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Faluoke Aisikaer
Jason Roberts
ENGL 1010
12/13/2016
Homelessness, is it resolvable
Homelessness is a major issue in the United States, according to HUD 5th Annual
homelessness Assessment Report to Congress about 1.56 million people in the United States are
homeless. Can homelessness be resolved? An article online by Jeff Spross talked about how the
rate of homeless population is dropping significantly in Central Florida, Utah, Washington and
other states. Spross said it dropped up to 60 percent since the beginning of 2013 and he provided
statistics on how 66-77 percent of people that are provided housing and social help ended up
holding on to their houses, comparing to the 24-30 percent of the people that were not.
With this kind of approach taking place, did it reduce homeless population? Lets look at
the numbers. The national rate of homelessness in 2015 fell to 17.7 homeless people per 10,000
people in the general population from 18.3 in 2014. According to the website EndHomelessness,
in 2014, 7 million people in poor households were doubled up with family and friends, the most
common prior living situation before becoming homeless. This represents the first significant
decrease since the Great Recession. Even that, still the number of people in poor households
living doubled up is 52 percent higher now than in 2007, prior to the recession. This means even
with the decrease; the number is still huge. Looking at another statistic, according to the website
Social Solutions. 564,708 people in the U.S. are homeless, among them over half a million
people were living on the streets, in cars, in homeless shelters, or in subsidized transitional
housing. 83,170 individuals, or 15% of the homeless population, are considered chronically

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homeless which means they have long term health problems like disability or they are
experiencing deep issues such as, addiction. 47,725, or about 8% of the homeless population, are
veterans, on top of that over 1.4 million veterans are at risk of homelessness. 550,000
unaccompanied, single youth and young adults under the age of 24 experience a homelessness
episode of longer than one week. Fifty percent of the homeless population is over the age of 50.
Looking at these shocking statistics, are there ways of reducing or solving this issue?
Lets look at some main reason of people becoming homeless. Unemployment, unable to
pay bills or debt, have chronical illness, mental illness, or substance abuse. But is there no help
from the government to resolve all these? Actually, there are, there is unemployment insurance,
Medicaid, food stamp (SNAP), and public housing assistance. With all the helps in place, why
isnt it reducing the rate of homeless. In fact, to receive these benefits the eligibility requirements
and the rules of qualifying are way too stringent and not at all generous comparing to other
countries that provides the same types of aids. Per NBC News, only 15% of Americans receive
food stamps. Which means out of 318.9 million Americans population, 47 million of them
received food stamps. The same goes for other assistance, the rules are so strict and qualification
rate is low. For disabled homeless people, per Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center In
past years, a person filing their first disability appeal could expect to have an 85 percent chance
of being denied for disability benefits. Now, that percentage has gotten a little worse as 87
percent of reconsideration appeals are currently denied.
With all that being said, what do we need to do to resolve these issues. I have interviewed
Monica from Catholic Community Service, and was informed that the current method in place is
working but, there should be changes and improvements. Current system in place to help are
simply a little outdated, with the homeless population we have right now, a new system must

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take over to solve all the problems. With all the information I gathered combined, I have found
that, to reduce homeless population on a large scale, we need to provide subsidized housing that
would cost homeless people nothing, better unemployment benefit, more help in terms of fixing
mental health problems or drug addiction, most importantly I think we need to simplify the
procedures for benefit applications, this way homeless people can actually receive these benefits.
Volunteering at CCS taught me lots about homeless people and the struggle they are
facing. Homeless issue is a major problem that the U.S. is dealing with, by spending nearly 4.5
billion a year according to the Housing and Urban Development, and it seems to be working. It
has dropped 10% from 2010. But until the total percentage of homeless population hits single
digit, we wouldnt see a dramatic impact in the real world and the budget. With all the help and
resources in place right now, and the researches taking place to find out better ways to resolve
this issue, lets see what the following years have in stock for us.