Connecting Sources

From the government website for “Housing First” brings the problem of homelessness into the light while giving various insights of what has been done before and what is being done now. This article can be connected to a different article “Parthways’ Housing First Program” and a more analytical article “Reasons for homelessness: An empirical typology” by Hillary Heinze. Beginning with the first stated article, this article goes over more specific details such as categories many homeless go into, the costs of the operation as well as how much is saved if it works, other similar programs, and research done through programs. The article connected to this is “The Ever-Evolving Difficulties of Giving Housing to the Homeless” by Bettina Chang. Within this article shows the work a similar program to Housing First is doing, how the results from Housing First are not as great as they can be and takes a different approach to the solution of homelessness by not only giving them housing but also a job. Next is the article by Hillary Heinze which analyzes different categories of homeless as to why they are homeless and qualities of each group. A different article that connects to this is “Pathways into adult homelessness” by Chris Chamberlain which does a similar study but shows how adults become homeless or have been homeless. This article breaks down each reason more and shows some surprising results. Lastly is the study “Older homeless people: increasing in numbers and changing needs” by Maureen Crane which is a very broad worldwide study. Throughout this study it shows how the homeless population has changed over the past 7-8 years and how current solutions are not working as well as they should be. Not only does it show that homelessness is growing it also shows how homeless people are constantly changing and adapting, and for this reason we need programs that do the same in order to actually make progress. All of these articles bring some light on what programs are going on worldwide as well as the growing problem that is homelessness. It does not produce many solutions but brings many issues into the light which is all pieces to take into consideration and to motivate others to create solutions that include past, current, and possible future issues rather than the general issues of today. 

Paraphrase activity

Paraphrase Activity

Chang, Bettina. "The Ever-Evolving Difficulties of Giving Housing to the Homeless." Pacific Standard. 15 May 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/landlords-recreation-essential-housing-first-program-81439>

“Part of the reason that Housing First began is that researchers have found the Treatment First model to be ineffective for those who cannot handle structured and restrictive environments—typically, those who experience chronic homelessness—since they are likely to drop out of the treatment programs and remain on the street.” (Chang)

1. The reason Housing first began, was the realization that other methods were not working on chronic homeless people, and this might be a solution.

2. Chronic homeless are the main reason for the evolution of the Housing first program, in a hopeful effort to provide structure for them.

3. With the previous Treatment first program not being effective on Chronic homeless, came the new program Housing First which hopefully would change the structure of how to deal with these homeless.

“The idea behind Housing First is simple: Housing is a basic right of all human beings, regardless of income or mental health status. As the name suggests, housing comes first, then other issues can be dealt with.” (Chang)

1. Housing First’s objective is to provide housing then deal with any income or health issues.

2. Having any health or income problems is overlooked in the Housing First program and allows homeless to have shelter.

3. Housing first supports the basic right of shelter without judgement of other life issues.

Heize, Hillary;  Hernandez Jozefowicz, Debra; Foro, Paul; and Blue, Logan "Reasons for homelessness: An empirical typology" Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies 7.1 (2012) 88-101 Web 19 March 2015 http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lewisu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3859de7c-145f-4d1f-a8d1-8856b1f02661%40sessionmgr4004&vid=2&hid=4114

“A substantial percentage of youth were not receiving services through shelters that facilitate transition to independent living, such as assistance accessing government programs and job seeking.” (Heinze 98)

1. Many youth are being sheltered, but are not being helped getting on their feet.

2. Shelters are being provided to youth homeless but not jobs and other programs to steer them away from a homeless lifestyle.

3. Teaching how to gain an income and independence from society is where many shelter programs fail with homeless youth.

“Wanting to make a positive change was highly endorsed by members of the threatened group, while those in the resistant group were least likely to indicate wanting to make a positive change.” (Heinze 98)

1. It seemed that different groups in the studies had different views on how to change their lives.

2. Abused homeless seemed more motivated to make changes rather than those who struggle against authority.

3. Recovery from homelessness seemed more wanted by those abused into homelessness rather than ex-criminals or antiauthority homeless.

