what are some causes of homelessness?

Question

how can we help prevent homlessness

Answer 1

I believe that the truth is that most homeless people have a mental illness.

I suppose some have addiction issues but if you were to interact with the homeless at a shelter or food pantry you would realize that mental illness is very common.

Answer 2

There are a lot of causes to homelessness. Some people are victims of unfortunate choices - gambling, debt, drugs, alcohol.

Some people are victims of unfortunate circumstances, unemployment, mental illness, etc.

And there is a small subset of the homeless population that chooses, for whatever reason, to be homeless. And I say this, because I met a homeless man who holds a PhD. He was a professor. He decided that he didn't want to be tied down to a house.

Unfortunately, there is no real magic pill solution to homelessness - we need better social services - not just "free checks," but REAL services - to help at-risk families get themselves stable financially, whether it's through job skills training, lessons in money management, addiction treatment, etc. We need better case management with mental health clients to make sure they are taking their medications, and that the necessary medications are available and affordable to the clients. A lot of these clients have fallen through the cracks of the existing system - to help prevent, we need to start there.

Answer 3

Stats say that many people are one paycheck away from homelessness. Think about it, if you had to go on disability, what would you do for money? What if you were in a bad car accident and couldn't work for a month- you have two weeks of sick leave and use it all up. How would your bills /rent /mortgage get paid? I live in Ohio a state that has one of the highest rates of the working poor in the United States. We have people who have jobs who still don't make enough to pay all the bills. Medical care is a BIG one. Our health care system is one where we charge exorbitant amounts for care, and people go broke because they can't get out from under the bills.

My own father has barely escaped homelessness. I'm thankful I'm able to help him. He is not mentally ill or unskilled. He worked in the steel mills which are mostly now defunct. He was 'downsized' and had to find another job. He tried to go to college, but his employer at the time lowered his wage to a 'student wage' and cut his hours. Thus he couldn't go to school anymore. He went back into sales full time and was downsized again at the age of 59. No one wants to hire a man that age to do sales, so the only job he could find was that of security guard. And they jack him around and don't pay him on time. His check is repeatedly late- it was once 5 days late! His boss told him he should budget better. He almost lost his apartment, but it was his own fault. What a load of crap.

Back to your question, to prevent it, I think there need to be more advocates to help people get through all the traps out there.

Answer 4

most people are living pay cheque to pay cheque and if something happens like getting ill or losing your job you may not be able to afford to stay where you are while waiting for insurance to kick in or it might take a long time to get another job. Some people may not have family or friends to help them till they get back on their feet. Some people drink or do drugs and lose everything to their habits. There are many reasons people could become homeless bad luck, mental problems, addiction, getting kicked out of the house when you're a teenager. No one wakes up one morning and says yeah today I think I want to be a homeless person or an alcoholic, or drug addict.

Answer 5

Homelessness is unpreventable, There are many factors, you may be able to help out the friend that just lost his job and can't afford next months rent and is unable to feed his family, but you can't find a home or job for the hundreds or even thousands that seem to be content in the hole they've dug for themselves. grant it, there are those who are truly looking for that opportunity to better themselves, and then there are not.. I volunteer at a homeless/food shelter, and it is just awful. You can't help but feel for the little children who are destined to be in the same situation as their parents or parent. for years the same faces come in and they have gotten no further ahead than the month before, There's no ambition to even try. So I say this with the respect: "how can you even attempt to help someone who don't want to help themselves".

Answer 6

Houses (and housing) are expensive compared to today's wages. Many Americans are just barely getting by. If someone who's just barely getting by loses his job, or has an illness that stops him working and adds medical bills, then it's more and more likely that he'll not be able to make his house payments, and won't have saved enough money to tide him over.

You'd have to make housing more available and less expensive. Good luck with that.

Answer 7

People that have minimum wage, can't afford to pay high rent and get delayed on bills so they end up that way, another is addiction to drugs. Drugs leave people miserable and getting broke so they can't control it. I saw this in a episode on the Tyra Banks Show, it was interesting cause she went undercover. So that 's my opinion.

Answer 8

As a Social Worker, I am aware of homelessness
It can happen to any social strategy.
caused by losing your job and income.
caused by high hospitals bills or other violent impacts in a personal life.

it can be caused by people who have Psychiatric problems, but do not have access to proper health care insurance, hence therefore they do not have adequatley access to proper medical care.
The circumstances are plent of them. It can be very easily to get into becoming homelessness.

I once was close to be one of these statistics. But I was lucky and got out of it.
How can we prvent it? Better paying jobs, better access to health care insurance, better access to hospital care,
taking care of one another.

Answer 9

thetheir parents leave them and they dont have any where else to live, they get thrown out of hteur house because well they just do
and also because they are poor :(

Answer 10

What "simple....." said covers all angles.
Been there, done that.
Do not wish it on anyone.
Its a trip.