Should the United States Do More to Fight Homeless

Nothing is Free

According to an article written by Martin Donohoe in the July 2004 Women's Health Issue, "Over 7% of persons living in the United States have been homeless(defined as sleeping in shelters, the street, abandoned buildings, cars, or bus and train stations) at some point in their lives." Homelessness in this country is an unfortunate and sad part of everyday life for many people. It is hard for many people to understand how someone ends up homeless. Others have a difficult time understanding why the United States, being the wealthiest country in the world, allows this to happen. It would not be as simple as it sounds for the government to give enough money to build the amount of houses it would take to completely eradicate homelessness. Even though the United States government receives much criticism for their efforts in preventing homelessness, they do provide many services and programs to people that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. It is not the moral or ethical responsibility of the United States to prevent homelessness because no matter what is done to prevent it, homelessness will always exist since some individuals do not want to be helped, can not be helped and some people will abuse the systems put in place instead of using the assistance to better their situation. (Good introduction; however two points in the thesis statement seem the same.)

There are people who choose to be homeless by consciously choosing a nomadic life without burdens. There are many government services and programs put in place to aid and prevent homelessness such as Welfare, Homeless Shelters and Financial Aid. Of course these programs have certain requirements and restrictions that need to be followed. For example, to be on welfare you have to meet certain work requirements. Also, homeless shelters do not allow drugs or alcohol. Financial aid for school has a minimum amount of hours or units that must be taken in order to receive it. Some people would rather be homeless without assistance and have the freedom to do drugs and alcohol instead of having any rules and stipulations put on them.

There are many government programs and assistance available, yet some people are not able to take advantage of them. There are some that would choose to go to school to educate themselves, but they might face difficulties because of inadequate education in their past. This makes it difficult for them to further educate themselves and obtain the skills needed to find a job. Also, it is difficult to get into a shelter or low income housing because they are faced with over crowding and long waiting lists. The difficulties with education and the limited space available in homeless shelters causes some homeless people to become frustrated to the point of not trying.

While drug and alcohol addictions are considered diseases and people deserve the chance to receive help, many will