Paragraph

                The needs of homeless are evolving as are the types of homeless people that stray the streets and parks of cities across the world. There have been many programs helping homeless such as the Treatment First, which would literally attempt to treat homeless with any health issues before giving them independence. With this program not being as effective and eventually failing came the Housing First program which became aimed at chronic homeless people (Chang). These Chronic homeless are people who continue to fall into homelessness or never get out of it. While it may be aimed at Chronic homeless it is open to everyone and will provide shelter so other more personal problems may be dealt with. During a study it was shown that people who are abused are the most likely to make changes in their lives while those who have problems with structure and authority are the least likely (Heinze 98). There needs to be separate programs that are more ‘specialized’ to different types of homeless. There is a large amount of homeless youth that can be helped to prevent lifelong homelessness, but lack the knowledge to get a job and become independent. More programs need to be diversified to help homeless in categories rather than as one large lump.

Sources and Proposal

Sources

Pathways into adult homelessness

Chamberlain, Chris; Johnson, Guy "Pathways to Adult Homelessness" Journal of Sociology 49.1 (2013) 60-77 Web 22 March 2015

http://jos.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lewisu.edu/content/49/1/60.full.pdf+html

Summary:

Within this journal RMIT University did a larger scale experiment to find why adults were homeless. They did interviews with homeless adults to understand their pasts over a six month period of time. They were able to break the reasons given into five areas with some subsections in order to understand more. The article also goes into some detail about adapting to homelessness.

Analysis:

Similar to the last source, but this one pertained to homeless adults. This one shows that the biggest reasons for adult homelessness was growing up into it, being jobless, and housing issues. The data here showed that how homelessness changes though life or how it does not. This data will be used as we watch how homelessness progresses through life.

The Ever-Evolving Difficulties of Giving Housing to the Homeless

Chang, Bettina. "The Ever-Evolving Difficulties of Giving Housing to the Homeless." Pacific Standard. 15 May 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/landlords-recreation-essential-housing-first-program-81439>

Summary:

This article outlines a different program, similar to Housing First but is stationed more internationally. The Canadian program is called Transitions to Home (T2H), it is similar to Housing First in terms of finding homes for the homeless, but is more proactive in helping homeless adjust back from the social isolation. The program puts together activities for people to participate in, to gain skills and form bonds with others. The article also talks about the differences in costs to the state and country by getting people off the street.

Analysis:

This program seems to be an improvement of the Housing First program, by not only taking care of the issue of being homeless, but also actively trying to allow social aspects to recover as well. The steps taken within this program show that they are trying to adapt to ending homelessness, yet is does not seem to be working quickly enough due to the still increasing amounts of homelessness.

Older homeless people: increasing numbers and changing needs

Crane, Maureen; Joly, Louise "Older homeless people: increasing numbers and changing needs" Reviews in Clinical Gerontology 24.4 (2014) 255-268 Web 22 March 2015

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lewisu.edu/docview/1658686243?pq-origsite=summon

Summary:

Within this work from King’s College London, it addresses how in many countries around the world homelessness is changing. In countries such as the UK, USA, Canada, Spain, Australia, and Japan data was measured from previous dates, then recollected for comparison. With his data there are many conclusions gained from them, many of which being that homelessness is growing, and becoming even longer lasting.

Analysis:

This source was extremely useful as a comparison between homelessness five to six years ago to much more recently. It shows how homelessness is increasing, in not just the United States, but worldwide as well. That the numbers of homeless people are increasing due to lack of jobs from advances in technology as well as financial safety later in life. All of these can be connected to previous sources in order to create a timeline for homeless people, then show how homelessness has increased through time and create a possible projection of what things may be like in 10 years if things do not change.

Reasons for homelessness: An Empirical typology

Heize, Hillary;  Hernandez Jozefowicz, Debra; Foro, Paul; and Blue, Logan "Reasons for homelessness: An empirical typology" Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies 7.1 (2012) 88-101 Web 19 March 2015

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lewisu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3859de7c-145f-4d1f-a8d1-8856b1f02661%40sessionmgr4004&vid=2&hid=4114

Summary:

This journal was done by professors from many Midwest American colleges in phycology or social work, which talks about a study done that statistically shows from a group of consenting homeless why they are homeless and characteristics of the people. The interviewers clustered main reasons why many people are homeless, then asked others to take this survey providing such details. They then were able to break down these details and examine the connections to different types of homeless and what happened to them.

