Homelessness - Misplaced Pages

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[[ $Insertformulahere$ France.]] Homeless shelters operated by government, churches, or charities work to provide temporary housing to the homeless.;;' ';'lkjljhkl

Types of shelters include overnight shelters, warming shelters, transitional shelters, and subsidized housing. There are also day shelters which give basic services during the daytime hours when many of the overnight shelters for sleeping are closed.

In the United Kingdom, the majority of services for single homeless people and couples are provided by the voluntary sector, usually through contracts paid for by local government through Supporting People. Services available to homeless people include night shelters, day centres, hostels, resettlement services and floating support.

While some shelters also provide food, others require people to turn to food banks and soup kitchens for nutrition. In the United Kingdom, these services are usually paid for by homeless people themselves in service charges in addition to the housing benefit which pays the rent.

Auxiliary services provided by some shelters include:

Health clinics
Clothing and personal items
Employment assistance
Counseling and other social services: such as addiction control, trauma counseling, and depression.
Communications Capabilities (telephone, fax, e-mail)

However, there are a number of complaints about the safety and quality of homeless shelters. Subsidized housing is a more expensive solution that some believe might end the cycle of homelessness. Homeless Link in the UK provides minimum standards and best practice advice on how agencies can best deal with their clients to ensure permanent change and solutions to homelessness.

An "outreach program" is a group that may include police officers, formerly homeless civilian outreach workers, or counselors. This team makes contact with homeless people and can provide assistance, or guide them to shelters for assistance. This can avoid unnecessary and costly arrests intended to displace the homeless.

Most homeless people have no means of communications with the outside world. Few have access to a phone to make or receive calls, get voice messages, send and receive a fax or email. Many support organisations provide some limited local phone access, voice mail, and internet computers with email. This is critical in a modern technological world for medical appointment verification, job and services searches.

Health care for the homeless

In general, health care for the homeless is a very important charitable issue and a public health issue.

The homeless are under-served for medical problems. State medical insurance is one possibility, but many homeless can't get access to it. Free-care clinics, especially for the homeless, exist and are usually over-burdened with patients.

The actual medical conditions affecting the homeless are somewhat specialized and has opened a newer area of medicine catering to this population. Skin diseases and conditions abound, as well as dental, personal hygiene and the like. Specialized medical textbooks have been written to address this for providers.

The effects of poor nutrition, substance abuse, and unmitigated exposure to the severe elements of weather are important considerations.

There are many organizations providing free care all over the world for the homeless, but the services are in great demand given the limited number of medical practitioners helping. For example, it might take months to get a minimal dental appointment in a free-care clinic.

Communicable diseases are of great concern, especially Tuberculosis in high density urban populations.

Income opportunities

Many non-profit organizations such as Goodwill Industries maintain a mission to "provide skill development and work opportunities to people with barriers to employment", though most of these organizations are not primarily geared toward homeless individuals. Many cities also have street newspapers or magazines: publications designed to provide employment opportunity to homeless people or others in need by their sale on the streets of their respective cities.

While some homeless have paying jobs, some must seek other methods to make money. Begging or panhandling is one option, but is becoming increasingly illegal in many cities. Despite the stereotype, not all homeless people panhandle, and not all panhandlers are homeless. Another option is busking: performing tricks, playing music, drawing on the sidewalk, or offering some other form of entertainment in exchange for donations. In cities where pharmaceutical companies still collect paid blood plasma, homeless people may generate income through frequent visits to these centers.

Homeless people have been known to commit crimes just to be sent to jail or prison for food and shelter. In police lingo, this is called "three hots and a cot." Similarly a homeless person may approach a hospital's emergency department and fake a mental illness in order to receive food and shelter.

Statistics for developed countries

The following statistics indicate the approximate average number of homeless people at any one time. Each country has a different approach to counting homeless people, and estimates of homelessness made by different organisations vary wildly, so comparisons should be made with caution.

