literature review of old and jobless veterans

 literature review of old and jobless veterans

A person is said to be homeless when he/she is living in a structure that does not meet the minimum standards and lacks a secured tenure. Homelessness is a serious issue that is alarmingly emerging not only in the United States but across the globe. These homeless persons can either be living in the streets, have temporary shelters and moving from one temporary shelter to another, and living in a single structure without basic amenities like toilets and bathrooms. For many years, homelessness has increasingly become a complex topic of discussion among the leaders of America. In America, those most affected by homelessness are veterans. From a political view, many presidential candidates have been in their presidential manifesto promising to come up with a lasting solution. However, those who have come to power have done little to combat it, and hence homelessness is becoming a crisis among the Americans. I, therefore, find this topic relevant to my course as it will give an inside view of a social problem facing American citizens currently. Veterans majority being old and jobless are very vulnerable to homelessness. This paper will, therefore, give a literature review of these old and jobless veterans. As I said earlier, I live in a state that population has doubled and subsequent homelessness; hence this topic has been my area of interest to study.

When one mentions the word ‘homeless’ in America, what must come in mind is the veterans. This includes those individuals living in either private or a public space, not meant for sleeping. Considering that each of us needs basic provisions such as food, clothing, and shelter, hard economic times are hitting the unemployed, those retired, semi-employed, and even the employed persons. Most of them have found themselves in the streets because they are not in a position to gather for the high cost of housing in the U.S. and are forced to make the street their homes. In some cases, they may use their cars as homes. It is a scratching issue among U.S. citizens, especially those employed as statistically those who are homeless at the moment were once employed and earning a good salary or wages. For instance, some veterans are in the streets because they resigned or were dismissed from their employment due to health problems, and what they had got depleted because of medical expenses. Most of these individuals were unable to continue with employment because they were experiencing psychological problems, medical problems like dislocations, and general body injuries. The fact remains that these individuals are unable to work anymore. At the same time are in need of basic needs, and given that the cost of housing currently is very, any finance that they had in their account got depleted quickly and once they were not able to pay for the housing anymore were forced to live in the streets.

Apart from unemployment as a cause of homelessness, domestic violence is another factor. A family regularly experiencing domestic violence has its wellbeing affected physically, economically, and socially. In America, domestic violence renders mostly women and young children homeless. Domestic violence usually is happening when a partner in a relationship uses abusive behavior in an attempt to control another partner’s life. Mostly, men use violence against women and children in their families; thus, women and children would live in fear and lacking safety. When domestic abuses occur frequently, it becomes more dangerous to wife and children, and the created fear in them may force them to go to the streets and hence become homeless. Assaults and abuses domestically can occur in all types of relationships, ranging from spousal to informal care relationships. This kind of homeless may vary with different types of domestic violence. A woman and children, for example, may become emotionally homeless when they decide not to leave the violent relationship.

Further, women and children experience homelessness due to a lack of financial independence and are dependent on men who are not willing to provide basics. In some cases, a woman and children may decide to quite a violent relationship, but her partner may be the one controlling her finances. The only choice is to find work to provide for children, but she may also not able to work because of abuses that she may have undergone; while still have to provide ample space for the children. This hits hard such woman, and she may lose hope, and she goes to streets to find peace, and hence the growing children with call the street their home become street children.

Another homelessness cause is drug and substance abuse. This may increase the rate of domestic violence, and may also disrupt a good relationship that one may have with a family and friends. This is mainly caused by addiction, which may result in mental disorders. Addiction is a significant problem in which an addicted person cannot at ease manage it together with bills like housing rent. An addicted person cannot do without using drugs hence will opt to buy drugs at the expense of bills. Such a person will lose housing and become homeless. Research done in 2008 by the United States Conference of Mayors indicated substance abuse among the top cause of homelessness in the U.S. primarily to single Americans. About seventy percent of the U.S. cities in the same research indicated drug abuse as the significant homelessness cause, with about sixty-six percent of homeless persons, admitted that drug abuse was the leading cause for them to become homeless. They pointed out that they used alcohol and other related drugs intending to reduce the problems they are facing.

Also, mental illness is a big problem when it comes to homelessness. In many cases, the mentally ill person develops some cognitive and weird behavioral characteristics that render him/her unable to work and get the income and meet the housing expenses. Some of the mentally ill people may have families, but illness could not allow them to stay at home but prefer living in the streets. Others may be forced to live in the streets by poverty due to a lack of stable income. Drug abuse increases with mental illnesses, and the ultimate result is violent, and if one is a member of a family would be disturbing the safety of the family members.

