lifestyles mean many homeless youths do find themselves in debts. Desperation makes them result to expensive loans, money from loan sharks, store cards and UN affordable mail order catalogues as they have limited access to more mainstreams products. This acts as a barrier to them achieving other goals, such as going to college, eating healthily and living independently. The stress caused by debt can also have a serious impact on young people's mental health (The Delegraph, 2015).

One most obvious regard is on a personal side effect of homeless persons. The individual realizes that they do not own a roof to live in forever. This makes them suffer psychologically and the consequences are low self-esteem, increased the danger of drug abuse, loss of ability and will to take care of oneself and finally development of behavioral problems. Drug abuse affects their health and they become prone to poverty. Their vicious cycle continues. They breed poor generations and end up suffering in search of shelter as usual. No one is comfortable to live without a place to call home. An individual is tortured emotionally mentally and physically as a result of being homeless. The local authorities should therefore address this need with the urgency it deserves for the benefit of other citizens.

Conclusion

The cost of homelessness to the public purse is very huge. This is due to a number of aspects including but not limited to expensive temporary structures for lodging, high number of cases in the courts due to criminal increase, higher usage of health service facilities due to critical and severe conditions, sustained periods on the welfare aids. Basing my argument on the 2008 research, New Economic Foundation, it did cost the United States £ 26000 for each homeless individual.

My address and plea are to the local authorities supported by the government to address the issue and invest in homelessness programs that will hold back a substantial amount for the taxpayer by preventing some of these costs. A report by the Communities and local government show that the Supporting People Programme which spends money on support services relating to provision of accommodation for various capacity of groups that is the young, children and the old do save £3.41 billion annually compared to their overall investment of £1.61 billion.If the local authorities can take up this issue the economy of the country will improve at large and the welfare of the nations will be outrageous (Chaus.S , 2006).

References