It is 7:00 on a Friday morning in 2020, and you are eleven years old.  You wake up to get ready for school, and that day, your teachers tell you that there will be a two week break. They say that there is a virus going around, and the school doesn’t want anyone to get sick. You’re excited to hang out with your friends and not have to think about school, but after the two weeks are up, you don’t go back. You think it’s going to be over soon, and that you will be able to go back to school, but it keeps getting worse. About two months after the start of the virus, you go downstairs in the morning to see your mother, sitting at the kitchen table, weeping. She is holding a piece of paper in her hand, and you can’t read it. You see a big red stamp on it, and it seems to look like papers you have seen come from her work before. You walk over to her and ask what is wrong, and she tells you that she lost her job. Your family sometimes struggles with money, but you never imagined what would happen if your mother was fired.  Your mom tried to find another job, but more and more places were closing down because of this virus called, “COVID-19”. Soon after that, the rent for your apartment was due, and your mother could not pay for it. The landlord told you he cannot keep you there without being paid, and that you have a month to move out. You didn’t have any relatives nearby, your mom had a falling out with her only sister a few years back, and your mother told you that you were going to have to sell some of your belongings; but it wasn’t enough. When the time came to move out, you and your mother were on the streets. You had always seen homeless people on the road before, begging for food, but never thought about how hard life would be, having to live this way. You could only bring a few things with you, a blanket and a pillow, and the stuffed bunny you had always slept with in bed. You didn’t have much else anyway, you had sold it all. Your mother had the same things, a pillow and a few blankets, but she also brought a few bottles of water. A few days before, you had found an empty shopping cart on the side of the road, and brought it back to where you were staying the night. You only had one change of clothing, and a bar of soap. And food? You had a bag of chips and the granola bar a kind man had given to you the day before. On the burning summer days, it could be over 100°, and in the winter, there were times that at night, the temperature was below freezing. When it became too cold to bear, you and your mother would go to a shelter, but it was so horribly dirty, and the smell alone would almost kill you. The two of you tried to last as long as possible without going to one. It was on a cold winter night when you had began to notice your mother acting differently. She had seemed distracted, and the spark of hope you had always seen in her eyes had seemed to go out. She stopped caring about when she ate, and you became responsible for you both. You couldn’t know for sure, but it seemed like she was depressed. It had been about 8 months of living on the streets, when a woman, who looked eerily like your mother, walked up to you. You asked who she was, and she told you that she was your aunt. You brought her back to where you and your mother were staying, and the spark seemed to  re-ignite in your mother’s eyes, probably from seeing her only sister after all the time they had spent apart. Your aunt took you and your mother home, and gave you both warm food. She got your mom mental health care, and helped her find a new job.  Not all homeless people get this kind of happy ending, and they need someone to reach out and help them get through the hard times. Mental illness in homeless people is real, and is an issue we need to fix.

Homelessness is an issue everywhere in the world,  but especially in the US, where homeless folks are unfairly treated due to the number of them who are mentally ill and unhoused. The American Psychological Association, (APA)  is the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the US, and in 2005, they quoted Canton, saying that  “Each year between 2–3 million people in the United States experience an episode of homelessness.” ( Health and Homelessness 1) These numbers have increased over the past few years, and with the corona virus still taking a toll, the numbers are higher than ever. Some believe that this doesn’t affect them, but in the end, all you need to do is think about how hard your life would be, if you had to live your life in this way. There are a number of different reasons someone is on the street, but the most important reason would be the percentage of homeless individuals that are experiencing mental illness.  In Lilanthi Balasuriya and Eliza Buelt’s article,  “The Never-Ending Loop: Homelessness, Psychiatric Disorder, and Mortality”, “Homeless people with mental illness are also highly vulnerable to violence, with a reported lifetime incidence of 74% to 87% of violence being perpetrated against them.” (Balasuriya and Buelt 1) Even though many homeless folks are experiencing mental illness, it doesn’t mean that they all are, and it doesn’t mean that there is nothing we can do to fix this. Due to the rising population of homeless individuals in the U.S., state governments and nonprofit organizations should work together to give every homeless person a temporary home, as well as mental health care and job training, because all people deserve to be able to live their life to the fullest and have a warm place to stay.