European Union: 3,000,000 (UN-HABITAT 2004)

England: 10,459 rough sleepers, 98,750 households in temporary accommodation (Department for Communities and Local Government 2005)

Canada: 150,000 (National Homelessness Initiative - Government of Canada)

Australia: 99,000 (ABS: 2001 Census)

United States: Chronically homeless people (those with repeated episodes or who have been homeless for long periods) 150,000-200,000 (some sources say 847,000-3,470,000) though a report in January 2007 said 744,000.

Japan: 20,000-100,000 (some figures put it at 200,000-400,000)

Developing and undeveloped countries

The number of homeless people worldwide has grown steadily in recent years. In some Third World nations such as Brazil, India, Nigeria, and South Africa, homelessness is rampant, with millions of children living and working on the streets. Homelessness has become a problem in the cities of China, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines despite their growing prosperity, mainly due to migrant workers who have trouble finding permanent homes and to rising income inequality between social classes.

Homelessness in the popular media

Popular films

1966 Cathy Come Home at IMDb - An influential film by Ken Loach which raised the profile of homelessness in the UK and led indirectly to the formation of several charities and changes in legislation.
1986. Down and Out in Beverly Hills
1991. Life Stinks at IMDb
1994. With Honors at IMDb
1997. La Vendedora de Rosas at IMDb
2003. Homeless to Harvard: the Liz Murray Story at IMDb -- see Liz Murray
2006. The Pursuit of Happyness at IMDb - the story of Chris Gardner

Documentary films

1985. Streetwise at IMDb -- follows homeless Seattle youth.
1997. The Street: A Film with the Homeless at IMDb -- about the Canadian homeless in Montreal. New York Times Review,
2000 Dark Days at IMDb -- A film following the lifes of homeless adults living in the Amtrak tunnels in New York.
2001 Children Underground at IMDb -- Following the lifes of homeless children in Bucharest, Romania.
2003. À Margem da Imagem at IMDb -- about the homeless in São Paulo, Brazil. Its English title is "On the Fringes of São Paulo: Homeless".
2004. Homeless in America at IMDb
2005 Children of Leningradsky at IMDb -- About homeless children in Moscow.

TV documentaries

1988. Home Sweet Homeless at IMDb

Homelessness in specific countries

Main article: Homelessness in the United States Main article: Homelessness in Canada Main article: Homelessness in Australia Main article: Homelessness in the United Kingdom

Voluntary Homelessness

Voluntary Homelessness is also known as Nomadism. Some choose Homelessness as a lifestyle, preferring it to a settlement with society's norms. Nomads have existed throughout history.

References

Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. Homelessness: The Causes and Facts. Retrieved 2006-05-10.
Homeless Link
National Coalition for the Homeless. A Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities. Retrieved 2006-05-11.
Allis, Sam (May 14, 2006). "A port in the storm Center gives homeless a phone and a chance". The Boston Globe. Globe Newspaper Company.
Aday, Lu Ann , "Health status of vulnerable populations", Annual Review of Public Health, 1994;15:487-509.
Bibliography on Healthcare for the Homeless
United States Department of Health and Human Services, "Healthcare for the Homeless".
Ferguson, M., "Shelter for the Homeless", American Journal of Nursing, 1989, pp.1061-2.
Lenehan, G., McInnis, B., O'Donnell, and M. Hennessey, "A Nurses' Clinic for the Homeless", American Journal of Nursing, 1985, pp.1237-40.
Martin-Ashley, J., "In Celebration of Thirty Years of Caring: Pine Street Inn Nurses Clinic", Unpublished.
Homeless Health Concerns - National Library of Medicine
Wood, David, (editor), "Delivering Health Care to Homeless Persons: The Diagnosis and Management of Medical and Mental Health Conditions", Springer Publishing Company, March 1992, ISBN 0-8261-7780-8
"No Angels Here: The Closing of the Pine Street Inn Nurses Clinic, 1972–2003", by Grace Elizabeth Moore, Harvard Divinity School, Center for the Study of World Religions
O'Connell, James, J, M.D., editor, et al. "The Health Care of Homeless Persons: a Manual of Communicable Diseases & Common Problems in Shelters & On the Streets", Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, 2004.
Government of Canada, "National Homelessness Initiative: Working Together"
Australian Bureau of Statistics, "Housing Arrangements: Homelessness", 2004.
National Alliance to End Homelessness
"Study: 744,000 homeless people in U.S.". Associated Press. Jan. 10, 2006. Article is here, too.
"In pictures: Japan's homeless", BBC News.

