unemployment and homelessness essay

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Unemployment a Major Cause of Homelessness Essay Example

Homelessness is related to various causes out of which unemployment is one of the major causes that contribute towards homelessness. Unemployment has a direct relation with homelessness as it causes financial instability which in turn makes it difficult for a person to secure a residence for himself. Moreover, a person who is homeless is also likely to leave their job as compared to those who have a place to live. Homeless people face so many challenges in finding and keeping a job. This includes the stigma related to being homeless, lack of proper time, and maintenance of hygiene. All these factors make it hard for homeless people to find a job and stick to it. Moreover, many people are struggling with homelessness along with other challenges such as; high mental stress, adverse physical condition, low level of education, drug abuse, poor ability to release stress, low self-esteem & difficult family circumstances (Swami). 

Long-term unemployment can have adverse effects on health. Work is a source of providing social connections and also prevents isolation Freud believes that life is based on two basic elements, one is, the power of love that exists in human relationships and the second is the need to work that compels a person to perform a job to satisfy those needs (Steen and Mackenzie 1).

Homeless people have to face so many difficulties in securing a job, specifically those jobs that are non-transitory and provide a living wage. Many jobs are located in places where the residence is unavailable, hence reinforcing the factors including social isolation & marginalization. It is also difficult for homeless individuals to re-engage with their workforce. If homeless individuals are to secure jobs then must have appropriate credentials along with interview skills. As homeless people do not have a permanent address, it might create issues in communicating with the employers. Employers would also not prefer such individuals to hire for a job (Steen and Mackenzie 1). 

It has been accepted that homelessness comes after unemployment for some individuals, however, it is not a fact that all unemployed people would be homeless. Moreover, it is difficult to differentiate among the groups that are likely to become homeless after losing their job and those who aren’t likely to become homeless. Homeless people are groups of varying individuals who end up in a homeless condition due to many reasons, one of which is unemployment (Steen and Mackenzie 1). 

According to employment-history data from the British Cohort Study to calculate an individual’s total experience of unemployment from the time they left studying up to 30 years of age. This experience has a negative association with life satisfaction as reported by the individuals also leading towards unemployment. Childhood conditions & family background also contributes to adult unemployment.  Good behavior at 16 years of age and a good level of education can reduce the rate of unemployment and emotional health at 16 years of age has a strong link to unemployment for women. Boys and girls are likely to be born while their parents are unemployed hence this leads to a transfer of unemployment from one generation to the other. Children who belong to underprivileged households face unemployment, however, less impacted by it in times of well-being (Clark and Lepinteur, “The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data” 115). 

Unemployment is one of the major economic concerns in the majority of OECD countries. However, people have different experiences as per their region concerning volatility, level, and elements of unemployment. Levels of wage acceleration, capacity utilization & rates of vacancy can be linked with higher rates of unemployment that have been multiplied since the last two decades. There is a difference in how rising trend unemployment influences the equilibrium unemployment in various countries. This is termed as the natural state or can be defined as the slower adjustment to the equilibrium level which is lesser in comparison to the trend unemployment. There are several factors associated with equilibrium unemployment or the rate of adjustment in labor markets. Such factors consist of features that are not in the range of structural policies along with the labor markets (Elmeskov 109). 

In the light of all the data observed, it can be said that unemployment is related to homelessness in various ways and is one of the major problems that is faced by several people. Unemployment itself is related to several factors such as family background and education level if these factors are targeted and a better level of education is ensured then it can prevent unemployment. Saturation and slow adjustment to unemployment are also the causes that further complicate the scenario. However, better policies and suitable guidance can help prevent these issues. 

Works Cited

Clark, Andrew E., and Anthony Lepinteur. “The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 166, 2019, pp. 107–24. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.08.020.

---. “The Causes and Consequences of Early-Adult Unemployment: Evidence from Cohort Data.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 166, 2019, pp. 107–24. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.08.020.

Elmeskov, Jorgen. “High and Persistent Unemployment.” OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 1993, pp. 100–26. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1787/506882344657.

Steen, Adam, and David Mackenzie. “Homelessness and Unemployment: Understanding the Connection and Breaking the Cycle.” Introduction, 2012, pp. 1–2, sheltertas.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Homelessness-and-unemployment_Final-Report-20121.pdf.

Swami, Neha. “The Grim Cycle of Homelessness and Unemployment.” Pursuit, 7 Mar. 2022, pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-grim-cycle-of-homelessness-and-unemployment.amp.

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The Obvious Answer to Homelessness

And why everyone’s ignoring it

Updated at 2:52 p.m. ET on December 23, 2022.

When someone becomes homeless, the instinct is to ask what tragedy befell them. What bad choices did they make with drugs or alcohol? What prevented them from getting a higher-paying job? Why did they have more children than they could afford? Why didn’t they make rent? Identifying personal failures or specific tragedies helps those of us who have homes feel less precarious—if homelessness is about personal failure, it’s easier to dismiss as something that couldn’t happen to us, and harsh treatment is easier to rationalize toward those who experience it.

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But when you zoom out, determining individualized explanations for America’s homelessness crisis gets murky. Sure, individual choices play a role, but why are there so many more homeless people in California than Texas? Why are rates of homelessness so much higher in New York than West Virginia? To explain the interplay between structural and individual causes of homelessness, some who study this issue use the analogy of children playing musical chairs . As the game begins, the first kid to become chairless has a sprained ankle. The next few kids are too anxious to play the game effectively. The next few are smaller than the big kids. At the end, a fast, large, confident child sits grinning in the last available seat.

You can say that disability or lack of physical strength caused the individual kids to end up chairless. But in this scenario, chairlessness itself is an inevitability: The only reason anyone is without a chair is because there aren’t enough of them.

