Reasons for Homelessness in New York City - Essay Example

Reasons for homelessness in New York Homelessness is one of the most critical and complex social problems of the United States, as there are almost 15 millions homeless people in the country. As a rule, homelessness, is a sign of hidden difficulties faced by the person, such as mental diseases, abuse problems or the lack of education and working skills. "The interaction of any of these problems with social and economic factors (e.g., lack of affordable housing) may result in individuals becoming homeless" (De Leon, 1986, p.10). The key determinants of homelessness are usually bidirectional, since they may be the cause as well as the result of the circumstances. Social and economic factors that have been associated with homelessness include poverty, reduction in the number of available low-income housing units, real dollar decreases in public assistance to low-income families, and reductions in demand for unskilled labor. 'Homelessness' is usually defined not exactly clearly, and the determining criterion is usually the absence of 'safe' or 'permanent' dwelling, but even this is ambiguous. "Many people live in intermediate or marginally secure accommodation, such as hostels or hotels" (Homelessness factfile, 2003,par.2), and in the homes of their friends and relatives as guests or lodgers. When all of them are satisfied with the state of affairs, the dwelling is reliable. If there happen any disagreements, the 'guest' might be forced to leave the accomodation. Identifying whether an individual in dwelling is housed or homeless is related to the permanence of the state of affeirs and on the control and rights this individual had over this dwelling. In general, it is accepted that those who sleep in the streets or stay in hostels or 'bad and breakfast' hotels are homeless, but this is a final point of agreement. Furthermore, other categories of people who have no stable housing (for instance, asylum seekers, imprisoned people, those who have to stay at the hospital, those, who live in overcrowded household, women, who have fled domestic violence) are extremelydifficult to define the housing status. A single definition is hardly possible, so it was accepted that homeless people would be divided into two groups: 1. Statutory homeless people. Local administrations are obliged to examine applicants for housing according to homelessness legislation and to determine whether they are homeless deliberately or unintentionally; and whether they fit the standard for 'priority housing need'. The authorities are obliged to divide them into following groups: 'statutory' and 'nonstatutory' homeless citizens. All involuntarily homeless citizens who have dependent children or dependent relatives with serious ailments are to be given priority status for housing, as they are viewed as an extremely vulnerable group. 2. Non-statutory homeless people, who are 'not recognised by local authorities as homeless and in priority need of housing. Some have not applied to be rehoused, while others have had their application refused. Most are single and without dependent children, and so have come to be known as 'single homeless people' (Homelessness factfile, 2003,par.2). The 2003 survey undertaken in New York City was planned to find out reasons for homelessness most important to respondents at the time of the study. The questionnaire did not purposely ask about larger social problems, even though some respondents considered it necessary to refer to those in the verbatim explanations. The survey did identify a wide range of possible causes, including a lot of sensitive individual matters; on the empirically based hypothesis that individual usually react to direct questions with direct and sincere responses. As a result, the answers demonstrated a picture of the multifaceted and numerous layers of personal problems and experiences that may call for supporting services. These results should improve, not substitute, nationwide research (New York City Report, 2004, par.3) and decision-making on greater social questions such as accessibility of reasonably priced housing, living wages and incorporation of required services with significant work. Research respondents gave numerous explanations for their most current experience of homelessness. Half (51, 5%) confessed to insufficiency of earnings, and this group was likely to include people whose benefit checks were cancelled or abridged (13, 5%) as well as those with a curbed income from their professional employment (32, 7%). Approximately one-third specified that they had split up with a wife, husband or partner, or otherwise endured some kind of family transformation (33, 3%). Just about thirty per cent clarified that their spouse, partner or roommate made them leave their dwelling (27, 8%). Participants also said they had experienced evictions (19.4%), releases from prison, or hospital (12, 2%), used alcohol (11%), drugs (14, 1%), and closures of dwellings as unsafe (5, 2%) as reasons for the absence