HOMELESSNESS

Morgan, Kendrick, Carlo, RaTrail, Bryan

PROBLEM WITH HOMELESSNESS

Homelessness throughout the nation and around the
world is a growing problematic situation. The
situation involves human beings calling the streets
their homes. These homeless individuals face various
amounts of cruel and judgmental comments from
individuals that criticize them because of their
appearance, living situations, and simply because
they lack the skills to help themselves. This
discrimination specifically happens in large states like
Texas, Florida, and California. We see these
individuals and think of the worst situations that they
have probably gone through; such as drug abuse,
instability, and mental illness. This causes people to
not fully understand the real story behind each of
these individuals and their reason on claiming the
streets as their home. Many ask, How do we resolve

this situation and allow for these individuals to join

the community and contribute to society? When in
fact the real question is: Where do we start? First
and foremost is that we, as a democratic
government, have to identify the problem before
even beginning to fix it. In terms of the homeless, it is
clear that the lack of job openings, advancement in
technology, education skills, and overall the lack of
financial resources contribute to today's mass
number of poor or homeless individuals. There comes
a point when a persons civil rights must be
protected, even if the person is not as fortunate.
Project grants could be a way this problem could be
solved, by funding programs that would provide
specific aid to these homeless individuals.

NOT HELPLESS BUT HOMELESS

First, we need to start a group that dedicates their
time towards helping the homeless. Second, we need
to gather funding from either the local government
or start fundraising to get enough money to start the
process. Once we conjure up enough money to start
the process of helping these homeless individuals we
would find a location that is heavily impacted by
homelessness and work in that area for a week.
Within that week, the volunteers will stay in a cheap
motel room. We will spend that week doing putting
on events; such as past out food, give out donated
clothes, and bring awareness to the programs that
could ultimately save a homeless persons life. When
the week is over we will move on to another city,
heavily impacted with homelessness and repeat the
cycle. After doing this for a year or so, we will go to
the mayor and show him or her our progress, how
many people we helped, and how important it is to
help the homeless. Showing them that we need some
laws that would essentially help the homeless around

cities nationwide. If that gets passed, then we can

expand and then bring our proposed law to the state
courts. If passed, we can expand to more cities within
California. The homeless population needs help and
sometimes they just cannot find the resources that
are available to them. We believe that the state
government should try to help the homeless because
it would not be a smart idea for the federal
government to try to enact laws because they would
not be able to enforce that in every state. The
government should do a policy evaluation in order to
list the reasons why this should or should not be
done.

Personal Story
RaTrail Armstead faced many challenges within his family, such as poverty and homelessness. He grew up in a
family of four, his mom, two younger brothers, and him. His mother never graduated from college, she quit
school and started working. When growing up, RaTrails mother would always try to buy what her children
wanted. For example, RaTrail talks about getting new videogames and his brother would get new skateboards. As
a child, RaTail could remember times where him and his family lived without electricity for 3 months. He says
that is where he discovered his love for drawing. He also stated that he enjoyed reading books to his younger
brother, when they did not electricity. He also states the he learned to enjoy every minute and he also stated
that family is what is the most precious to him.

Homeless but Hopeful

1929: The Great Depression starts (the Great Depression was the deepest and longest economic downturn in the history of the
United States, the Great Depression followed the stock market crash in October 1929)

1969: Shapiro v. Thompson (Unites States Supreme Court strikes down residency restrictions on welfare benefits and food
stamps become offered to the poor)

1978: Ed Koch becomes the mayor of New York City, promising a pragmatic approach to social policy
-
unemployment rate: 6.4%

1983: McCain v. Koch (class action case [a civil action case are suits arising out of conflicts between private persons and/or
organizations, they typically include disputes over contracts, claims, and divorces] demanding that the city provides safe and humane
shelters for homeless families).
-
unemployment rate: 9.6%

1985: Mayor Ed Koch announces his multibillion dollar housing program, his plan was to use billions of city dollars to build and
rehabilitate nearly 200,000 units of affordable housing for the ones that need it
-
unemployment rate: 7.3%

1993: Congress passes an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, providing new assistance to the working poor
-
unemployment rate: 7.3%

1996: President Bill Clinton signs Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, ending aid to families with
dependent children and replacing it with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
-
unemployment rate: 5.4%

2002: Bush administration committed to end chronic homelessness in 10 years, Bush attempts to fix the public policy issue of
homelessness -unemployment rate: 5.8%

2004: Mayor Bloomberg appoints a task force to develop a plan in order to reduce homelessness by two-thirds in five years,
in New York City
-
unemployment rate: 5.7%

2005: Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, Louisiana causing thousands of people and families to lose their homes and all of
their personal items
-
unemployment rate: 5.1%

2007: Senate Banking Committee approves S. 1518 (110th) Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007
-
unemployment rate: 4.6%

2009: Re-authorization of McKinney-Vento Act, which is a part of helping families save their homes act
-
unemployment rate: 9.3%

2010: Unemployment rate 9.6%

2011: Unemployment rate: 9.2%

2012: Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) expands definition of homeless to include marginalized houses
-
unemployment rate: 8.1%

2015: Unemployment rate: 5.1%