Now let’s apply the analogy to homelessness. Yes, examining who specifically becomes homeless can tell important stories of individual vulnerability created by disability or poverty, domestic violence or divorce. Yet when we have a dire shortage of affordable housing, it’s all but guaranteed that a certain number of people will become homeless. In musical chairs, enforced scarcity is self-evident. In real life, housing scarcity is more difficult to observe—but it’s the underlying cause of homelessness.

In their book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem , the University of Washington professor Gregg Colburn and the data scientist Clayton Page Aldern demonstrate that “the homelessness crisis in coastal cities cannot be explained by disproportionate levels of drug use, mental illness, or poverty.” Rather, the most relevant factors in the homelessness crisis are rent prices and vacancy rates.

Jerusalem Demsas: Housing breaks people’s brains

Colburn and Aldern note that some urban areas with very high rates of poverty (Detroit, Miami-Dade County, Philadelphia) have among the lowest homelessness rates in the country, and some places with relatively low poverty rates (Santa Clara County, San Francisco, Boston) have relatively high rates of homelessness. The same pattern holds for unemployment rates: “Homelessness is abundant,” the authors write, “only in areas with robust labor markets and low rates of unemployment—booming coastal cities.”

Why is this so? Because these “ superstar cities, ” as economists call them, draw an abundance of knowledge workers. These highly paid workers require various services, which in turn create demand for an array of additional workers, including taxi drivers, lawyers and paralegals, doctors and nurses, and day-care staffers. These workers fuel an economic-growth machine—and they all need homes to live in. In a well-functioning market, rising demand for something just means that suppliers will make more of it. But housing markets have been broken by a policy agenda that seeks to reap the gains of a thriving regional economy while failing to build the infrastructure—housing—necessary to support the people who make that economy go. The results of these policies are rising housing prices and rents, and skyrocketing homelessness.

It’s not surprising that people wrongly believe the fundamental causes of the homelessness crisis are mental-health problems and drug addiction. Our most memorable encounters with homeless people tend to be with those for whom mental-health issues or drug abuse are evident; you may not notice the family crashing in a motel, but you will remember someone experiencing a mental-health crisis on the subway.

I want to be precise here. It is true that many people who become homeless are mentally ill. It is also true that becoming homeless exposes people to a range of traumatic experiences, which can create new problems that housing alone may not be able to solve. But the claim that drug abuse and mental illness are the fundamental causes of homelessness falls apart upon investigation. If mental-health issues or drug abuse were major drivers of homelessness, then places with higher rates of these problems would see higher rates of homelessness. They don’t. Utah, Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, West Virginia, Vermont, Delaware, and Wisconsin have some of the highest rates of mental illness in the country, but relatively modest homelessness levels. What prevents at-risk people in these states from falling into homelessness at high rates is simple: They have more affordable-housing options.

With similar reasoning, we can reject the idea that climate explains varying rates of homelessness. If warm weather attracted homeless people in large numbers, Seattle; Portland, Oregon; New York City; and Boston would not have such high rates of homelessness and cities in southern states like Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi such low ones. (There is a connection between unsheltered homelessness and temperature, but it’s not clear which way the causal arrow goes: The East Coast and the Midwest have a lot more shelter capacity than the West Coast, which keeps homeless people more out of view.)

America has had populations of mentally ill, drug-addicted, poor, and unemployed people for the whole of its history, and Los Angeles has always been warmer than Duluth—and yet the homelessness crisis we see in American cities today dates only to the 1980s . What changed that caused homelessness to explode then? Again, it’s simple: lack of housing. The places people needed to move for good jobs stopped building the housing necessary to accommodate economic growth.

Homelessness is best understood as a “flow” problem, not a “stock” problem. Not that many Americans are chronically homeless—the problem, rather, is the millions of people who are precariously situated on the cliff of financial stability, people for whom a divorce, a lost job, a fight with a roommate, or a medical event can result in homelessness. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, roughly 207 people get rehoused daily across the county—but 227 get pushed into homelessness . The crisis is driven by a constant flow of people losing their housing.

The homelessness crisis is most acute in places with very low vacancy rates, and where even “low income” housing is still very expensive. A study led by an economist at Zillow shows that when a growing number of people are forced to spend 30 percent or more of their income on rent, homelessness spikes.

Academics who study homelessness know this. So do policy wonks and advocacy groups. So do many elected officials. And polling shows that the general public recognizes that housing affordability plays a role in homelessness. Yet politicians and policy makers have generally failed to address the root cause of the crisis.

Few Republican-dominated states have had to deal with severe homelessness crises, mainly because superstar cities are concentrated in Democratic states. Some blame profligate welfare programs for blue-city homelessness, claiming that people are moving from other states to take advantage of coastal largesse. But the available evidence points in the opposite direction—in 2022, just 4 percent of homeless people in San Francisco reported having become homeless outside of California. Gregg Colburn and Clayton Aldern found essentially no relationship between places with more generous welfare programs and rates of homelessness. And abundant other research indicates that social-welfare programs reduce homelessness. Consider, too, that some people move to superstar cities in search of gainful employment and then find themselves unable to keep up with the cost of living—not a phenomenon that can be blamed on welfare policies.

But liberalism is largely to blame for the homelessness crisis: A contradiction at the core of liberal ideology has precluded Democratic politicians, who run most of the cities where homelessness is most acute, from addressing the issue. Liberals have stated preferences that housing should be affordable, particularly for marginalized groups that have historically been shunted to the peripheries of the housing market. But local politicians seeking to protect the interests of incumbent homeowners spawned a web of regulations, laws, and norms that has made blocking the development of new housing pitifully simple .

This contradiction drives the ever more visible crisis. As the historian Jacob Anbinder has explained , in the ’70s and ’80s conservationists, architectural preservationists, homeowner groups, and left-wing organizations formed a loose coalition in opposition to development. Throughout this period, Anbinder writes, “the implementation of height limits, density restrictions, design review boards, mandatory community input, and other veto points in the development process” made it much harder to build housing. This coalition—whose central purpose is opposition to neighborhood change and the protection of home values—now dominates politics in high-growth areas across the country, and has made it easy for even small groups of objectors to prevent housing from being built. The result? The U.S. is now millions of homes short of what its population needs .

