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Ebony Tolbert

Ms.Trotter

Brit Lit (1)

05 February 2019

Homelessness Research

City of Riverside. “What Are the Causes of Homelessness?”

Riverside, California | City of Arts & Innovation, 2016. 5 Feb 2019.

<http://riversideca.gov/homelesssolutions/homeless-in-riverside/causes.asp>.

In this article, The County Of Riverside explains that the lack of affordable housing

unemployment, mental illness, and substance abuse are all causes of the drastic increases

Homelessness. In the article, Riverside County states that housing has become more scarce

for limited incomes. According to the study done by The National Alliance to end Homelessness

, in 1970 there were 300,000 more housing units available than low income families needing

them. Unfortunately, by 2002 there was over 5 million less housing units available and more low

income families needing them. Perhaps, I can use the results of my research in my P.S.A by

motivating people to not settle for permanent government assistance and instead to pursue

college or a good paying job. I can ask organization that I work with as well as reach out to other

organizations to show my P.S.A. The results from this research gave me a new perspective and

makes me look at America’s homeless crisis totally different.

Heather, Menzies M., Rigmor C. Berg, and Nora Blaasvær. "Effectiveness of Interventions to

Reduce Homelessness."

Campbell Systematic Reviews, vol. 14, 2018. ProQuest, 5 Feb 2019.

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<https://search.proquest.com/docview/2057880099?accountid=172748.>

In this Scholarly Journal, Menzies explores how homelessness can be alleviated. Menzies

explains that federal housing assistance is the most successful way to reduce homelessness. She

mentions programs such as housing vouchers,residential treatment, non-abstinence housing, and

high case management. The program that should be more common would be high case

management. Menzies uses a study to prove that good high case management has been proven to

reduce the number of homeless every 12-18 months but it isn’t implemented nationwide. She

makes the impression that some of these programs aren’t rarely used or aren’t used at all.

Perhaps, the homeless simply aren’t aware of these programs because they don’t have the

necessary tools such as internet or phone service. Many homeless don’t even have phones so

maybe I could focus my capstone on getting government phones to be easier for the homeless to

get.

Sladky, Lynne. “Get Involved: Organizations That Help the Homeless.”

Msn News 2017. 5 Feb 2019

<https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/homelessness/get-involved-organizations-that-help-the-

homeless/ar-BBGmT5P.>

In this article, Sladky informs readers of the organizations that help the homeless. She

lists off United Way, Feeding America, and Goodwill. She leaves contact information on all of

those organizations as well as background on what every organization does. United Way has

offices and it simply focuses on thing like funding education, health, government agencies as

well as attempting to help the homeless and guide them down the right path to success. United

Way allows volunteering as well as donations. Anyone who has an idea that can potentially
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cause change is urged to contact United Way. Mahone claims that Feeding America feeds more

than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and much more. Feeding

America would appreciate food donations as well as time (volunteers). I’ve always seen a

Goodwill but I never knew what it was. This article has taught me that Goodwill benefits the

homeless by training them for employment opportunities, youth mentoring, and allowing

volunteers to help veterans build up workforce skills. This has led me to want to donate clothing

from the clothing drive to Goodwill and possibly volunteer for Goodwill.

Sweeney Erica. “Sleep Deprivation Is an 'Unrecognized Problem' for Homeless People.”

Rewire.News, Rewire.News, 27 Sept. 2018, 5 Feb 2019

<https://rewire.news/article/2018/09/27/sleep-deprivation-is-an-unrecognized-problem-for-

homeless-people/.>

In this article, Sweeney informs the audience that sleep deprivation is an unrecognized

problem among homeless people that can lead to a number of physical and mental issues. She

also informs readers that sleep deprivation increases the risks for diabetes, hypertension, and

memory loss. It is already proven that sleep deprivation is an epidemic in America but it is much

worse for the homeless. The a CEO of National Health Care for the Homeless Bobby Watts

states that, “In every way your need for sleep is greater but your ability to sleep is even less if

you weren’t living in a home”. Sleep deprivation in the homeless has been proven to lead to

drug or alcohol use if not increase existing drug and alcohol use. I could use this for my capstone

and get pillow and cover donations to help the homeless in my community. I often see them

sleeping in parks with inadequate covers. The proper cover could help the homeless sleep better

and feel a little more privacy.

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Torrey, Dr. E Fuller. “Homeless Mentally Ill Facts and Figures.”

Mental Illness Policy Org, 2017. 5 Feb 2019

<https://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/homeless-mentally-ill.html.>

In this article, Dr.Torrey explores the fact that majority of homelessness is because they

closed majority of the mental hospitals. According to the article 45% of the homeless had or

have a mental illness. Approximately 250,000 homeless had serious mental illnesses and

140,000 just were mentally ill. This could explain the huge increase in the homeless population

and why many homeless are feared because majority of them aren’t in their right minds but this

article debunks the fact that majority of them are homeless because of substance abuse. This

could potentially help my capstone because I could raise awareness on the mental illness of the

homeless. I also can put it in my P.S.A because majority of people are scared of the homeless or

simply look down upon them. The homeless are people too they have feelings and emotions just

like normal people so people shouldn’t be afraid of them.