 The cause of homelessness in the mindset of most people is mental health issues. However, there are other causes such as the lack of adequate transportation, as well as the lack of healthcare and job training. Homelessness, ever since the start of the coronavirus, has risen to a drastically high number. To some people homelessness is just a part of life, but others question why these people can’t take care of themselves, and want to know how to help. There are many causes of homelessness, with a large factor being the cost of housing. Housing has gone up in recent years, and when you are on the street, it is just that much harder to get the money you need to pay for a house. The National Coalition for the Homeless, an organization built on bringing safe and affordable housing to the homeless, states that “Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education” (Why are People Homeless 2) There are other causes besides the cost of housing, like cancer, substance use, infectious diseases,  cardiovascular disease, unintentional injury, and even homicide, the list goes on. Sickness and drug usage are also just a small fraction of the issue, and there are some causes we don’t even think of, because they are just routine for us. One of these causes is transportation, and “Homeless individuals often lack adequate transportation; consequently they are unable to do the necessary tasks involved in care-getting”  (Balasuriya and Buelt 1)  Our society, at least the majority, will sometimes think that transportation is not an issue for homeless individuals, because they can just walk to where they want to go, however, for those who are needing to pick up a medication, it is a struggle to walk all the way to these pharmacies if you are on the other side of the city. This lack of consistent healthcare is a drastic issue that we need to solve. 

Homelessness can be affected by many things, such as race and gender, with the most prominent factor being mental health and the lack of resources to help with this. All over the world there are homeless people, and some of them are people in families, as well as children. According to icphusa.org’s article, "Effects of Homelessness on Families and Children'', “Homeless women are more likely than housed mothers to experience domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse.” (Effects of homelessness on families and children 1)It is demeaning and concerning to see kids on the street with or without their parents, and that fact that  “Each year, approximately 15.5 million children are exposed to domestic violence, which can have long-lasting detrimental effects” just makes it worse.  (Effects of homelessness on families and children 2) This drastic number of children without a home is a very large issue, and the only way to solve it is if state governments and nonprofits are able to give these families a temporary home.  Homeless families are definitely one of the most at risk communities, but race is also a factor. On End Homelessness.org, a site that tries to raise awareness for homeless people, one fact stated in their article “State of homelessness, 2023 edition” was that  “Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have the highest rate of homelessness (109 out of every 10,000 people).” (State of homelessness 1) Depending on your race, homelessness can have a very high, or very low rate, and these rates need to go down if we ever want to make a dent in the homeless population. Families with children and kids on their own  are just two of the many different categories homeless people are placed in, and decreasing the amount of individuals and groups on the streets will help the wellbeing of all people, no matter what you believe about homelessness.

Mental health care is something we all take for granted, but it can have a momentous effect on the people who need it, and it is unjust and disrespectful to deny a person this care only due to those people not being able to afford it or do not have the transportation to reach it. If you do not have any mental health issues, you don’t think twice about mental health care, and what your life would be like if you didn’t have it.  However, for homeless individuals who have mental health issues, getting the right care to help with it is vital, and not being able to get it due to the lack of transportation is just unjust and unfair.  In the article ”Health and Homelessness” on APA.ORG, in which quoted Bassuk in 1998,  it states that “Rates of mental illness among people who are homeless in the United States are twice the rate found for the general population” ( Health and Homelessness 1) The fact that these rates are so high is concerning at the least. Since so many homeless people have mental health issues, not all are able to find help, and unless we find a way to make the task of getting these people the care they need on a regular basis, this problem will only get larger. When homeless people get regular care, the chances of them recovering are much higher than if they just go to see someone once. The issue of mental health care is real, and there are other factors that just make it worse. APA.org claims that “People with substance and other mental disorders experience even greater barriers to accessible housing than their counterparts: income deficits, stigma and need for community wraparound services.” (Health and Homelessness 1)  Getting mental health care to all homeless people, getting them shelter and not giving them access to illegal substances are just a few of the things that we can do to solve the overwhelming problem that is homelessness.

All individuals deserve a warm place to stay, and giving the people in our society without this a temporary home, is the least we can do.  Many cities in the US are trying to fix this by providing temporary homes that involve job training and mental health care. The National Coalition for the Homeless has found information to support the housing issue, and in their article “Why are People Homeless?” They explain that “ In 2001, five million rental households had “worst case housing needs,” which means that they paid more than half their incomes for rent, living in severely substandard housing, or both.” (Why are People Homeless? 1) When this many people have the issue of not having a place that they can continue living in without the fear of losing it, this issue of homelessness just grows bigger and bigger. Housing is an issue, and the issue of payment is a contributor, so “declining wages, in turn, have put housing out of reach for many workers.” (Why are People Homeless? 2) When people are not paid enough to keep their house, this can put them into a crisis, where they might have to live on the streets until they get a place to stay. There are many ways someone can become homeless, from job loss, to mental illness,etc. However, when you are on the street, it is hard to live your life without shelter, and that is hard to come by. Overall, “Homelessness exists then people lack safe, stable and appropriate places to live.” (Health and Homelessness 1) If we take away this factor, then more people will have a place to live, and the people on the streets will, in time, decrease in numbers.

