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Introduction
Marginalized individuals in the community are most of the time stigmatized due to their condition. For this assignment, I chose to interview a homeless man who also happens to be an African American, due to this the man to whose name shall not be closed as he opted his name to be anonymous, he suffers double marginalization. During this interview, I chose four topics which were the main challenges faced by the homeless individuals, and these include; food and shelter insecurity, income insecurity, healthcare problems, and basic needs insecurity. There are multiple challenges faced by the homeless, but for this paper, it was better allocating some priorities as there are other problems faced by other ordinary people in society.
Exploration
Food and shelter are a crucial factor in a person’s life, and it is hard to live without them. Some time we don’t take our thoughts back and think of the less fortunate people, how do they get their daily food? How do they sleep at night? Do they feel secure? Before this interview, I completely had no idea of how these people live, where they get their food as well as how protected they are, due to this, I never had a reason to classify them as marginalized persons. But after listening to John, not his real name, I realized that there are lots of privileges that we people are accorded to and we fail to acknowledge them. In matters regarding food, it is unfortunate that there is no guarantee for any meal for homeless people. One day you might be lucky and get yourself a proper lunch donated by a well-wisher, but this does not continue for the rest of the days. According to John, “Most are the days that I have gone hungry, no breakfast, no lunch, and even dinner, it has been a hell of a situation. Sometimes I get lucky; someone may offer me some few dollars which I will use sparingly enough to take me for a week”.
Being an African American, John has not only higher chances of being denied food but also has a higher probability of being discriminated because he is black. John says that people around are not so much friendly and often ignore him, especially for the whites. He says that although they don’t show the hatred directly, the actions and facial expressions are an indication that he is not wanted. He says, “Some of my fellow homeless people are whites, but they receive better treatment from their fellow whites despite facing the same problem as me.” People experiencing homelessness do not have a place where they can call home and therefore spend their nights in homeless shelters, abandoned buildings, streets, or even accommodated by a friend to sleep in a couch. John is not lucky as he does not have a friend who can accommodate him and thus has a special place in the street where he calls home. There, John has a small mattress and a blanket that helps him fight against the cold nights waiting for the next day. The lack of shelter along with food insecurity that involves not knowing where the next meal will come from only makes it more difficult for the homeless people to get back to their feet and this is the case with John.
Unlike most people who are always assured to have a regular income, the case is different for the homeless. Many people experiencing homelessness do not have some income. However, there are some cases that they may be lucky to have some, but their income might come infrequently. For John, the situation is similar; he has an infrequent income. According to him, “I don’t have a stable income to boost my life, I mostly work as a garbage collector and the little I get help me secure some food. The problem with this job is that garbage collection in this area does not happen on daily basis and thus my income is not stable”. John cannot buy a home or rent because of the infrequent income as saving the money to find an apartment or rent is challenging as most of it is spent on food.
John says that most of the homeless people, especially those who he refers to as his community, are faced with major illnesses, but getting medical attention is the main problem they have been facing. John says that it has been difficult to pay for his insurance health coverage since he does not have enough, for him, food is a priority, and the same case happens for the rest of the homeless. Due to lack of access to healthcare, most of the homeless people die in the street and sometimes left disabled in case of recovery. When asked issues regarding the basic needs, John says that they suffer on chronic basis as most of them are deeply stricken by poverty. Accessing dry clothes, water, food, and warmth is a challenge as it is never guaranteed.
Research
Homelessness is caused by many factors and takes different forms. In this research, I found out that most of the people are homeless because they cannot afford rent (Pasquale, 2016). Most of the homeless people do not have a reliable income and in the event that they are unable to save enough money to cater for the basic needs and at the same time pay rent. The lack of affordable housing is one of the primary causes of homelessness. The government has cut its budget by over 50 percent in recent decades, and this has resulted in the loss of over 10,000 units of subsidized low-income housing every year. From this, the main fact about homelessness that emerges is that most people are homeless because they are unable to raise money for rent.
Domestic violence is another factor that can be attributed to the rising levels of homelessness in the United States (Rollinson & Pardeck, 2018). According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, more than 90% of homeless women are victims of severe physical and sexual abuse. Most of these women become homeless because they escaped abuse making it a contributing factor to homelessness. From this concept, the fact deduced is that domestic violence, whether physical or sexual is a contributing factor to homelessness, especially among women.
The government does not help much in reducing the number of homeless individuals (Lee, McGuire & Kim, 2018). There is enough public rental assistance to help about one out of every four households from extremely low-income. Most of the people who do not receive the help tend to be kept waiting for long in the lists. One of such examples is, Charlotte opened up their applications for public housing assistance for the first time in 14 years and to surprise, more than 10,000 people applied for aid in housing. The fact arising in this case, therefore, is that the government is capable of helping the homeless by providing grant and subsidies, but the fact remains that the government does not work to expectations.
Conclusion
The issue of homelessness has been controversial for decades with people claiming that those who are homeless are in that state in their will, but this is not the case. Various factors are responsible for homelessness that include domestic violence, irregular income, and lack of government support through policies. According to John, I learned that being homeless is like being in hell as they suffer from chronic lack of basic needs such as food, water, and clothing, not forgetting healthcare. I would recommend the government to change policies and at least provide the homeless with subsidies and jobs so that the number of homeless people can reduce from the street. Unfortunately, the number of veterans in the street is high, which as a shame to the government considering that these people dedicate their lives in protecting the nation.
References
Lee, D., McGuire, M., & Kim, J. H. (2018). Collaboration, strategic plans, and government performance: the case of efforts to reduce homelessness. Public Management Review, 20(3), 360-376.
Pasquale, F. (2016). The Disownership Society. Commonweal, 143(9), 24.
Rollinson, P. A., & Pardeck, J. A. (2018). Homelessness in rural America: Policy and practice. Routledge.
