The Problem of Homelessness in the US - Essay Example

The death of the four poor men, namely Daniel Brillhart, Enrique Rubio, and Daniel Moore, has ignited the minds of the Americans and compelled them to ponder over this intricate problem that had existed for a long in the country and especially in California.

The various news agencies have covered the issue in their columns and drawn our attention toward the personal life and history of the four persons. All four of them reportedly were men of good social and moral character. Though deprived of social status or recognition in society, they were god-fearing men who worked sincerely to make a living. Each one of them had a family and some relatives. They had lived a very happy and productive life before they abandoned their homes and joined the homeless population of the nation. They supposedly left their homes and families owing to adverse financial circumstances or social abandonment or drug issues. They finally landed up in the encampments across San Francisco and took up a job to meet the basic needs of life- food, clothes, and a temporary shelter. This story applies not only to those four deceased men but to the entire homeless population of the US. Driven by financial deprivation and societal seclusion, these people escape from homes and families, to ultimately join the already overcrowded encampments of the homeless in Silicon Valley. They live their lives as nameless, faceless, and identity-less individuals who put up with the drudgeries of daily life to barely make sustenance. Despite the presence of a network of numerous shelter homes in the country, hundreds of homeless people die every year due to extreme cold. They live and die in a world of anonymity and isolation.

To help them get rid of their homeless condition, the government should allocate sufficient resources to building up permanent housing facilities for these people. This would include the allocation of both financial resources and land for implementing housing projects. This should be coupled with attempts to discard the myths associated with homelessness. A well-spread myth is that homeless people are unwilling to leave their encampments and shift to permanent housing or shelters.  Another presumption is that this problem will gradually find a solution to itself without anybody’s intervention. The remedy for homelessness lies not only in the physical measures to ensure homes for the homeless but also in a change of attitude toward the homeless. So the effective solution to this problem would entail a reform in government policies as well as an attitudinal reform in society. Read More