Homelessness in America - Essay Example

Homelessness in America As the economy improved throughout the 90’s, the problem of homelessness only increased as well. While it might make sense to some that an improved economy would mean less homelessness, in truth the opposite happened. An improved economy has forced more people into homelessness and the need for emergency housing and food services, and the children of these parents are the ones who are suffering the most because of it. Children who grow up in these conditions are more likely to not finish high school, and this creates a cycle of homelessness. Two essays, “Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids” and “Still Hungry, Still Homeless,” discuss this issue, though the latter is a stronger essay as it explains how this problem came to be in more detail. “Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids,” by Anna Quindlen, concentrates more on the problem of single mothers with children to take care of. She outlines the problem of children who do not have secure housing: “They are children, hundreds of thousands of them, twice as likely to repeat a grade or be hospitalized and four times as likely to go hungry as the kids with a roof over their heads”(358). Without a stable environment, children are in danger of being hurt or finding school too difficult to keep up with, thus being forced to repeat a grade. The author then details the conditions that keep women from being able to deal with these problems: “Two years ago the National Low Income Housing Coalition calculated that the hourly income necessary to afford the average two bedroom apartment was around $12. That’s more than twice the minimum wage” (359). With earning enough money to pay for a two bedroom apartment, hardly luxurious in any manner, being so difficult, it is no wonder that so many single mothers and their children are forced to live on the streets. To drive home her point, the author explains the sort of day to day, paycheck to paycheck living that these families go through: “You’re one understanding relative, one paycheck, one second chance from the street. And so are your kids” (359). Many families are simply one paycheck away from homelessness, and the type of programs available to people are insufficient to help families cover costs. The author employs the phrase “And so are your kids” to attempt to personalize the essay, and to make people feel the fear that these families beneath the poverty line feel everyday when they receive bills or don’t have the food to feed their hungry children. Even though the author personalizes the essay, a specific reason for understanding why the homelessness problem is only growing helps readers to understand the problem. Without an easy way to approach the subject, the fact that the homelessness problem only grew during a burgeoning economy might confuse people. If people don’t precisely understand a problem, then they are going to be less likely to be sympathetic to the problem. In “Still Hungry, Still Homeless,” featured as an American magazine editorial, does this job: “Seeing that the earnings of the middle-class Americans have risen, landlords have been quick to realize that they can charge much higher rents” (361). With the rise in rents, most families were able to afford the increases. However, the problem is, as the article points out, that the lowest income group did not improve along with the rest of the country in the financial sector, and as this is the case, more and more families were unable to afford the rent to keep roofs over there children’s heads. Single mothers are even more prone to having difficulties in providing housing and food for their children. For the most part these two essays are quite similar to each other, simply concentrating on different aspects of the homeless problem, but “Still Hungry, Still Homeless, is a more effective essay for including a precise reason for the increase in homelessness during prosperous economic times. The essay goes on to further illustrate the increasing homelessness problem with statistics outlining various problems, such as there being “A startling 22% increase in the use of their emergency services” (361) for food and shelter needs. Furthermore, the essay states that “Almost three-fourth’s of the survey cities expect a rise in the demand for emergency food” (361). As we can see, this second essay relies a bit more heavily on statistics to make its point. By doing so, the essay is trading some of the emotional impact that the first essay attempted. The difference in these approaches highlights different ways to appeal to people’s sympathies. The first essay’s approach, the more emotional appeal, forces people to put themselves into the people who are personally dealing with this problem, to imagine first person what it would be like to deal with these problems. This is a more microscopic approach. People see the problem on a person to person basis, but using this approach, it is more difficult to see the bigger picture. As such, it might be harder to understand how widespread the problem is. This is where the second more fact-based, statistical approach comes in. By letting you know how much of an increase in the use of emergency food and shelter funds there actually is, then people are able to see how widespread the problem really is. It does, unfortunately, not quite personalize the problem for people, and people might be less likely to concern themselves with this problem if it is not personalized for them. In considering the differences between the two approaches of essays, we can see that they both have their weaknesses. However, taken together, the two essays complement each other and cover each other’s weaknesses. These two essays are on the brief side, and more developed essays could have included both approaches which would have not included the weaknesses that the essays have on there own. “Still Homeless, Still Hungry” does turn out to be the more effective essay as it explains how the problem really came to be. The essays on there own won’t change anything, of course. People need to put the effort into affecting change as opposed to just reading essays and understanding and sympathizing with the homeless and the hungry. More than a reform in welfare laws needs to take place in order to quell the rising tide of homelessness, and simply reading about it or throwing money at the problem will not make it go away. Read More