Emily Overby (FGCU) Homelessness

Homelessness  

                          When coming across a homeless person on the side of the road asking for money, a couple things may cross a person’s mind but have you ever consider what the homeless person is thinking. The perspective of a homeless person is rarely looked at we usually assume what their thinking and pass judgment rather than going straight to the person. Homelessness is something most people do not like to discuss or even think about if it’s not happening to them personally it’s not their problem is the social construct our society has created. But the “homeless population is the fastest growing segment with; 25% employed, 30% addicts, 10% combat vets, and 41% families with children and 50% African American (inequality)”. (cflhomeless.com)

According to an Orlando Sentinel Article by Jim Stratton it states that Florida unemployment rate of 11.8% the highest over the past 35 years that makes for about 1 million people. According to our class discussion the reason for the increase in homelessness is the distribution of wealth. The distribution of wealth is based on the growing economic gap between the rich and the poor and as this increases so does the number of homeless. Another thing we discussed in class was the culture of poverty thesis or the internalized values of poverty. This discusses the norms and values of people who live in poverty and learn impoverished norms and values from their social position therefore they do not learn norms and values that lead them to successful lives. This creates a cycle of poverty when the poor and homeless have children who grow up this way and accept this norms and values as their own and then the cycle continues.

Now to understand homelessness from a sociologically perspective you must step into the perspective of a homeless person. This view is rarely looked at due to the fact that ‘hobos’ are looked down upon in our society with so many negative social stigmas attached to this group. However from the Hope for the Homeless blogs and YouTube videos on the lives of these people I will set up a walk through the lives of this social group of people. Brent Trotter the president and CEO of the Coalition of the Homeless in Central Florida states in the best when saying “one of the myths of homelessness is that it is always a man he is always on the street corner and he is always asking for a handout”.  But this stereotype is not always true homelessness is affecting aspects of our society that we do not picture like women, children, and families. This video tells the story of Barbra Medina who has four children and became homeless after her living situation fell through. To make it through this rough patch she had to split up her kids and send three of them to Puerto Rico to live with her grandmother while she works her way out of homelessness and back on her feet. Another women’s story was told that she was in an abusive relationship and finally got out of it but had no money to support herself and her three children so they ended up on the streets. Another YouTube video tells the story of a veteran who served in Vietnam and came out with mental health and brain injuries. This video stated that 40 percent of male veterans end up on the street and have post traumatic stress syndrome that don’t allow them to come back into normal functioning society.

In conclusion, as a society we must realize that most homelessness is a social fact caused by poverty and other issue not a choice and instead of looking down on these people we as a community should be lending a helping hand to get them back up on their own feet and hope for a better life.

http://cflhomeless.wordpress.com/2010/01/http://

www.fchonline.org/ 

This entry was posted on 26. April 2010 at 08:06 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.