The Causes of Homelessness Amongst Different Countries

With a Highlight on The United States, Syria, and the Philippines

Pedro Daher

Global Connections

G. Falls

December 2017
 Abstract

Homelessness runs rampant in every country in the world. Homeless is a universal problem, it is

not limited to developing countries. The author of this paper would like to bring light to the fact

that people become homeless not just because of job loss but because there are certain

tragedies in the world that happen every day that can turns someone's life around real quick.

Tragedies such as natural disasters, economic collapse, fraud, drugs, job loss, and more. The

author of the paper would like to show that every homeless person has a different story and how

they go to where they are at today. It is not easy to bounce back from being homeless and there

many obstacles these people face in order to get back on their feet.
 Table of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………....…. 2

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………...……. 3

Introduction……………………………………………………………………...……… 4

Limitations of Study…………………………………………………………....………. 5

Literature Review………………………………………………………………….…… 6

Discussion…………………………………………………………………………...…. 9

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..……… 14

References………………………………………………………………...………….. 15
 Introduction

In New York, temperatures drop as low as 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Each year,

700 homeless people in America die each year from hypothermia alone. This usually

happens in the NorthEast and Midwest regions of America. Homeless people all around

the world are experiencing obstacles that are life-threatening and tortuous. New York, it

may be hypothermia, but in Syria, it could be murder.

2.5 million kids are homeless and about 39,471 veterans in America

every year. In England about 185,00 people are homeless and in 2.4 million adults in

China are homeless. Around the world, everywhere, you walk around the streets of

Istanbul, Beijing, San Francisco, you can find someone living and trying to survive on

the streets. Looking for nickels and dime in order to eat and maybe buy a motel for the

night to stay in.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness is an organization in America

leading the fight to end homeless by partnering with 19 federal agencies, state and local

governments in order to follow the federal strategic plan in order to end or prevent

homelessness. In China, Local Governments are teaming up with NGOs in order to

continue the fight. Organizations across the world are all looking for a way to stop it, but

these organizations aren’t looking to the deeper meaning and trying to find the source

that is causing these people to become homeless.

In Australia, domestic abuse is the number one cause of homelessness. If there

was something done in order for domestic abuse to stop or slow down, the number of

homeless will decrease a dramatic amount in homeless.

 Limitations of Study

Lack of sources: This is a limitation because the author of this paper will not have

the chance to fully answer the prompt. Finding sources and looking for reliable sites in

order to keep the research paper truthful and honest.

Lack of reliable evidence: Talking to homeless people can be really hard

because one does not know if they are speaking the truth. Some homeless people are

too embarrassed to tell their story or why they are homeless. Some have mental issues

or could be psychotic.

Lack of experience: The author of this paper has never been homeless nor does

the author of this paper know anyone who has or was homeless. This could hurt

research because they author does not know anything about how it is physically and

emotionally personally and on the other spectrum of knowing someone who is homeless

and what it does to you physically and emotionally.

 Literature Review

Homelessness happens because of issues like the economy, drugs, persecution,

famine, and more. According to the Salvation Army, drugs, domestic abuse, and

unemployment are the reasons why people in the United States become homeless. The

war in Syria has cost so many homes and because of that, people are leaving their

homes in Syria to find somewhere they could live without risking their lives. In the

Philippines, they have a combination of Syria and U.S. The Philippines has economic

problems, government problems, and persecution problems that are causing the

massive amount of homeless people in the Philippines.

Philippines:

The Philippines have approximately 22.8 million homeless people in their

country and almost 1.2 million are children. The reason for they become homeless

comes from a wide variety of reasons such as gambling, poverty, unemployment, drugs,

alcohol, domestic violence and more. According to Phil Star, 300,000 people became

homeless because of the recent natural disasters. The government is having a hard

time regulating and treating the homeless and the problem is increasing more and more

with disasters and the increase in the poverty level.

According to Quartz Media, on January 2017, The Philippines were getting

ready to host the 2017 Miss Universe competition. The secretary of tourism was asked

“How will you deal with what some consider to be “eyesores” in Metro Manila?”. The
“eyesores” are directed to the homeless men, women, and children in Manila. The

homeless were depicted of some sort of trash around a house that needs to be cleaned

up before the guest arrives. The question does bring attention to the secretary and

decides to take action on it because it seems to be “Taboo” to keep all the homeless

around. Chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Francis says “I see

nothing wrong with beautifying our surroundings...We are not trying to keep the poor out

of the picture.”

They then decide to do the same plan they did when Pope Francis arrived and

that was to send them on some sort of “vacation”. The Human Rights Watch said the

homeless were held in three government centers for homeless people until the event is

over.