Annie Lowrey: The U.S. needs more housing than almost anyone can imagine

Los Angeles perfectly demonstrates the competing impulses within the left. In 2016, voters approved a $1.2 billion bond measure to subsidize the development of housing for homeless and at-risk residents over a span of 10 years. But during the first five years, roughly 10 percent of the housing units the program was meant to create were actually produced. In addition to financing problems, the biggest roadblock was small groups of objectors who didn’t want affordable housing in their communities.

Los Angeles isn’t alone. The Bay Area is notorious in this regard. In the spring of 2020, the billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen published an essay , “It’s Time to Build,” that excoriated policy makers’ deference to “the old, the entrenched.” Yet it turned out that Andreessen and his wife had vigorously opposed the building of a small number of multifamily units in the wealthy Bay Area town of Atherton, where they live.

The small- c conservative belief that people who already live in a community should have veto power over changes to it has wormed its way into liberal ideology . This pervasive localism is the key to understanding why officials who seem genuinely shaken by the homelessness crisis too rarely take serious action to address it.

The worst harms of the homelessness crisis fall on the people who find themselves without housing. But it’s not their suffering that risks becoming a major political problem for liberal politicians in blue areas: If you trawl through Facebook comments, Nextdoor posts, and tweets, or just talk with people who live in cities with large unsheltered populations, you see that homelessness tends to be viewed as a problem of disorder, of public safety, of quality of life. And voters are losing patience with their Democratic elected officials over it.

In a 2021 poll conducted in Los Angeles County, 94 percent of respondents said homelessness was a serious or very serious problem. (To put that near unanimity into perspective, just 75 percent said the same about traffic congestion—in Los Angeles!) When asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how unsafe “having homeless individuals in your neighborhood makes you feel,” 37 percent of people responded with a rating of 8 or higher, and another 19 percent gave a rating of 6 or 7. In Seattle, 71 percent of respondents to a recent poll said they wouldn’t feel safe visiting downtown Seattle at night, and 91 percent said that downtown won’t recover until homelessness and public safety are addressed. There are a lot of polls like this.

As the situation has deteriorated, particularly in areas where homelessness overruns public parks or public transit, policy makers’ failure to respond to the crisis has transformed what could have been an opportunity for reducing homelessness into yet another cycle of support for criminalizing it. In Austin, Texas, 57 percent of voters backed reinstating criminal penalties for homeless encampments; in the District of Columbia, 75 percent of respondents to a Washington Post poll said they supported shutting down “homeless tent encampments” even without firm assurances that those displaced would have somewhere to go. Poll data from Portland , Seattle , and Los Angeles , among other places, reveal similarly punitive sentiments.

This voter exasperation spells trouble for politicians who take reducing homelessness seriously. Voters will tolerate disorder for only so long before they become amenable to reactionary candidates and measures, even in very progressive areas. In places with large unsheltered populations, numerous candidates have materialized to run against mainstream Democrats on platforms of solving the homelessness crisis and restoring public order.

By and large, the candidates challenging the failed Democratic governance of high-homelessness regions are not proposing policies that would substantially increase the production of affordable housing or provide rental assistance to those at the bottom end of the market. Instead, these candidates—both Republicans and law-and-order-focused Democrats—are concentrating on draconian treatment of people experiencing homelessness. Even in Oakland, California, a famously progressive city, one of the 2022 candidates for mayor premised his campaign entirely on eradicating homeless encampments and returning order to the streets—and managed to finish third in a large field.

During the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral race, neither the traditional Democratic candidate, Karen Bass, who won, nor her opponent, Rick Caruso, were willing to challenge the antidemocratic processes that have allowed small groups of people to block desperately needed housing. Caruso campaigned in part on empowering homeowners and honoring “their preferences more fully,” as Ezra Klein put it in The New York Times —which, if I can translate, means allowing residents to block new housing more easily. (After her victory, Bass nodded at the need to house more people in wealthier neighborhoods—a tepid commitment that reveals NIMBYism’s continuing hold on liberal politicians.)

“We’ve been digging ourselves into this situation for 40 years, and it’s likely going to take us 40 years to get out,” Eric Tars, the legal director at the National Homelessness Law Center, told me.

Building the amount of affordable housing necessary to stanch the daily flow of new people becoming homeless is not the project of a single election cycle, or even several. What can be done in the meantime is a hard question, and one that will require investment in temporary housing. Better models for homeless shelters arose out of necessity during the pandemic. Using hotel space as shelter allowed the unhoused to have their own rooms; this meant families could usually stay together (many shelters are gender-segregated, ban pets, and lack privacy). Houston’s success in combatting homelessness — down 62 percent since 2011—suggests that a focus on moving people into permanent supportive housing provides a road map to success. (Houston is less encumbered by the sorts of regulations that make building housing so difficult elsewhere.)

The political dangers to Democrats in those cities where the homelessness crisis is metastasizing into public disorder are clear. But Democratic inaction risks sparking a broader political revolt—especially as housing prices leave even many middle- and upper-middle-class renters outside the hallowed gates of homeownership. We should harbor no illusions that such a revolt will lead to humane policy change.

Simply making homelessness less visible has come to be what constitutes “success.” New York City consistently has the nation’s highest homelessness rate, but it’s not as much of an Election Day issue as it is on the West Coast. That’s because its displaced population is largely hidden in shelters. Yet since 2012, the number of households in shelters has grown by more than 30 percent—despite the city spending roughly $3 billion a year (as of 2021) trying to combat the problem. This is what policy failure looks like. At some point, someone’s going to have to own it.

This article has been updated to clarify the percentage of homeless people who reported having moved to California from out of state.

This article appears in the January/February 2023 print edition with the headline “The Looming Revolt Over Homelessness.” When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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Homelessness and Public Health: A Focus on Strategies and Solutions

David a. sleet.

