THE HOMELESS

The Homeless

The Homeless

Introduction

Homelessness is a significant and growing problem in the United States. The face of homelessness has drastically changed as families (predominately women and children) make up the fastest growing homeless population. The lack of permanent housing poses unique risks to the health of these women and their children. Homeless families often use emergency and urgent care for their health care as basic survival needs take precedence over health care needs that have not reached urgency (Shinn & Baumohl, 2009).

The legal definition of homelessness, identified under the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, refers to those who spend 7 consecutive nights in a car, abandoned building, public park, emergency shelter, nonresidential building, or other unconventional residence. Each year, an estimated 2.5 to 3 million people, lack access to traditional housing, and families with children estimated to account for nearly 50% of this group. Most homeless families remain unstably housed for short periods of time, such as several weeks to a few months. It is not easy to have accurate estimations of the number of homeless people in the United States. According to the report of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in the USA, based on the showgirl in 2005, the country had about 750, 000 homeless people, of whom 190,000 were minors. The report is according to the data provided by organizations that serve the homeless population (Phelan & Link, 2010). Therefore, those people fall under the category of homelessness, who use the services of such organizations.

Urban Institute study in 2000 showed that about 3.5 million people were homeless for a long period. This figure includes 1.35 million children, as well. Thus, in the shelters of New York, more than 37 thousand homeless people sleep on the streets of New York every night, which includes 16 thousand children. In the United States, there are approximately 840, 000 homeless people at any given moment. During the past few years, the homeless population increased from 2.5 to 3.5 million. In addition, the housing subsidies in the federal budget for 1978-2002 declined by $28 billion (Koegel & Burnam, 2006).

Health Issues

More than a decade has passed since the Congress of the United States passed the so-called McKinney aimed at providing homeless, medical care, food, temporary housing and facilities for access to homeownership. Together, with the provisions under the Act, were implemented additional programs to help AIDS patients, women victims of domestic violence and children without stable housing. While billions of dollars have been authorized for these purposes and thousands of social workers have struggled to care for the homeless, there is no evidence that the number of homeless reduced, that their problems are less severe, or their health conditions have improved. The relationship between homelessness and public health has been clearly established by numerous studies. The relationship, detected in this group, have an increased risk of tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases, trauma, mental illness, alcoholism and its sequelae, drug abuse and dependence. In addition, other risk includes sexually transmitted diseases, ...