Most of the homeless children who live in Manila become homeless because

of their drug addiction. Spending too much money to get high, usually to make them feel

better because of bad events happening in their life such as losing a job, or family

issues.

The drug problem in the Philippines has been a problem for the countries

teenagers and adults because of the large amount distribution happening. The Filipino

President Rodrigo Duterte said “Hitler massacred three million Jews … there are three

million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.” Drug user represents

3% of the nation's population. According to LA Times, the homeless and corruption are

what is fueling the drug trade. Drug use for children starts in school because the

number of dropouts is increasing. Schools in the Philippines are having a hard time
staying up because of the amount of money they need to run a school. Since the

schools don’t have money, they cannot fund any student projects, which lead them to

drop out and begin drug use.

United States of America:

According to Social Solutions, in 2016 there were a reported 564,708 people

that do not have a home and live on the streets, in their cars, homeless shelters, or

subsidized transitional housing. 83,170 people are “chronically” homeless which means

a person with some sort of disability who has no home and has been homeless for a

year or more. 47,725 are veterans who also do not have a home after active duty and

1.4 million veterans are at risk of becoming homeless. 110,000 LGBTQ are homeless

usually because of parents not accepting of who they are. These statistics show the

many reasons of why people become homeless in the United States. It usually has

something to do with a disability or a personal event that affected their reason to have a

home.

Syria​:

According to Al-Alahkbar, over 4 million Syrians are homeless and the number

continues to grow. Over 2 million kids had to dropout of school because of the ongoing

war problem. Isis has forced many people out of their homes, many of them being

women, children and the elderly. 1.2 million houses have been destroyed.
 Discussion

The definition of homeless on Google is (of a person) without a home, and

therefore typically living on the streets. Over 100 million people worldwide do not have a

home, the number continues to grow as disasters happen, diseases spread, accidents

happen, addictions prevail, economies collapse, homes get destroyed, or any of life's

millions of obstacles hit someone or their family. The Google definition does not really

do justice to what homeless really means because of the amount of struggle and what

they have to constantly go through everyday in order to find some type of hole to get off

the streets. The National Health Care for the Homeless defines homeless as “an

individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a

family), including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised

public or private facility (e.g., shelters) that provides temporary living accommodations,

and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing.” The difference between this

definition and Google’s is the fact of how much wider the NHCH made homeless seem.

Google gave a very narrow outlook on the homeless and based it to just living in the

streets but really, they could live in a car, homeless shelters, subsidized transitional

housing, hotels, and many more areas.

Homelessness is everywhere, from Virginia Beach to Las Vegas, to Paris, to

Shanghai, to Damascus, to Manila. The numbers will continue to grow if we don't try

and prevent more and more people breathing and barely living on the streets.

The Philippines is located in southeast Asia with a population of 103.3 million and

the number continues to rise. People come to swim in the beautiful Boracay beach, visit
the Rizal Park, or soak in the historic Batad Rice Terraces. With 7,107 islands in the

one country alone, the Philippines is a site to see and on top of many bucket lists.

Manila, the capital, is one of the country's most beautiful cities to visit, with the

second largest population of people counting around 1.78 million. And Manila is the

country's center of economic, political, social and cultural activities, it also has the

largest population of homeless people in the country. It also has the largest population

of homeless people in any city in the world. The city self-has 3.1 million homeless

people with about 1.2 million who are kids. 44% of the population lives in the slums

according to UN-Habitat. The 1.2 million kids are living in trash-strewn squatter camps

that people live, eat, and play in. According to United Nations' Children's Rights &

Emergency Relief Organization, 1% of the entire population is “abandoned or

neglected”. Organizations have been trying to slow down the increasing number of

people going to the poverty line, or they will try and bring food and water to people who

are below that line. The Department of Social Welfare and Development are obligated

to try and find homes for the children. Some of these children are taken and sent

overseas away from their friends and family. About 1,350 kids were adopted by

American families but adoption bureaucracy says that some adoptive families never

pick up their kid or end up not replying which ends up leaving the children without a

home and grow up without any parents. These numbers happen because of the number

of reasons people become homeless.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and killed more than 3,600 people

died and over 1.9 million people were left homeless. In 2016, typhoon Haima killed over
6,300 people and damaged 60,000 homes. Natural disasters are one of the biggest

reason why so many people are living in the streets or slums in the Philippines. Since

the Philippines is so close to the equator, the country is very vulnerable to many natural

disasters. Habitat for Humanity is an organization that helps to rebuild houses and

relocates some of the displaced families. Natural disasters are the number one reason

for the displacement of many people in the Philippines.