1 School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA; moc.liamg@teelsadivad

2 Veritas Management, Inc., Atlanta, GA 30324, USA

Louis Hugo Francescutti

3 School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada

4 Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9, Canada

5 Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, AB T5H 3V9, Canada

On any given night, hundreds of thousands of people are homeless in the United States and Canada. Globally, the problem is many times worse, making homelessness a global public health and environmental problem. The facts [ 1 ] are staggering:

• On a single night in January 2020, 580,466 people (about 18 out of every 10,000 people) experienced homelessness across the United States—a 2.2% increase from 2019.
• While 61% percent of the homeless were staying in sheltered locations, the remainder—more than 226,000 people—were in unsheltered locations on the street, in abandoned buildings, or in other places not suitable for human habitation.
• Homelessness has increased in the last four consecutive years.
• The increase in unsheltered homelessness is driven largely by increases in California.
• In 2020, 171,575 people in families with children experienced homelessness on a single night.
• A total of 3598 homeless people were children under the age of 18 without an adult present.
• Veterans comprised 8% of all homeless adults (over 46,000 veterans struggle with homelessness).
• People of color are significantly over-represented among those experiencing homelessness.

A layman’s definition of homelessness is usually “a person that has no permanent home”. However, many scholars have divided the broad group of people characterized as homeless into three (or more) categories:

• - People without a place to reside;
• - People in persistent poverty, forced to move constantly, and who are homeless for even brief periods of time;
• - People who have lost their housing due to personal, social, or environmental circumstances.

While this definition refers specifically to homeless individuals, it is equally applicable to homeless families.

Homelessness is closely connected to declines in physical and mental health. Homeless persons experience high rates of health problems such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and Hepatitis A infections, alcohol and drug addiction, mental illness, tuberculosis, and other serious conditions. The health problems facing homeless persons result from various factors, including a lack of housing, racism and discrimination, barriers to health care, a lack of access to adequate food and protection, limited resources for social services, and an inadequate public health infrastructure. Legal and policy interventions have often been used to attempt to address homelessness, although not always from a public health perspective.

In health care, for example, if someone experiencing homelessness comes to an emergency department for medical aid, once treated, the only alternative is to release the patient back onto the street. This creates an endless cycle of emergency department visits, increasing costs and expending resources in the health care system.

Recent work [ 2 ] has emphasized the important role of public health, the health care system, and health care providers in homelessness prevention. In this Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), we have brought together researchers, practitioners, and community organizers to articulate the public health problem of homelessness and identify clear strategies to reduce homelessness and provide more adequate health care and housing for this population. We also explore solutions for important subpopulations, including adults, families with children, adolescents, women, transitional aged youth, and those suffering from mental illness, PTSD, alcohol dependency, mental illness, adverse childhood experiences, and chronic homelessness.

We address many of these issues in the context of public health and explore the public health implications and potential solutions to homelessness, focusing on contemporary and emerging research and innovative strategies, and highlighting best practices to address homelessness among key populations. The papers in this Special Issue attempt to answer several questions related to homelessness and public health, such as:

• What is the extent of homelessness and why do people become homeless?
• What are the public health and health services implications of homelessness?
• What role does housing play as a precursor to and potential solution for homelessness?
• What public health and health care interventions are being employed, and what effectiveness is being achieved?
• What long-term strategies can be developed to prevent homelessness?

The 13 research papers and one commentary in this Special Issue are summarized as follows:

