Essays on Housing AND Urban Development

General Problem Statement

Homelessness is a worldwide phenomenon observed in all nations regardless of economic development status. Many often believe homelessness is only a result of financial distress but there are many instances wherein homelessness is a result of other circumstances; advocates of the financial viewpoint – Miller, Herzberg, and Ray (2012) – claimed the urgency of addressing economic problems of society to effectively deal and combat homelessness. In contrast, Wright (2009) emphasized political and social origins of the problem rather than economic ones In the hopes of helping the problem, Hodas and Myers highlighted social and educational issues in schools that impact children ...

A homeless individual is a person without a regular, satisfactory, and fixed residence for spending a night. The primary residence of such a person is mostly supervised shelter for providing a temporary accommodation. These shelters include emergency shelters and transitional houses that only provide temporary housing. It is a major concern in the US despite being among the most developed countries in the World. Most of the cities in different states in the US are typically faced with the challenge of homelessness. California is among the states that have high levels of street families. Homeless persons usually experience many ...

Even though statistics states the the number of homeless people declined in the recent years, homelessness remains a big problem that needs to be addressed (Katel 243). However, the lacking of a permanent settlement does not root from the inability or lacking of the government to provide housing programs especially to the unfortunate. In fact, the American administration has already launched programs which aimed at reducing homelessness (Katel 243-244). One of the housing policies include the “Housing First” Program which helps homeless people find a permanent housing and aids them in the payments of the rent for some period ...