According to CNBC, Unemployment in the Philippines is at an all-time high. In

January of 2017, it was at a high of 6.6 percent of the population were unemployed.

Even though the Philippines are known as the “rising tiger economy of Asia”, only the

rich are becoming richer.

People who do have jobs, may not have the best paying jobs in order to feed

themselves or family. Mr. Taggaro works on a vegetable stand in Manila, gets paid an

equivalent of five dollars a day. He battles the everyday fight of government corruption

to be able to keep and sell his vegetables. But Mr. Taggaro is not the only one in this

struggle because many people are being left behind in the Philippines growing

economy. People are losing jobs because of the low wages some people, such as

immigrants, will work for. People are losing their jobs or simply don’t have the skills in

order to prosper. So many people are forced to take to the streets and try and bounce

back to get over the poverty line.

The United States is predominantly known for having the “American dream”,

which could be true in many aspects. If one plays it smart the American dream might

just happen to them. America was founded on hopes, dreams and starting a new life.
For some people it's true, but for some, they are trying to grow and get away from the

poverty line.

Homelessness in America has dated back from the start, but when the Great

Depression hit, many people were let out of a job and the economy was collapsing.

Immigrants were losing their homes and forced to live in single-family apartments with 2

or more families.

The nation's homelessness rate is surprisingly going down, since 2007 21.5, per

10,000 people to 17.7 per 10,000 in 2015. 33 states have reported a decrease in the

amount of homeless mostly centralized in the south and midwest. Only 16 of the 50

states reported an increase.

One of the biggest dangers of being homeless is the weather. On January 10th

four homeless people died in Portland from exposure. 20 people in Denver have frozen

to death since 2000 and about 35 people in New York. 33% of heat-related deaths were

homeless people.

There are millions of organizations that fund the homeless such as National

Alliance to End Homelessness, National Coalition for the homeless, Women's Shelter,

and many more. These organizations tend to help people find somewhere to sleep, give

out food or clothes, and some organizations give out Christmas presents to homeless

children.

People in America usually assume that most people that become homeless are

chronic or episodic, but people usually become homeless because a life-altering event

that went unexpectedly. According to HomeAid, these Life altering events can include
loss of loved ones, job loss, domestic violence, divorce and family disputes. Mental

illnesses and physical disabilities are also major factors because it impairs them to

work, or a company will not hire them so they do not have to worry about working

around their issue. Divorce plays a big role because of the amount of money you need

in order to get a divorce legalized. Divorce costs lower the family’s income resulting in

one of the couples becoming broke or losing the house to the spouse.

Many Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict,

which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war.

By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. By August

2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000, according to activists and the UN. More than

11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar

al-Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants

from so-called Islamic State. The number of refugees who have fled the war in Syria

now exceeds five million with millions more displaced internally, according to the UN.

The first three months of 2017 saw more than 250,000 additional Syrians register as

refugees bringing the total to 5.1 million, the UN's refugee agency UNHCR said on its

website, without providing an explanation for the apparent surge."It's not about the

number, it's about the people," said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch, noting the

conflict had now lasted longer than World War II. "We're trying to look for

understanding, solidarity and humanity". The UN says it will need $3.2bn to help the

13.5 million people, including 6 million children, who will require some form of

humanitarian assistance inside Syria in 2016. About 70% of the population is without
access to adequate drinking water, one in three people are unable to meet their basic

food needs, and more than 2 million children are out of school, and four out of five

people live in poverty.

The United Nations estimates there are 2 million refugees living in the most

primitive conditions just in Lebanon alone. It was into this place of suffering that Elian, a

CBN producer, came to bring hope through Superbook, a kid’s cartoon series, to the

land of her birth. The author decided to choose to interview Elian and she explained

about her visit to the refugee camps. “I visited a camp made up of hundreds of

thousands of people in the Bekaa Valley, living in tents in the most desperate conditions

imaginable”, Elian said. “The kids in these camps were miserable,” she observed. “I

heard so many heartbreaking stories. Every time I asked them, ‘how can I pray for

you?’, the only answer I got there was, ‘Pray that we can find food tomorrow.’”

She continued, “In Lebanon, life is a daily struggle for more than two million Syrian

refugees, who have little or no financial resources. Around 70 per cent live below the

poverty line. There are no formal refugee camps and, as a result, Syrians are scattered

throughout more than 2,100 urban and rural communities and locations, often sharing

small basic tents or lodgings with other refugee families in overcrowded conditions”.

Conclusion

The world is a home to many people, depending on how you get there and how

you perceive it is the way you live your life. Most people end up living elsewhere

because of events they cannot control. But people continue to live their lives even if
there is an issue that needs to be solved. That’s why so many people in the world are

homeless and unhappy.

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