• Conceptualizing an Interdisciplinary Collective Impact Approach to Examine and Intervene in the Chronic Cycle of Homelessness. This study by Abdel–Samad et al. [ 3 ] focuses on a novel, interdisciplinary academic–practice partnership model for addressing the problem of homelessness. Whereas singular disciplinary approaches may fall short in substantially reducing homelessness, this approach draws from a collective impact model that integrates discipline-specific approaches through mutually reinforcing activities and shared metrics. The paper describes what is necessary for capacity-building at the institution and community levels, the complementary strengths and contributions of each discipline in the model, and future implementation goals to address homelessness in the Southern California region using a cross-disciplinary approach.
• Mental Illness and Youth-Onset Homelessness: A Retrospective Study among Adults Experiencing Homelessness . Iwundu et al. [ 4 ] conducted a retrospective study and evaluated the association between the timing of homelessness onset (youth versus adult) and mental illness. The results indicated that mental illness (as a reason for current homelessness) and severe mental illness comorbidities were each associated with increased odds of youth-onset homelessness, providing a basis for agencies that serve at-risk youth in order to address mental health precursors to youth homelessness.
• Well-Being without a Roof: Examining Well-Being among Unhoused Individuals Using Mixed Methods and Propensity Score Matching. Ahuja et al. [ 5 ] found that the mean overall well-being score of unhoused participants was significantly lower than that of matched housed participants, with unhoused participants reporting lower mean scores for social connectedness, lifestyle and daily practices, stress and resilience, emotions, physical health, and finances. The unhoused participants had a statistically significantly higher mean score for spirituality and religiosity than their matched housed counterparts. The qualitative interviews highlighted spirituality and religion as a coping mechanism for the unhoused.
• Combatting Homelessness in Canada: Applying Lessons Learned from Six Tiny Villages to the Edmonton Bridge Healing Program. Authors Wong et al. [ 6 ] discuss the Bridge Healing Program in Edmonton, Alberta, a novel approach to combatting homelessness by using hospital emergency departments (ED) as a gateway to temporary housing. The program provides residents with immediate temporary housing before transitioning them to permanent homes. The paper discusses effective strategies that underlie the Tiny Villages concept by analyzing six case studies and applying the lessons learned to improving the Bridge Healing Program and reducing repeat ED visits and ED lengths of stay among homeless individuals.
• Change in Housing Status among Homeless and Formerly Homeless Individuals in Quebec, Canada: A Profile Study. Kaltsidis et al. [ 7 ] used a cluster analysis to develop a typology of the housing status change for 270 currently or formerly homeless individuals who were residing in shelters and temporary or permanent housing. The findings suggest that the maintenance or improvement in the housing status requires the availability of suitable types and frequencies of service use (enabling factors) that are well-adapted to the complexity of health problems (needs factors) among homeless individuals. Specific interventions, such as outreach programs and case management, are prioritized as necessary services, especially for individuals at a higher risk of returning to homelessness.
• Urban Stress Indirectly Influences Psychological Symptoms through Its Association with Distress Tolerance and Perceived Social Support among Adults Experiencing Homelessness. To investigate the simultaneous impact of intrapersonal characteristics (distress tolerance) and interpersonal characteristics (social support) and their association with homelessness, Hernandez et al. [ 8 ] recruited homeless adults from six homeless shelters in Oklahoma City who self-reported urban life stress, distress tolerance, social support, major depressive disorder, and PTSD symptoms. Based on the resulting associations, their findings stress the importance of implementing interventions aimed at increasing social support for homeless persons, something that may also increase skill development for distress tolerance and indirectly lead to a reduction in depression and PTSD.
• “I Felt Safe”: The Role of the Rapid Rehousing Program in Supporting the Security of Families Experiencing Homelessness in Salt Lake County, Utah. Garcia and Kim [ 9 ] describe their research into The Road Home (TRH) program, which provides services to homeless individuals and families. TRH is known for their emergency shelters and also administers the Rapid Rehousing Program (RRHP), designed to help homeless families transition back into stable housing. After collecting qualitative data from focus groups with participants and families, landlords, case managers, and service providers, they make recommendations for program improvements that can increase the residential security of families experiencing homelessness.
• “It’s Just a Band-Aid on Something No One Really Wants to See or Acknowledge”: A Photovoice Study with Transitional Aged Youth Experiencing Homelessness to Examine the Roots of San Diego’s 2016–2018 Hepatitis A Outbreak. In this study, Felner et al. [ 10 ] examined the experiences and needs of transitional aged youth (TAY) aged 18–24 experiencing homelessness who may have been uniquely affected by an unprecedented outbreak of hepatitis A virus (HAV). The findings documented a stigmatization of TAY, interventions that failed to address root causes of the outbreak, and interactions with housing- and social support-related resources that limited rather than supported economic and social mobility. The findings have implications for understanding how media and public discourse, public health interventions, and the availability and delivery of resources can contribute to and perpetuate stigma and health inequities faced by TAY experiencing homelessness.
• Predictors of Overnight and Emergency Treatment among Homeless Adults. Iwundu et al. [ 11 ] aimed to identify the sociodemographic predictors associated with overnight and emergency hospital treatment among a sample of homeless adults. Participants were recruited from a shelter in Dallas, Texas and were predominantly uninsured, low-income men and women from various social and ethnic groups. In logistic regression models, gender emerged as the only predictor of overnight treatment in a hospital and treatment in an emergency department. Women were more likely than men to be treated overnight and use emergency care. The authors concluded that interventions and policies targeted toward homeless women’s primary health care needs would reduce health care costs.
• Association of Problematic Alcohol Use and Food Insecurity among Homeless Men and Women. In a study on alcohol use and food insecurity among homeless men and women, Reitzel et al. [ 12 ] investigated the link between problematic alcohol use and food insecurity among homeless adults in Oklahoma. Problematic alcohol use was measured using the Alcohol Quantity and Frequency Questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire. Food insecurity was measured with the USDA Food Security Scale-Short Form. The results indicated that heavy drinking and probable alcohol dependence/abuse were each associated with increased odds of food insecurity. The results question whether alcohol may take precedence over eating or food purchases among this population of homeless individuals.
• Exploring Tiny Homes as an Affordable Housing Strategy to Ameliorate Homelessness: A Case Study of the Dwellings in Tallahassee, FL. “Tiny Homes” is an emerging strategy to combat homelessness, and Jackson et al. [ 13 ] raise a number of questions about the intentions, efficacy, and policy feasibility of this strategy. The paper seeks to understand the strategies used by stakeholders to plan, design, and implement a “Tiny Homes” strategy, and to assess their effectiveness. Using a case study, they examined how the community was planned, the experiences of residents, and the constraints to success. Their findings highlighted how funding constraints and NIMBYism (Not in My Backyard-ism) stymied stakeholder efforts to achieve equity and affordability, resulting in the inability to achieve project aims to develop affordable housing that served homeless populations.
• Predictors of Emergency Department Use among Individuals with Current or Previous Experience of Homelessness. The study by Gabet et al. [ 14 ] assessed the contributions of predisposing, enabling, and needs factors in predicting emergency department (ED) use among 270 individuals with a current or previous experience of homelessness. Participants were recruited from types of housing in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) and were interviewed about their ED use at baseline and again 12 months later. The findings revealed two needs factors associated with ED use: having a substance use disorder and low perceived physical health. Two enabling factors—the use of ambulatory specialized services and stigma—were also related to ED use. ED use was not associated with the type of housing. The authors suggest that improvements are needed to manage substance use disorders and the physical health of homeless individuals in order to reduce ED use.
• Being at the Bottom Rung of the Ladder in an Unequal Society: A Qualitative Analysis of Stories of People without a Home. The Mabhala and Yohannes article [ 15 ] examines the stories of homeless people and their perceptions of their social status using interviews in three centers for homeless people in Cheshire, in the English Northwest. Education, employment, and health were three domains that provided a theoretical explanation for the reasons that led to their homelessness. Participants catalogued their adverse childhood experiences, which they believe limited their capacity to meaningfully engage with social institutions for social goods, such as education, social services, and institutions of employment. They conclude that, although not all people who are poorly educated, in poor health, and unemployed end up being homeless, a combination of these together with multiple adverse childhood experiences may weaken resilience and contribute to homelessness.
• Commentary: Investing in Public Health Infrastructure to Address the Complexities of Homelessness. In a final commentary, Allegrante and Sleet [ 16 ] introduce the notion that investments in public health infrastructure are needed to address the complexities of homelessness, including the continued threats posed by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and its variants. The lack of affordable housing, widespread unemployment, poverty, addiction and mental illness, which all contribute to the risk of homelessness, would be well-served by improving the fundamental public health infrastructure. They argue that homelessness is exacerbated by system-wide infrastructure failures at the municipal, state and federal governments and from the neglect to invest in public infrastructure, including a modern public health system.