Bibliography

Baumohl, Jim , (editor), "Homelessness in America", Oryx Press, Phoenix, 1996.
BBC News, "Warning over homelessness figures: Government claims that homelessness numbers have fallen by a fifth since last year should be taken with a health warning, says housing charity Shelter", Monday, 13 June, 2005.
Charlton, Emma, "France to create 'legal right' to housing", Agence France-Presse news, January 3, 2006.
Coalition for the Homeless (New York), "A History of Modern Homelessness in New York City".
Cooper, Yvette, MP, "Effective Homelessness Prevention", April 12, 2006.
Crimaldi, Laura,"Homeless getting new lease on life", Boston Herald, December 11, 2006
Culhane, Dennis , "Responding to Homelessness: Policies and Politics", 2001.
deMause, Neil, "Out of the Shelter, Into the Fire: New city program for homeless: Keep your job or keep your apartment", The Village Voice, New York, June 20 2006.
DePastino, Todd, "Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America", 2003. ISBN 0-226-14378-3
Institute for Governmental Studies, Berkeley, "Urban Homelessness & Public Policy Solutions: A One-Day Conference", January 22 2001
Kahn, Ric,"Buried in Obscurity", Boston Globe, December 17, 2006.
Kusmer, Kenneth L. , "Down and Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History", Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-504778-8
Morton, Margaret, "The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless Of New York City", Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-300-06559-0
Riis, Jacob, "How the Other Half Lives", 1890.
Rossi, Peter H., "Down and Out in America: The Origins of Homelessness", University Of Chicago Press, 1990.
Schutt, Russell K., Ph. D., Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston.
- Schutt, Russell K., et al., "Boston's Homeless, 1986-87: Change and Continuity", 1987.
- Schutt, Russell K., Working with the Homeless: the Backgrounds, Activities and Beliefs of Shelter Staff, 1988.
- Schutt, Russell, K., "Homeless Adults in Boston in 1990: A Two-Shelter Profile", 1990.
- Schutt, Russell K., Garrett, Gerald R., "Responding to the Homeless: Policy and Practice", Topics in Social Psychiatry, 1992. ISBN 0-306-44076-8
- Schutt, Russell K., Byrne, Francine, et al., "City of Boston Homeless Services: Employment & Training for Homeless Persons", 1995.
- Schutt, Russell K., Feldman, James, et al., "Homeless Persons’ Residential Preferences and Needs: A Pilot Survey of Persons with Severe Mental Illness in Boston Mental Health and Generic Shelters", 2004.
Sommer, Heidi, "Homelessness in Urban America: a Review of the Literature", 2001.
St. Mungo's organisation (UK), "A Brief History of Homelessness".
Vissing, Yvonne , "Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Homeless Children and Families in Small-Town America", 1996.
Vissing, Yvonne, "The $ubtle War Against Children", Fellowship, March/April 2003.
Vladeck, Bruce, R., and the Committee on Health Care for Homeless People, Institute of Medicine, "Homelessness, Health, and Human needs", National Academies Press, 1988.
Toth, Jennifer, "The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City", 1993. ISBN 1-55652-190-1
United States Conference of Mayors, "Hunger and Homelessness Survery", December 2005.