HOMELESSNESS MENTAL ILLNESS AND ADDICTION

Types of homelessness are partial and permanent, where partial homelessness is living in a temporary shelter while permanent homelessness is residing without accommodation. Large cities in the United States have had much homeless populace increase and change in conformation. In the year 1987, U. S Mayors Conference conducted research and came up with findings that the homeless population was rapidly growing due to the increase in the number of middle-aged men as well as families with children. Homelessness problem has in the last several years captured the public awareness and attention as compared to the past decade where communities did not imagine their existence. However, homelessness and housing volatility are composed of subgroups such as people in rural areas, families with children, the elderly, adult men and women, and the youths.

In many cases, homeless individuals have a history of drug addiction like alcoholism, mental illnesses, and disorder. Factors contributing to homelessness. Various factors contribute to the population growth of homeless individuals. The elements are obtained from findings of conducted research and surveys over a period by scholars and other concerned bodies or agencies. Mentally ill people are hard to control by the family members, and these contribute to their large numbers in the homeless population. Drug addiction such as alcoholism is also another factor that contributes to homelessness (Drake & Wallach, 1989). Moreover, emergency housing assistance has lately been insufficient, and the governments are required to offer emergency housing to cater for people affected by natural epidemic such as fires to reduce the problem of homelessness.

Additionally, low demand for unskilled labor and low pay for the manual laborers contributes to homelessness. Characteristics of homeless individuals Permanent homeless individuals experience hardships and eventually live in streets instead of shelters. This strategy needs subsiding until the formerly homeless individual becomes stable economically. Moreover, in developing countries, homeless people seem to engage in low-income jobs and occupations that only sustain their food and hence become a victim of homelessness (Minnery et al. Developing countries have put a strategy to offer free training that enhances skill development for the homeless individuals to solve the problem of homelessness. When the people gain, skills get encouraged to join SACCOs and other micro-financing institutions that offer capital to start and run their businesses.

As a result, it improves the productivity of the individuals formerly homeless and boosts income hence solving the homelessness problem. Programs are carried out to befriend homeless people and build trust to enable them to rehabilitate them quickly and also to understand them. This program has a philosophy tolerance and acceptance of relapses, long-term care commitment, and structured approaches to emphasis. The programs offer housing that supports morally, independent living skills training, treatment of drug and substance abuse, managing care intensively, therapy and support peer groups, mental health treatment, and comprehensive assessment. An example of such a program of eradicating homelessness is the Salvation Army Clitheroe Centre in Anchorage, residential services, and the Phoenix Drop-in Centre (Harris & Drake, 1991). Achievements of strategies for homelessness curbing.

By holding family meetings, strategy representatives get to understand problems in the family and are in a position to curb any probability of homelessness in future. The strategy managers can offer training to ensure that the family attains stability financially. Weaknesses and limitations of the approaches to homelessness. The approaches to homelessness fail to differentiate between homeless and houseless and therefore forget the mental and psychological state of the mind of the homeless individual. Moreover, they try to solve a problem that is physical and assume the internal. Contrary to the psychological need of the homeless individuals, approaches provide roofs and not the real homes. When presented with a real home, an individual recovers fast and is in a position to comfortably move on with life.

Conclusion Homelessness, as discussed above, is a worldwide problem as it affects both developed and developing countries and affects children, adults, elderly, the mentally, physically challenged, and drug addicts. The cause of the problem is isolation, rejection, poverty, drug abuse, mental instability, early pregnancies, and physical assaults. Strategies have been put in place to prevent and end homelessness yet the population still high. R. , Nyamathi, A. M. , & Stein, J. A. Approaches to homelessness policy in Europe, the United States, and Australia. Journal of Social Issues, 63(3), 641-655. " "Robertson, M. J. , & Greenblatt, M. " “Shinn, M. , Weitzman, B. C. , Stojanovic, D. , Knickman, J. , & McGinty, S. An exploration of subjective well-being among people experiencing homelessness: A strengths-based approach. Social work in healthcare, 51(9), 780-797. " "Tischler, V.