The Number of Homeless People in the USA - Essay Example

? Research on the homeless, low income and unemployed in Pinellas County, Florida At Pinellas County, Florida, there are programs and services to assist the homeless, low-income earners, and the unemployed regain their self-sufficiency. However, the documented prove shows that Pinellas County is failing to curtail this growing problem. This is because; the huge number of shelter beds and lumps of money spent on issues regarding the homelessness in Pinellas County has increased in the past few years. This depicts that, hundreds of people in this county continue to spent nights in their cars, streets, and in other inhumane places. This research paper will seek to find out the real conditions and the basic needs of the homeless, low income and the unemployed in the county of Pinellas, Florida. To begin with, prior establishing conditions encountered by the homeless people, this research sought to clarify the causes of the growing number of homeless in this county. It established that, lack of basic health care necessities, deteriorative economic conditions coupled with high level of unemployment are the leading causes of homelessness in Pinellas County. In addition, other homeless people blamed their status on environmental or personal barriers. Statistics highlighted that, the number of homeless people increased by 20 percent within a period of two years­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­- between 2007 and 2009. By January 28 2009, the total number of the homeless people was 6,235. All these people spent their nights on park benches, sidewalks, doorways, bus stops, in encampments, and along Pinellas Trail depicting a rise of 83 percent of sleeping places within the same period (Baker and Bush, 2011). According to the documented data collected from the research, the homeless have a number of basic needs. For instance, they lack basic health care needs, food, and access to clean water. In addition, decent clothing, and proper housing is still an issue. Through interviews, we found out that, the most common basic need among all of the homeless people in Pinellas County is the lack of supportive, affordable, permanent housing. By use of questionnaires, a larger number of them put down that, they could not afford basic healthcare needs; others would run hungry all day. Truthfully, due to their living conditions, most of them encountered diseases that could be otherwise prevented yet continue to afflict them due to lack of medical services in conjunction with lack of emergency financial services. Furthermore, with reference to the graphs provided, the level of blood pressure of the homeless, unemployed, and low income is high. Accordingly, this might be as a result of stress due to their living conditions. Interestingly, lack of clothing, transportation services, emergency services that include rent or deposits coupled with overlapping living expenses toped in the list of the unmet basic needs (Baker and Bush, 2011). In addition, lack of clean water to drink and the overall basic health care needs services were at the top of the system of the wide unmet basic needs for the elderly and the adults. This research established that, there are huge numbers of low-income earners within Pinellas County. Economic indicators show that, throughout the county, there are people who live under advent poverty conditions coupled with deteriorated health conditions. However, the more densely populated areas (urban) such as St. Petersburg and Clearwater contained the most number of people inflicted by poverty and highest number of diseases (Anderson, 2010). The high number of diseases is depicted by the number of life vials given in the months of January, March, June, and August 2011 (bar graph showing blood pressure and vials of life given). Other economic indicators put across that, due to financial difficulties, most children in school between the ages of 5 to 17 years received lunches at a lowered cost or freely in Pinellas County. This represented only 30 percent of the overall school population. As elaborated, cases regarding little income earnings contributed to lack of basic health care needs among children and the adults. People living under a dollar per day cannot afford or access food on daily bases, have to walk endless miles in search of health services, and eventually sleep anywhere. Documented data from this research highlighted that, there are homeless people who have jobs. During the day, they report to their respective working areas but return either to the streets or to the designated camps providing housing services. The assessment revealed that, these people earn too little to support themselves financially. As a result, they cannot afford basic health needs, mortgage plans and/or emergency services such as rent or emergency financial services. Assessing from already existing data, we found out that, the median age for people living in Pinellas County is 42 years, with a relatively high average of older people 65 years and above. Furthermore, the 2000 US Census noted that Pinellas County had 921, 482 with an additional 42,000 from in-migration (Anderson, 2010). That noted, this research went ahead to establish that, a huge number of people were unemployed and had high blood pressure in February, March, and August 2011 (pie chart showing blood pressure readings, 2011). Their status linked to imperative causes such as lack of basic health care needs, adequate education, inadequate employment opportunities, physical therapy, and dermatology services. This high level of unemployed resulted to inability to be self-sufficient which in turn increased the number of homeless people within this county. According to Florida Research and Economic Database, the economic profile of Pinellas County comprises of a mere number of industries, which are the major sources of employment. Surprisingly, this county’s major industries are administrative support, retail services, finance, and real estate management, which can only absorb just a small percentage of the total population. This research also noted that, the rate of unemployment has been rising from the past couple of years documenting a 4.4 percent increase since 2003. This represented 22,130 unemployed inhabitants of Pinellas County (Shumsky, 2012). Due to lack of employment, the level of inadequate basic needs increased which resulted to inadequate food, lack of dental assistance, and lack of rent rendering the unemployed homeless as well as inability to access basic health care necessities such as physical therapy and dermatology services. Upon documenting all the findings obtained from the research, it was clear that, there were disputable barriers, policies, and perceptions that contributed to homelessness, low income, and unemployment in the Pinellas County. Lengthy procedures while applying for either medical services or financial assistance requires lots of information, documentation, and scrutinized policies surrounding the available means of getting help from either the federal government or non- governmental organizations crippled the efforts of the homeless and with cause, end up staying homeless (Shumsky, 2012). Therefore, this research suggested some changes in view of ending these vices. They include; Pinellas County should have high medical assistance to help with the provision of basic health necessities, developers should set aside some affordable housing units, government should put the homeless on pay rolls, pay their utility bills, and provide health insurance. In conclusion, with regard to data collected from the Pinellas County Human Services Department, this county has potential to of addressing the basic needs of the homeless. However, due to lack of primary direct provision of basic health care needs of the homeless, many people continue to suffer due to lack of accountability. With facts, this research resolved to explain the conditions causing homelessness, low income, and unemployment as well as factors surrounding their basic needs involving health care service, food, shelter, clothing and financial assistance. References Anderson, A., (2010). Insiders' Guide to the Greater Tampa Bay Area: Including Tampa, St. Petersburg, & Clearwater. Guilford:Globe Pequot. Baker, R and Bush, J., (2011). The Seamless City: A Conservative Mayor's Approach to Urban Revitalization that Can Work Anywhere. Washington, D.C.:Regnery Publishing. Shumsky, N., (2012). Homelessness: A Documentary and Reference Guide. Santa Barbara:ABC-CLIO. Read More