Final Project JOMC 220: Homelessness

Homelessness

Students who attend North Carolina A&T State University may be aware of the enormous number of homeless people in the city of Greensboro. Those who are homeless are most likely in a similar financial situation just as more than the 650,000 estimated homeless people in the United States.

While the homeless face difficult hardships every day, their situations are often ignored. While some people do help the homeless, some adopt an attitude of “ignorance is bliss”. Instead of ignoring them, those who encounter a homeless person should make an effort to help the poor and needy, even if that help may be a smile or short conversation.

“[People] help us a lot out here, more than everybody [believe] they do.” says James B, a homeless man living in Greensboro from Wilson North Carolina. “[Holding up a sign] is about like a regular job.”

 The U.S. tends to be a guilt-driven society, where people will often go to great lengths to avoid feeling bad about their actions, or inactions. The most extreme example of this is the “bystander effect,” where individuals fail to help in an emergency situation. There is a tendency to think that if we look the other way when someone addresses us on the street, we won’t feel so bad about not giving away our food or money.

 Some may not always have something tangible to give, but the alternative does not have to be a complete disregard of someone’s existence. Maybe one has a dollar that they do not necessarily need; a homeless person would be overwhelmed with just that one dollar bill.

 “I am o.k. if [people] give me food or money, but I would prefer to get money so I could go get exactly what I need. [People] do not know what you need, they give what they think you want.” said Joseph R.

 There are many political and social debates about the best things for helping the poorer class of society. Such as increasing the number of jobs available, expanding or contracting the welfare system, or just encouraging Americans to become more of a “volunteer society.”

 Changing how we interact with the homeless won’t do much in the way of helping fix their financial situation and America’s poverty problem. But the first step to solving any social issue is acknowledging that it exists and recognizing the major component of the problem.

 Once we realize that many of the people who live on the streets are not necessarily there because they lack skills or knowledge, our attitudes about programs to help the homeless might change, and our respect for others will grow.

 Recent major findings show that there are 636,017 homeless people in America. 67,495 of those individuals are veterans.

As of 2008, there were 12, 371 homeless people in North Carolina. 3,643 people in families, 2,216 of whom were children. 1,054 identified themselves as veterans of military service. 1,961 identified themselves as having a serious mental illness. 4,206 identified themselves as having a substance use disorder. 1,108 identified themselves as being a victim of domestic violence. 6.5 percent of people identified themselves as having been released from the criminal justice system. 6 percent of people identified themselves as having been released from a mental health hospital or drug treatment program.

According to its website, “The North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness is a statewide membership nonprofit created to secure resources, encourage public dialogue, and advocate for public policy change to end homelessness. NCCEH seeks to create alliances dedicated to changing the current system to end homelessness by addressing root causes and challenging North Carolina's acceptance of today's pervasive homelessness. Because we know this pervasive homelessness has not always existed, we know we can end it. NCCEH's policy agenda is focused on bringing about an end to homelessness through prevention, increased access to and flexible funding for services, affordable housing production, increased funding for housing and homelessness programs, and targeting policies that exacerbate poverty.” This program offers various incentives the benefits those who are struck by homelessness. For more information on how to get involved, please visit the website at www.ncceh.org/.