In conclusion, shelter is a basic human need. Thus far, we have an inadequate understanding of all the medical and nonmedical, public health, and infrastructural influences that drive homelessness and why so many people are living without adequate shelter. Housing is one of the most critical factors in addressing homelessness and one of the best-researched social determinants of health. Several articles here focus on innovative approaches to providing temporary or permanent housing for those who need it, and it is well known that selected housing interventions can improve health and decrease health care costs. From that perspective, some professionals in the field contend that housing equates to health [ 17 ] and that improved housing options for homeless individuals and families would advance population-level health.

Many of the articles in this Special Issue [ 18 ] focus on specific aspects of life, quality of life, and co-morbidities related to behavioral and social variables influencing homelessness. Explored in detail are factors such as lack of housing, distress, wellness, emergency department use, mental health, drug and alcohol addiction, poverty, low educational attainment, inadequate health care and social services, adverse childhood experiences, ongoing infections, unemployment, and public health infrastructure. In addition to highlighting the impact these factors can have on the likelihood that someone would become homeless, many of the articles also provide recommendations for relevant policies, practices, and interventions that could help reduce homelessness and improve overall well-being.

The intersection of environmental, behavioral, and social factors, in addition to the lack of an adequate infrastructure, must also be considered when studying the determinants of homelessness and designing appropriate interventions. Our ultimate goal in producing this Special Issue of IJERPH is to encourage the development of better evidence to inform public health, social services, and medical care policies and practices that will result in better health for homeless populations.

Acknowledgments

We thank the authors and reviewers for their commitment to preparing and editing these manuscripts and for adding to the knowledge base of this important public health problem.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

• Open access
• Published: 22 August 2017

Social conditions of becoming homelessness: qualitative analysis of life stories of homeless peoples

• Mzwandile A. Mabhala   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1350-7065 1 , 3 ,
• Asmait Yohannes 2 &
• Mariska Griffith 1  

International Journal for Equity in Health volume  16 , Article number:  150 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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It is increasingly acknowledged that homelessness is a more complex social and public health phenomenon than the absence of a place to live. This view signifies a paradigm shift, from the definition of homelessness in terms of the absence of permanent accommodation, with its focus on pathways out of homelessness through the acquisition and maintenance of permanent housing, to understanding the social context of homelessness and social interventions to prevent it.

However, despite evidence of the association between homelessness and social factors, there is very little research that examines the wider social context within which homelessness occurs from the perspective of homeless people themselves. This study aims to examine the stories of homeless people to gain understanding of the social conditions under which homelessness occurs, in order to propose a theoretical explanation for it.

Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with homeless people in three centres for homeless people in Cheshire North West of England.

The analysis revealed that becoming homeless is a process characterised by a progressive waning of resilience capacity to cope with life challenges created by series of adverse incidents in one’s life. The data show that final stage in the process of becoming homeless is complete collapse of relationships with those close to them. Most prominent pattern of behaviours participants often describe as main causes of breakdown of their relationships are:

engaging in maladaptive behavioural lifestyle including taking drugs and/or excessive alcohol drinking

Being in trouble with people in authorities.

Homeless people describe the immediate behavioural causes of homelessness, however, the analysis revealed the social and economic conditions within which homelessness occurred. The participants’ descriptions of the social conditions in which were raised and their references to maladaptive behaviours which led to them becoming homeless, led us to conclude that they believe that their social condition affected their life chances: that these conditions were responsible for their low quality of social connections, poor educational attainment, insecure employment and other reduced life opportunities available to them.

It is increasingly acknowledged that homelessness is a more complex social and public health phenomenon than the absence of a place to live. This view signifies a paradigm shift, from the definition of homelessness in terms of the absence of permanent accommodation [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ], with its focus on pathways out of homelessness through the acquisition and maintenance of permanent housing [ 6 ], to understanding the social context of homelessness and social interventions to prevent it [ 6 ].

Several studies explain the link between social factors and homelessness [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. The most common social explanations centre on seven distinct domains of deprivation: income; employment; health and disability; education, skills and training; crime; barriers to housing and social support services; and living environment [ 11 ]. Of all forms, income deprivation has been reported as having the highest risk factors associated with homelessness [ 7 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]: studies indicate that people from the most deprived backgrounds are disproportionately represented amongst the homeless [ 7 , 13 ]. This population group experiences clusters of multiple adverse health, economic and social conditions such as alcohol and drug misuse, lack of affordable housing and crime [ 10 , 12 , 15 ]. Studies consistently show an association between risk of homelessness and clusters of poverty, low levels of education, unemployment or poor employment, and lack of social and community support [ 7 , 10 , 13 , 16 ].

Studies in different countries throughout the world have found that while the visible form of homelessness becomes evident when people reach adulthood, a large proportion of homeless people have had extreme social disadvantage and traumatic experiences in childhood including poverty, shortage of social housing stocks, disrupted schooling, lack of social and psychological support, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect, dysfunctional family environments, and unstable family structures, all of which increase the likelihood of homelessness [ 10 , 13 , 14 ].