Finally, some people may become homeless when they are imprisoned or live in an army base and have no place called home to go. People who go in and out of prison frequently are mostly homeless. Some policies were developed to make sleeping in vehicles and streets illegal hence those found sleeping in vehicles and streets are being arrested frequently. The government of the United States came up with this policy striving to maintain the quality of life of its citizens by forcing them to have a better living condition. Unfortunately, most of those frequently arrested cannot afford to own a house due to the risen cost of living.

This literature review will not be complete without looking at ways of mitigating homelessness among the veterans and United States citizens at large. To mitigate it first is to adopt the public model. This model has been in use since the 1940s. It aims are reducing the risks and harms associated with illnesses by providing a wide range of preventions intervening simultaneously. Primary prevention occurs when the initiative is undertaken to reduce the risk of homelessness by building protective measures. These measures may include anti-substance use educational programs. This prevention applies to everyone universally or can be applied at the individual level. Secondary preventions are also forms of interventions aiming to prevent those who are at risk of becoming homeless from becoming homeless. Examples of such groups are those individuals who have eviction notice from home as they may have failed to pay rent. Examples of secondary prevention initiatives are financial assistance, domestic violence victim assistance, among others. Last prevention is the tertiary which aims at supporting families who had already rendered homeless. It includes support to those previously experience this problem, and the aim is to prevent homelessness from occurring again. The homeless in America should occur simultaneously right from the primary to tertiary, and each prevention would play its role and hence mitigation of homelessness as much as possible.

The articles cited above are all in agreement on the issue of homelessness in the United States. The main cause of homelessness among veterans is poverty. With the rising cost of living, they are not able to afford to pay housing expenses. Another cause is medical complications. Those who have retired, unemployed, or dismissed from the job have had their savings depleted and cannot pay rent; and opt to live in the streets on in the homes that are below the housing standards meant for a human being. Some were dismissed from employment because they had body injuries like body dislocations that rendered them unable to work. It is a rising issue among the Americans as homeless veterans include those who initially employed with decent homes and were salaried or waged.

However, as much as the articles agree on the causes of homelessness in the U.S., some are not agreeing with some causes. One such cause that is controversial in the U.S is substance abuse. In reality, substance abuse results from homeless. Some homeless Veterans believed that they ended using drugs and alcohol while they were already homeless. Since they are exposed to harsh living conditions like cold habitats, they prefer staying under the influence of alcohol and under drugs to avoid stresses associated with such habitats. Some homeless children lacked parental guide and support; hence no one cautioned them against drug abuse. They used it because their peer was using and they just joined the league.

Another controversial point here is about mental illness and homelessness. While other articles are an agreement that mental illness causes homelessness, ……., found out that some individuals who are mentally ill may become homeless when their families leave them to roam on the street, that is, lack of family support. Further, some individuals became ill mentally after losing their homes. This is because losing homes exposed them to stresses, substance abuse that resulted in mental disorders hence mental illness.

Lastly, in this controversy is poverty and homelessness. A poor person has no capability of paying rent, medical bills, and other basic needs. Most homeless veterans are homeless because they are poor, but ironically is as they are homeless, they are increasingly becoming poorer and poorer. This is because those who are completely homeless and live in the streets do not have places call homes so that they can look for jobs. They are often stressed up and very mobile, moving from one street to another. They often look miserable and cannot be given decent jobs, and with the increasing needs, they become poorer with time.

In conclusion, this paper aimed to explore the literature review on homelessness in America. Indeed, homelessness is increasingly emerging among veterans and is caused by numerous factors. One such factor is poverty. Poor Americans cannot be in a position to pay housing bills; rent. Another cause is unemployment, a factor leading to homelessness due to lack of income and no financial muscle that can stretch to meet the rising cost of living. Health and mental illnesses are homelessness causes as ill-health persons cannot work, and most are dismissed from employment. This homelessness problem has its remedies, such as the adoption of the public model, primary, secondary, and tertiary preventions that go in the respective to minimize homelessness. Articles cited in this paper mentioned issues related to veteran’s homelessness. Some article argues that homeless causes substance abuse, mental illness, and it eventually increases the level of poverty.