HS-23

“For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land” (Deuteronomy 15:11, King James).  United States have provided programs to assist low-income families with affordable housing.  As of day the government spends over $34.8 billion on funding low-income housing (Kucheva, 2014).  The family income has to meet the requirements before they can qualify for housing.  However, the program roughly supports over 2 million families who are disabled, mentally ill or meet the income level (Kucheva, 2014).  The program was developed for families to stay a few years until they could get better paying jobs.  Thus, some families continued to stay in the development and made it their permanent residence.  One of the main concerns was the upkeep of the development.   People that were not on the lease began to live in the renter property and safety became a issue (Martin, 2014, 152).  The housing authority had problems with gang violence and vandalism.

            “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” (Matthew 7:7, King James).  Over the years, people have struggled to find descent paying jobs.  With minimum wage set so low and the cost daycare being so high, it requires two jobs to make ends meet.  People are forced to learned a trade or continue with their education to get a good job.  More and more factories are going out of business or oversee.  It is important to research the job market and see where you best fit in.  God gives everyone the knowledge and the ability to achieve anything that they want to be.  The job market is wide open and we all have the opportunity to climb the ladder of success.  Therefore, if we start at the bottom and work really hard we can move up the ladder or find a better paying job.  The program was put in place to assist us out of a bind not for us to stay there forever.

References

Kucheva, Y.A. (2014). The receipt of subsidized housing across generations. Populations Research and Policy Reviews, 33(6), 841-81. doi:10.1007/s1111-014-9332-4

Martin, M.E. (2014). Human Services. Through the eyes of practice settings. (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education

Each reply must be at least 150 words and meaningfully expand the discussion C. Augustin

Housing is a primary need for human existence. In many countries, m0st people struggle to afford decent housing yet it is affordable and decent housing is a focal point towards sustainable development.The situation in the United States is no different, and this topic is to discusses the issue accommodation  in the United States .

         In the United States, housing is considered affordable if the household pays 30 percent or , less of its income on it.According to Castro ( 2016), more than 12 million households use more than 50 percent of their income for housing. This shows that accommodation in the states is not as affordable as it should be despite many Americans experiencing economic growth in the recent past. Lack of affordable housing has increased over the years as developers are not keen on developing houses for low-income earners. This poses a problem to other sectors such as health and education since children living in substandard homes often fall ill with infections such as asthma and anemia,they also have to keep changing schools as their families move in search of affordable housing .Though the lack of affordable housing affects the poor a great deal, it also takes a toll on the rich people's finances as the costs of housing are ridiculously high.

    The United States government can, however, take the step to make housing  more affordable for its citizens by; building new housing units specifically for low-income earners or renovating already existing buildings and making them affordable ( Marcuse,2006). Citizens can also purpose to make their housing affordable by engaging in housing plans such as co-housing where individuals come together and share the kitchen and living room but have separate bedrooms.Housing in the Unite States cannot yet be termed affordable since there are very many citizens struggling with this issue. However, something can be done to improve on this as decent housing does not only help in fulfilling sustainable development but also meets legal and moral justification.

References

Castro J ( 2016) Affordable Housing  U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development  Retrieve from

              http://portal.hud. gov \hudportal /HUD?

         src=/program offices/comm planing/ affordable housing.

Marcuse P ( 2006) . The Role of The Public Sector In Promoting Affordable Housing Global  Urban Development Magazine

Retrieved from 

http:// www. globalurban. org/ GUDMag06Vol2Iss1/Marcuse .htm

Each reply must be at least 150 words and meaningfully expand the discussion B. Brooks

The Bible states in Romans, “that there is no discrimination with God.” (Romans 2:11 Holman Christian Standard Bible). Racial discrimination in the United States is a major issue facing today’s society. We have had issues with this problem since the founding of America, but most recently the issues have become a concern for those that protect our freedoms and rights within the United States. The economic downfall in America has increased the issues regarding race, but it has also increased the idea that White’s consider themselves superior to those of color decent. Some of the internal issues surrounding racial issues, is that most of the stats place African American people in the bottom portion of the economic polls. Their education levels are lower, which in turn means that their jobs are of lower class income and most of the race survives on food stamps and governmental assistance. These issues have surrounded the African American society for years, but these issues are concerning because the American people are failing in equality and equal representation among blacks’ and whites’. According to our text, “Ida B. Wells was an African American reformer and social activist whose campaign against racial oppression and inequity laid the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Wells was orphaned at the age of 16 and went on to raise her five younger siblings, which caused her to grow up rather quickly. Wells went on to address many issues surrounding African Americans, and is known for fighting against the inequality of blacks’ verses whites’ within America.” (Martin, 2014, p. 31-32). Ida B. wells is just one African American story that relates to the history of racial discrimination.

The external issues surrounding the African American society are based on the belief that the American population was founded on slavery and that one could never escape it. White Americans today, have a bad taste in their mouths because they see African Americans living in conditions that are sometimes superior to their white neighbors, but yet their black neighbors don’t work, don’t pay taxes and don’t have a GED or high school diploma too back their living conditions. Whites’ now believe that the government is prone to helping the African American population and not the rest of society. The issues surrounding this belief are now affecting the safety of American communities because the cops black and or white are being killed and or threatened by those living within their communities. Their families are in danger the minute they leave the house, and the cut backs by the government on firefighters and cops, are placing our communities in more danger then just racial discrimination. I think that the government needs to place more restrictions on the proper ways to approach the issues regarding race and discrimination, and the media needs to stop exploiting the issues in a negative way. An example of this is when the New Deal was placed in 1935 and President Roosevelt created 15 new federal programs to help bring America out of the depression, but in turn “placed a 10 percent limit on the enrollment of black men in the CCC program.” (Martin, 2014, p. 30). The government continues to state one thing, but passes and organizes things differently than what is told through the media and other political events. The government needs to be the forefront in this movement in order to change the inequality issues of America if they expect to survive another decade. The Lord says in John that we are to love one another regardless of color, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” (John 13:34).

Martin, M. (2014). Introduction to human services: through the eyes of practice settings (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

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