of home. At a final point, one in five (20,7%) reported that their homelessness was related to the fact that they had migrated to a new region and had no capital, contacts or relatives. Supplementary information given under the group "some other reason" clarifies a range of other problems as well: family violence or ill-treatment, mental illness, "physical or medical health problems or injury, change in building ownership, death within the family, loss of Section 8 support or other benefits and mishandling of finances" (New York City Report, 2004,par.5). In brief, services clients provide a large number of combined factors - family problems, employment difficulties, problems with benefits programs, mental and behavioral health problems, to clarify their path to homelessness - rather than a single reason. It is possible to explain issue of homelessness in many ways, some of them are related to the social or economic problems, and others are likely to concentrate at the level of the personality. The researcher who works on provodong social services at the same time explains homelessness in the following way: In his experience, there was as rule four-leveled reason for homelessness: "1) the precipitating cause (e.g., an eviction); 2) the underlying cause (loss of benefits or a job); 3) the (often unreported) fundamental personal limitation at issue (e.g., mental illness, substance abuse, lack of education), an 4) (usually undreported) contributing societal factors (racial discrimination etc)" (McChesney, 1995, p. 440) Let's examine carefully the abovementioned reasons. Lots of homeless people have some troubles connected to drug and alcohol overuse. To a great extent, this negatively influences their homelessness, causing difficulties with finding a place to live. While there exist community-based alcohol and drug services, few of them are in fact available for homeless citizens; furthermore, there are much fewer services really meeting their needs. People living without a roof over their heads and with difficult drug or alcohol addiction have to deal with certain problems while searching for accommodation or assistance and support to satisfy their needs. Many shelters and 'b&b' hotels are unwilling to accept those people, who are deprived of normal accommodation and in addition have any kind of addiction. Furthermore, there is a specific category of people who have dual diagnosis, i.e. in addition to their drug or alcohol problems, they also have related mental disorders. Thus, they endure exceptionally austere problems in finding temporary dwelling. Traditionally, the majority of services have been organized according to a therapeutic approach including detoxication and abstinence. That is to say, several years ago some homelessness organizations created day and residential services, implicating a harm minimization concept that claims that some people will continue drinking or using drugs even after profound treatment and social work (Jainchill and De Leon, 1992,p.369). To my view, it is hard to determine whether drug or alcohol addiction was a cause or a reason of homelessness, so it is important to struggle both problems simultaneously. As I have mentioned, a certain part of homeless people have emotional and mental health Poor mental health makes independent living problematic and causes problems related to finding accommodation. Furthermore, there is a converse connection: homelessness might be a determinant of mental illness, since the absence of secure place for living actually makes people vulnerable to mental and personality disorders. "Securing accommodation is often a key step in dealing with mental health problems. However, once a homeless person with mental health problems has been resettled, mental ill-health can severely affect the ability to sustain a tenancy unless care and support is readily available" (APHA Journal, 2002, par.11). A number of psychologically and mentally vulnerable people without specific accommodation who have a tendency to having less acute mental disorders get to the trap of a "revolving door"(APHA Journal, 2002, par.11) - a cyclical prototype of 'chronic' homelessness, hospital treatments and problems with the criminal justice organization. Day and residential services, developed in recent years, might be a possible solution. Multi-disciplinary teams, which usually include professional social workers and mental health specialists, provide services to this category of people. People who have debts and arrears with paying their rent (either private sector or housing association rent) risk losing their dwelling. The situation depends on the kind of tenancy they have got, and similar problems might end with eviction. Nowadays, people who have experienced eviction are 'forgotten' by social policies, since they are only seen as debtors. To my view, it is necessary to create special rehabilitation centers for this category of homeless people, since they might have a number of psychosocial problems. Moreover, many people (as a rule, women) lose