Argumentative Research - Essay Example

You do not have any good memories of going out, watching a movie or playing on the rides. And you do not even have any bad memories. It is like you are dead (Polakov & Guillean, 195). The word “homelessness” started being heard after the 1980s in United States when a large number of people including women and children started appearing on the streets seeking emergency shelter. Economic downturn caused by the Great Depression in the 1930s resulted in a mass movement of people in search of jobs also causing homelessness to plunge.

Homeless people include men, women, children, young, old, alcoholics, drug addicts, immigrants, native Americans, as well as people from other races, ethnicities, and religions. Although every homeless person faces different circumstances, however they all have one thing in common that they do not have any permanent dwelling (Gottfried, 10). The question is: what is its proper solution for homelessness? There are various factors contributing towards homelessness including lack of community based care, plummeting poverty, decreasing assistance, low income, and scarcity of affordable housing.

Among other causes are poverty, domestic violence, conditions of the economy, health care costs and lack of services (Hombs, 34). After budget cuts, numerous sectors of society responded by providing food, shelter, services and so on. These also include religious groups, civic groups and other organizations. Most of the funding for the emergency shelter programs comes from federal funds. The demand for shelter by homeless people has increased incredibly. Because shelter is not always available where it is required, therefore this causes family members to separate.

Many people believe that simply providing these homeless people with housing is not a long term solution. In most occasions homeless people look for help themselves. They live in inexpensive and inadequate hotels that provide them with poor living conditions. Lack of having a job also causes them to either live in poor conditions or to keep on moving to different places in search of food and accommodation. Many homeless people also forage for food and other useful materials by means of “dumpster diving”.

They look for things that are disposed of by their original owners that may prove useful to them. The things found include electronics, appliances, scrap items, other house wares and also food. Legally, dumpster diving is not particularly prohibited however dumpster diving performed within the premises of a residence may get the dumpster diver into trouble. In order to help the homeless people, the government started a cash assistance program by providing them with money. Only those people are eligible to receive this cash assistance who have incomes less than the State’s minimum Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) (Hombs, 39).

Among these who are eligible, cash assistance is provided for homeless people or families. The main aim of such cash programs is to provide homeless people with money to spend on other basic necessities apart from housing as housing itself consumes a big chunk of the income. Arguments against the cash aid programs say that such aids encourage people to relocate to states in hopes to receive higher payments and this relocation does not solve the problem of homelessness but leads to greater problems.

But in order to discourage people from moving to the