Question

4.Identify at least five factors associated with homelessness. Suggest at least one possible intervention strategy for each factor.

Answer 1

Homelessness has become a serious issue these days due to variety of factors contributing to such suffering.There is an increasing trend in the rate of growing homelessness even in developed nations with the increasing population growth.The major factors associated with homelessness includes:

1. Poverty : The great recession of last decade impacted the below poverty line by causing an upsurge to 15%.Since poverty and rate of unemployment is related to each other, increase in unemployment lead to increased poverty and viceversa.Income inequality is also another major factor that lead to such devastating conseque of homelessness.

A possible intervention strategy for addressing poverty could be launching anti poverty programmes or schemes by the government that would include facilities of providing three meals per day,basic education,healthcare services ,clean drinking water and most importantly shelter.

2. Lack of affordable housing and basic necessities of life:With the widening of the ever increasing gulf of income inequality combined with low wage payments and high cost of living in urban areas , problem of lack of affordable housing became apparent.Individuals with extremely low income are thus unable to afford basic amenities of leading a descent life also because maximum of their incomes are being spent on utilities,rent etc leaving a very meagre sum for fulfilment of basic necessities of life.

A possible intervention for addressing lack of housing issue could be setting up community based rapid re-housing and project- based transitional housing techniques in order to facilitate housing in urban areas and a subsidy scheme for reducing the cost of living.

3. Mental illness and lack of services: Mental illness of severe forms are experienced by almost a quarter of homeless population.Dependency culture has also developed due to lack of services in different sectors of economy.Substance misuse disorder is also another cause that increases the severity of Mental illness that also leads to homelessness and family suffering.

A possible intervention for tackling problems of mental illness could be creating awareness among people about the causes and impact of mental illness and conducting mass education campains making people aware of importance of preserving good mental health.

4. Unemployment: Increase in population, recession,lack of educational opportunities,changes in technology are some reasons behind increased unemployment among people these days.Increased unemployment leads to poor economic growth and severe poverty.

Job club interventions could go a long way in reducing unemployment effect among youth along with increased opportunity for employment creation.

5: Substance misuse disorder: Misuse of substances ( drugs and alcohol) can cause serious health issues to individuals including Mental illness and fatalities in severe cases.This creates problems in an individual's daily life including workplaces,schools and even family life.A zero tolerance policy is adopted in every workplace against such acts of substance abuse and this thus causes homelessness as many individuals loose their well settled jobs committing such acts.

A possible intervention for tackling issues of substance abuse could be treating the problem utilizing johnson model in which by consulting an interventionist,family and friends can help treat an individual who have been a sufferer of substance abuse.