roof over their head because of being forced to escape domestic violence (whether it is an individual or imposed decision). Domestic violent behavior takes place between spouses or partners in a relationship, between adults and children, or between relatives. "Domestic violence can take many forms, including physical injuries, abuse and rape or mental cruelty in the form of bullying, insults or harassment. Very often, domestic violence is a combination of physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse" (APHA Journal, 2002,par.13). Furthermore, domestic violence may lead to mental; and personality disorders, to inadequate perception of reality, alcohol and drug addiction. Many women, having fled from violent spouses, and living on the streets feel much safer and more secure than at their so-called 'home'. Many refugees and asylum seekers have been set up and offered a temporary accommodation for women fleeing domestic violence (since the problem of domestic violence is extremely acute among the inhabitants of Muslim countries, who get the refugee status in the United States, but still live in pressing circumstances which might be a cause for domestic violence). Moreover, the interests of people living in gay or lesbian relationships, are also include, because they may apply as a homeless person to the local administration if they are not able too stay at their dwelling due to the risk of violence, as well as those who live in traditional 'man and woman' relationships. "Many people lose their accommodation when their relationship ends with their spouse or partner" (APHA Journal, par.15). Legislative base and case law includes the housing rights that married couples and partners, who live together, have ether their own or rent dwelling. Thus, relationship breakdown may also lead to homelessness, especially to homelessness of youth and children when their parents divorce. Homelessness among children is an important question to discuss, since this phenomenon is frightening as for ordinary citizens who are used to living in a stable accommodation. There are several possible reasons for child to become homeless: 1. Parental separation or divorce, which usually brings a feeling of needlessness to a child and sets up a pattern of independent life without parents who are only concerned with their personal problems. 2. "Family and domestic violence 3. Personal illness of parent(s) or carers 4. Alcohol and/or drug and solvent abuse by parents or the child" (Hawke, Jainchill, 2000,p.38) 5. Stable and severe neglecting of child, which, as well as divorce, leads to a feeling of needlessness and growing self-confidence and self-reservation. Children, to this extent, are vulnerable to ill treatment and ignorance. 6. Imprisonment of one or both parents. 7. Inability of child to work and contribute to family income. Emotional and mental degradation of parents may lead to the fact that child becomes a single breadwinner in the household. The most horrible about it is that child considers it normal to earn his or her own living and contribute to family budget. 8. Poor literacy, educational and social skills of the parents, especially from disenfranchised environment or 'blue collar' social class. 9. Mental health problems, mental handicap of the child leading to homelessness. Parents, who have a mentally handicapped child, might 'surrender' to disease or handicap and stop caring about the child. 10. Stable lack of money in the family, unemployment. 11. Inability of parents to pay rent. 12. Migration of parents to other countries or states of the U.S. 13. Inability of single parents to combine childcare and work Child homelessness is much more serious problem than homelessness among adults, because children, having learned certain patterns of 'street life', experience difficulties in rehabilitation and returning to 'normal' life. Childhood is a period of forming personality and personal constructs, so it is extremely important to make them realize traditional housing patterns. In order to analyze the issue more profoundly, let's examine following case. Neil is sixteen years old (Stockley, 1996,par.7) . Since Novemebr, 1990, he has been living in a squat of New-York with three other squatters, who are much older than him. They have ahd a tendency to showing their maternal/paternal attitudes towards him. Neil looks a little younger than his age, but is able to think quickly and critically. He has never seen his parents because of having been put in care at the age of three. The guy was reluctant to speak about the reasons for putting in care, but he makes an impression that they were quite significant for social services to stop the contacts between him and his parents. He never wished to fnd his parents and in fact, said that he was glad that the social services had placed him in care. Foster homes were not hospitable to Neil and he was really puzzled by the question about the exact number of them (Stockley, 1996,par.7). Later he tried to recollect them all and came to a result of 27 