Analysis:

This source seemed very credible, it may be a regional piece of data but it is a beginning for the structure. They produced good results from a decently done test that made categorizing and understanding how homeless people became homeless. Hopefully by using the data from this source as well as others there will be a better understanding of homelessness and how to prevent it.

Pathways’ Housing First Program

"Intervention Summary - Pathways' Housing First Program." Intervention Summary - Pathways' Housing First Program. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://nrepp.samhsa.gov/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=365>.

Summary:

This article goes more in-depth into studies conducted by the program itself. It shows the measures done, key finding, and overall outcomes of these experiments. Most of these experiments seem to be valid due to them constantly doing follow-ups after giving housing to people. It gives some good data on things, yet it also gave poor data for one of the experiments as well.

Analysis:

The experiments done here produced fair results into what the organization is trying to accomplish, yet it also defined many things more clearly than the parent government site. This organization only takes in homeless with mental disabilities or who abuse substances, which was not made very clear before. Also the age of some of these experiments causes issues as well. Many of them being done 10 or more years ago, being before we had a recession here in the United States.

Housing First

"United States Interagency Council on Homelessness." Housing First. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://usich.gov/usich_resources/solutions/explore/housing_first/>.

Summary:

This is a government program designed to create housing for the homeless in order for them to recover. It is based on a lease program which can last for a permanent amount of time in order to provide enough support for the tenant. Housing costs are affordable and allow tenants to pay while adapting back into a ‘normal’ lifestyle. There have been many positive outcomes from this program due to relief on taxpayers and obviously reduction of homelessness.

Analysis:

This program is a step in the right direction in terms of helping homeless get back onto their feet. It did not provide many statistics or detailed outcomes of the program, yet it does provide outside evidence the outcomes. This seemed to be more of an introductory page into the program rather than an experimental outcome summary.

Proposal

Fear is something everyone feels, yet not many people have the misfortune to live it. There are many things that facilitate fear within us, one that is without question is losing everything one owns and becoming helpless and alone. It is something many of us fear to even imagine, let alone live, yet there are hundreds of thousands of people that this fear becomes their lives. In one simple word to describe this is homelessness, where you are literally homeless, without a job, or just nowhere to go. Homelessness effects everyone, kids, teens, adults, and elders alike, some people homelessness becomes their entire life. With the sources thus far provided, I would like to take readers on a journey of homelessness. This would start with a source or two about how there are homeless children everywhere, living on the streets, where every day is a battle to get the things we take for granted every day. From here I would branch off about poverty and hunger in many places, how this is a huge contributor to homelessness. I would then continue on throughout life to adults and how they become homelessness, as well as the struggles of continuing growing up being homeless. Then, I would branch off again, talking about how due to the advances in technology it leaves little to no room for no skilled workers, and sometimes even very skilled workers. Causing readers to sympathize with these workers, knowing it could happen to them at any time, regardless of education or not. From here, I would either talk about programs that help homeless people get on their feet, or I would talk about how homelessness is continuously growing regardless of the programs we have. I would support all of these points by using data and quotes from the sources used. Lastly I would bring everything together, how even with all these programs, funds, and charities are working too slowly to fix homelessness, and connect it to my thesis of ‘With world issues being an extremely large part of being called to service, homelessness is everywhere, and at first it may seem like getting people off the streets is what will end it, it is really about keeping kids off the street as well as having a safety net for those who lose their jobs suddenly’ or something similar and more trimmed down than that. I would be pushing for a call to service of keeping kids out of abusive homes and allow them to create a future of their own as well as safeguard an adult’s loss of a house or job. It is something everyone is at risk for, and everyone would benefit from by actively saving people at risk and pushing for revolutionary programs. I would hope to be able to take a common natural fear and allow others to realize that we can reduce homelessness by helping the root of the problem in childhood and onward.

How does childhood homelessness affect one’s entire life?

How should current homeless prevention programs be changed in order to more efficiently get people off the street?

How to different ‘types’ of homelessness affect programs aimed at helping homelessness?