Furthermore, a large body of evidence suggests that people exposed to diverse social disadvantages at an early age are less likely to adapt successfully compared to people without such exposure [ 9 , 10 , 13 , 17 ], being more susceptible to adopting maladaptive coping behaviours such as theft, trading sex for money, and selling or using drugs and alcohol [ 7 , 9 , 18 , 19 ]. Studies show that these adverse childhood experiences tend to cluster together, and that the number of adverse experiences may be more predictive of negative adult outcomes than particular categories of events [ 17 , 20 ]. The evidence suggests that some clusters are more predictive of homelessness than others [ 7 , 12 ]: a cluster of childhood problems including mental health and behavioural disorders, poor school performance, a history of foster care, and disrupted family structure was most associated with adult criminal activities, adult substance use, unemployment and subsequent homelessness [ 12 , 17 , 21 ]. However, despite evidence of the association between homelessness and social factors, there is very little research that examines the wider social context within which homelessness occurs from the perspective of homeless people themselves.

This paper adopted Anderson and Christian’s [ 18 ] definition, which sees homelessness as a ‘function of gaining access to adequate, affordable housing, and any necessary social support needed to ensure the success of the tenancy’. Based on our synthesis of the evidence, this paper proposes that homelessness is a progressive process that begins at childhood and manifests itself at adulthood, one characterised by loss of the personal resources essential for successful adaptation. We adopted the definition of personal resources used by DeForge et al. ([ 7 ], p. 223), which is ‘those entities that either are centrally valued in their own right (e.g. self-esteem, close attachment, health and inner peace) or act as a means to obtain centrally valued ends (e.g. money, social support and credit)’. We propose that the new paradigm focusing on social explanations of homelessness has the potential to inform social interventions to reduce it.

In this study, we examine the stories of homeless people to gain understanding of the conditions under which homelessness occurs, in order to propose a theoretical explanation for it.

The design of this study was philosophically influenced by constructivist grounded theory (CGT). The aspect of CGT that made it appropriate for this study is its fundamental ontological belief in multiple realities constructed through the experience and understanding of different participants’ perspectives, and generated from their different demographic, social, cultural and political backgrounds [ 22 ]. The researchers’ resulting theoretical explanation constitutes their interpretation of the meanings that participants ascribe to their own situations and actions in their contexts [ 22 ].

The stages of data collection and analysis drew heavily on other variants of grounded theory, including those of Glaser [ 23 ] and Corbin and Strauss [ 24 ].

Setting and sampling strategy

The settings for this study were three centres for homeless people in two cities (Chester and Crewe) in Cheshire, UK. Two sampling strategies were used in this study: purposive and theoretical. The study started with purposive sampling and in-depth one-to-one semi-structured interviews with eight homeless people to generate themes for further exploration.

One of the main considerations for the recruitment strategy was to ensure that the process complies with the ethical principles of voluntary participation and equal opportunity to participate. To achieve this, an email was sent to all the known homeless centres in the Cheshire and Merseyside region, inviting them to participate. Three centres agreed to participate, all of them in Cheshire – two in Chester and one in Crewe.

Chester is the most affluent city in Cheshire and Merseyside, and therefore might not be expected to be considered for a homelessness project. The reasons for including it were: first, it was a natural choice, since the organisations that funded the project and the one that led the research project were based in Chester; second, despite its affluence, there is visible evidence of homelessness in the streets of Chester; and third, it has several local authority and charity-funded facilities for homeless people.

The principal investigator spent 1 day a week for 2 months in three participating centres, during that time oral presentation of study was given to all users of the centre and invited all the participants to participate and written participants information sheet was provided to those who wished to participate. During that time the principal investigator learned that the majority of homeless people that we were working with in Chester were not local. They told us that they came to Chester because there was no provision for homeless people in their former towns.

To help potential participants make a self-assessment of their suitability to participate without unfairly depriving others of the opportunity, participants information sheet outline criteria that potential participants had to meet: consistent with Economic and Social Research Council’s Research Ethics Guidebook [ 25 ], at the time of consenting to and commencing the interview, the participant must appear to be under no influence of alcohol or drugs, have a capacity to consent as stipulated in England and Wales Mental Capacity Act 2005 [ 26 ], be able to speak English, and be free from physical pain or discomfort.

As categories emerged from the data analysis, theoretical sampling was used to refine undeveloped categories in accordance with Strauss and Corbin’s [ 27 ] recommendations. In total 26 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Theoretical sampling involved review of memos or raw data, looking for data that might have been overlooked [ 27 , 28 ], and returning to key participants asking them to give more information on categories that seemed central to the emerging theory [ 27 , 28 ].

The sample comprised of 22 male and 4 female, the youndgest participant was 18 the eldest was 74 years, the mean age was 38.6 years. Table 1 illustrates participant’s education history, childhood living arrangements, brief participants family and social history, emotional and physical health, the onset of and trigger for homelessness.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Chester. The centre managers granted access once ethical approval had been obtained, and after their review of the study design and other research material, and of the participant information sheet which included a letter of invitation highlighting that participation was voluntary.

Data analysis

In this study data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously. Analysis drew on Glaser’s [ 23 ] grounded theory processes of open coding, use of the constant comparative method, and the iterative process of data collection and data analysis to develop theoretical explanation of homelessness.

The process began by reading the text line-by-line identifying and open coding the significant incidents in the data that required further investigation. The findings from the initial stage of analysis are published in Mabhala [ 29 ]. The the second stage the data were organised into three themes that were considered significant in becoming homeless (see Fig. 1 ):

Engaging in maladaptive behaviour

Being in trouble with the authorities.

Being in abusive environments.

Social explanation of becoming homeless. Legend: Fig. 1 illustrates the process of becoming homeless

The key questions that we asked as we continued to interrogate the data were: What category does this incident indicate? What is actually happening in the data? What is the main concern being faced by the participants? Interrogation of the data revealed that participants were describing the process of becoming homeless.

The comparative analysis involved three processes described by Glaser ([ 23 ], p. 58–60): each incident in the data was compared with incidents from both the same participant and other participants, looking for similarities and differences. Significant incidents were coded or given labels that represented what they stood for, and similarly coded or labeled when they were judged to be about the same topic, theme or concept.