foster homes. When ten years old, social services decided foster home inappropriate for Neil and tried to find another accomodation for the boy. Neil was roomed in the home, becoming close to one of the social wokers, who empowered him to do well at school and to scrape sufficient GCSEs to be moved to the sixth form. At that time social services arranged his life in other way and gave him a place in lodgings after he finished school. He was given a large amount of money (he still doesn't know the certain amount), which he had no idea how to deal with. Furthermore, his older acquaintances from care (including two guys who shared the same lodgings) persuaded him that it was spent quickly. "Although saying that it was his own fault, from other conversations there was little doubt that there had been threats and pressure put upon him. He signed on for Youth Training, social services ensured that the rent was paid regularly and he received a small amount of income support. A Youth Training place did not materialise" (Stockley, 1996,par.8). Lodgings also were inappropriate, since they caused troubles -for instance, the two other guys in the house were 'on the game' (ibid), so Neil felt relieved leaving the house. Then he started searching for the social worker with whom Neil got along well, but he didn't succeed. Conversely -social services made an attempt to persuade him to return to lodgings, but he rejected the proposition, so they suggested that he he went to direct access hostel with men aged up to seventy. Neil, in turn, didin't accept this advise, and the services said they could not help them any more. Having lived with squatters for seven months (until sqauts were evicted), he became a male-prostitute and moved to a bed-sit, which he keeps perfectly clean. Stockley in his study exemplifies a large number of cases; and all of them are based on true stories of children and young people, who receive twisted perceprion of reality and understanding of home. It is hard to say, what happened to Neil in foster homes and lodgings, if he got a sense of home only in dark and dirty squats; and it is even harder to predict the future of this 'little adult' who started selling his body in order to survive and have a safe roof over the head. That is to say, psychology of homelessness is quite complicated, since, after living on the streeets for several years, person accepts homelessness as a mode of life and even reconciles with the fact that the basic need for stable and safe home is not met. The situation should be really traumatic to make an individual leave his/her home and rely on street life. I think, the complexity of psychosocial traumas should be taken into accont by various social services dealing with homeless people. Furthermore, it is importrant to mention that homeless person gradually looses his/her social, professional and personal identity, converting into 'antisocial element'. All identities are simply rubbed out, since people living on the streets are equal and see themselves as 'nobody' because of the absence of the main physical referent - accomodation. The sense of home is close-knit to the sense of personal space, which is absolutely neglected if the person looses his/her home for any reason. Thus, traumatic factors leading to homelessness, combined with psychological transformation taking place in homeless people, can be viewed as barriers to successful rehabilitation, as the absence of self-identity complicate contacts and social work directed to changing behaviour. Bibliography 1) De Leon, G. (1986). The therapeutic community for substance abuse: perspective and approach, in Therapeutic Communities for Addictions: Readings in Theory, Research and Practice (G. De Leon and J. T. Zeigenfuss, Eds.), Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, pp. 5-18. 2) Hawke, J., and Jainchill, N. (2000) Sexual abuse and the onset of drug use, J. Child Adolesc. Subst. Abuse# 9: pp.35-49 3) Homelessness Issues. (2002). APHA Journal, #130. http://apha.confex.com/apha/130am/techprogram/paper_45735.htm 4) Homelessness Factfile. (2003). A compact encyclopaedia from Crisis. In: The Housing, Care and Support, #78, (Nov), http://www.newint.org/issue276/facts.html 5) Jainchill, N., and De Leon, G. (1992) Therapeutic community research: recent studies of psychopathology, in Drug Abuse Treatment Research: German and American Perspectives (G. Buhringer and J. J. Platt, Eds.), Krieger, Malabar, Florida, pp. 367-388. 6) McChesney, K. (1995). A review of the empirical literature on contemporary urban homeless families. Social Service Review, # 69,pp. 429-460 7) New York City Report on Homelessness. (2004). http://72.14.207.104/searchq=cache:UQX89TcyKbgJ:www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/housing/publications/ACSSS/Section5.pdf+%22reasons+for+homelessness%22&hl=ru&gl=ua&ct=clnk&cd=2 8) Stockley, D. (1996). Homelessness among the young - identifying the factors involved. Contemporary Review, #12 (Dec) http://www.homelesspages.org.uk/subs/subjects.aspsbid=1 Read More