Many people take their jobs for granted, and don’t even consider how hard life would be without it, but not giving the people in need of job training a chance is even worse, because they have that hard life that you barely think about. In an article by Steven Brown, a senior research associate with a masters degree in sociology, he details that “After a peak in homelessness in 2011, Houston adopted a Housing First model for addressing homelessness.” (Brown 1)  This Housing First program took abandoned hotel buildings and other empty places and turned them into temporary homes for homeless individuals. They provided mental health care and job training as well. The team worked to renovate these buildings, and were able to achieve amazing results. Giving these people job training is ingenious because when you haven’t worked for a while, or have just gotten over some mental health issues, you may not know where to start looking for a job. However, if you are given job training, it will be much easier to find a job that works for you, and keep that job in order to support yourself and your family. This miraculous program has helped to change the levels of homelessness in Houston. It was able to lead “to an end of veteran homelessness and a nearly 50 percent reduction in homelessness overall” in the Houston area. (Brown 1)  If more non-profit organizations work with the government to repeat this incredible feat in other cities, homelessness in the US will decline in amazing numbers.  Other organizations, such as the Lucky Duck Foundation, work to bring job training to homeless individuals. The Lucky Duck Foundation is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to alleviating the suffering of homeless individuals in the San Diego area. “In its first year, with funding from LDF, 147 individuals benefited from the program, with 52 securing long-term employment and 29 improving their housing situation. “ (Lucky Duck 1) Bringing the people without a job the training they need in order to re-learn their passion, as well as giving them he wardrobe for it and even a resume are all things that nonprofits and the state government should work to do for these people, in order to get them to live their lives, their way.

Homelessness is an issue all over the world, and especially in the US, it is even worse. Millions of people per year are homeless, and this includes families with young children. When COVID - 19 struck, the job loss that thousands of people faced made it that they couldn’t support their families, causing them to lose their houses and their belongings. This simply is unfair, and there are people in this world who have more than enough money to help with this cause, and haven’t. That is not being careful, it is straight out being greedy. Mental health is an issue for many of these people, and they are not able to reach the places they need to go to to get their medications. Denying them this is unjust in countless ways. Transportation and consistent care should be provided to these people, it would make a huge difference in the homeless population.  This, combined with the lack of funds for shelter and food, is what creates homelessness to begin with. Homeless women are more likely to experience violence and abuse due to the inequality they are faced with from many people. Race, gender and health are all factors of homelessness and depending on what category you fall into, how you are treated as a homeless person will vary.  Since so many homeless people have mental health issues, many of them use illegal drugs, which only makes their situation worse.  The state governments need to work with non -profits to break down the barriers that prevent homeless individuals from getting the care they need, and they need to help these people get access to shelter, job training, and consistent mental health care, because All people are created equal.

Works Cited

American Psychological Association. “Health and Homelessness.” APA, 7 May 2019, apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/homelessness-health. Accessed 24 May 2023.

Balasuriya, Lilanthi, and Eliza Buelt. “The Never-Ending Loop: Homelessness, Psychiatric Disorder, and Mortality.” Psychiatric Times, 29 May 2020, psychiatrictimes.com/view/never-ending-loop-homelessness-psychiatric-disorder-and-mortality. Accessed 24 May 2023.

Brown, Steven. “.What Cities Can DO to Combat Homelessness.” Housing Matters, 7 May 2019, housingmatters.urban.org/articles/what-cities-can-do-combat-homelessness. Accessed 24 May 2023.

“.Effects of Homelessness on Families and Children.” Icphusa.org, 7 May 2019, icphusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Effects-of-Homelessness.pdf. Accessed 24 May 2023.

Lucky Duck Foundation. “Alleviate the Suffering.” Lucky Duck Foundation, 7 May 2019, luckyduckfoundation.org/. Accessed 24 May 2023.

National Alliance to End Homelessness. “State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition.” End Homelessness, 7 May 2019, endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/. Accessed 24 May 2023.

National Coalition for the Homeless. “.Why Are People Homeless?” National Homeless, 7 May 2019, ationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/Why.pdf. Accessed 24 May 2023.