After a period of interrogation of the data, it was decided that the two categories - destabilising behaviour, and waning ofcapacity for resilience were sufficiently conceptual to be used as theoretical categories around which subcategories could be grouped (Fig. 1 ).

Once the major categories had been developed, the next step consisted of a combination of theoretical comparison and theoretical sampling. The emerging categories were theoretically compared with the existing literature. Once this was achieved, the next step was filling in and refining the poorly defined categories. The process continued until theoretical sufficiency was achieved.

Figure 1 illustrates the process of becoming homeless. The analysis revealed that becoming homeless is a process characterised by a progressive waning of resilience created by a series of adverse incidents in one’s life. Amongst the frequently cited incidents were being in an abusive environment and losing a significant person in one’s life. However, being in an abusive environment emerged from this and previously published studies as a major theme; therefore, we decided to analyse it in more detail.

The data further show that the final stage in the process of becoming homeless is a complete collapse of relationships with those with whom they live. The most prominent behaviours described by the participants as being a main cause of breakdown are:

Engaging in maladaptive behaviour: substance misuse, alcoholism, self-harm and disruptive behaviours

Being in trouble with the authorities: theft, burglary, arson, criminal offenses and convictions

The interrogation of data in relation to the conditions within which these behaviours occurred revealed that participants believed that their social contexts influenced their life chance, their engagement with social institution such as education and social services and in turn their ability to acquire and maintain home. Our experiences have also shown that homeless people readily express the view that behavioural lifestyle factors such as substance misuse and engaging in criminal activities are the causes of becoming homeless. However, when we spent time talking about their lives within the context of their status as homeless people, we began to uncover incidents in their lives that appeared to have weakened their capacity to constructively engage in relationships, engage with social institutions to make use of social goods [ 29 , 30 , 31 ] and maturely deal with societal demands.

Being in abusive environments

Several participants explicitly stated that their childhood experiences and damage that occurred to them as children had major influences on their ability to negotiate their way through the education system, gain and sustain employment, make appropriate choices of social networks, and form and maintain healthy relationships as adults.

It appears that childhood experiences remain resonant in the minds of homeless participants, who perceive that these have had bearing on their homelessness. Their influence is best articulated in the extracts below. When participants were asked to tell their stories of what led to them becoming homeless, some of their opening lines were:

What basically happened, is that I had a childhood of so much persistent, consistent abuse from my mother and what was my stepfather. Literally consistent, we went around with my mother one Sunday where a friend had asked us to stay for dinner and mother took the invitation up because it saved her from getting off her ass basically and do anything. I came away from that dinner genuinely believing that the children in that house weren’t loved and cared for, because they were not being hit, there was no shouting, no door slamming. [Marco]

It appears that Marco internalised the incidents of abuse, characterised by shouting, door slamming and beating as normal behaviour. He goes on to intimate how the internalised abusive behaviour affected his interaction with his employers.

‘…but consistently being put down, consistently being told I was thick, I started taking jobs and having employers effing and blinding at me. One employer actually used a “c” word ending in “t” at me quite frequently and I thought it was acceptable, which obviously now I know it’s not. So I am taking on one job after another that, how can I put it? That no one else would do basically. I was so desperate to work and earn my own money. [Marco]

Similarly, David makes a connection between his childhood experience and his homelessness. When he was asked to tell his life story leading to becoming homeless, his opening line was:

I think it [homelessness] started off when I was a child. I was neglected by my mum. I was physically and mentally abused by my mum. I got put into foster care, when I left foster care I was put in the hostel, from there I turn into alcoholic. Then I was homeless all the time because I got kicked out of the hostels, because you are not allowed to drink in the hostel. [David]

David and Marco’s experiences are similar to those of many participants. The youngest participant in this study, Clarke, had fresh memories of his abusive environment under his stepdad:

I wouldn't want to go back home if I had a choice to, because before I got kicked out me stepdad was like hitting me. I wouldn't want to go back to put up with that again. [I didn't tell anyone] because I was scared of telling someone and that someone telling me stepdad that I've told other people. ‘[Be] cause he might have just started doing again because I told people. It might have gotten him into trouble. [Clarke]

In some cases, participants expressed the beliefs that their abusive experience not only deprived them life opportunities but also opportunities to have families of their own. As Tom and Marie explain:

We were getting done for child neglect because one of our child has a disorder that means she bruise very easily. They all our four kids into care, social workers said because we had a bad childhood ourselves because I was abused by my father as well, they felt that we will fail our children because we were failed by our parents. We weren’t given any chance [Tom and Marie]

Norma, described the removal of her child to care and her maladaptive behaviour of excessive alcohol use in the same context as her experience of sexual abuse by her father.

I had two little boys with me and got took off from me and put into care. I got sexually abused by my father when I was six. So we were put into care. He abused me when I was five and raped me when I was six. Then we went into care all of us I have four brothers and four sisters. My dad did eighteen months for sexually abusing me and my sister. I thought it was normal as well I thought that is what dads do [Norma]

The analysis of participants in this study appears to suggest that social condition one is raised influence the choice of social connections and life partner. Some participants who have had experience of abuse as children had partner who had similar experience as children Tom and Marie, Lee, David and his partners all had partners who experienced child abuse as children.

Tom and Marie is a couple we interviewed together. They met in hostel for homeless people they have got four children. All four children have been removed from them and placed into care. They sleep rough along the canal. They explained:

We have been together for seven years we had a house and children social services removed children from us, we fell within bedroom tax. …we received an eviction order …on the 26th and the eviction date was the 27th while we were in family court fighting for our children. …because of my mental health …they were refusing to help us.

Our children have been adopted now. The adoption was done without our permission we didn’t agree to it because we wanted our children home because we felt we were unfairly treated and I [Marie] was left out in all this and they pin it all on you [Tom] didn’t they yeah, my [Tom] history that I was in care didn’t help.

Tom went on to talk about the condition under which he was raised:

I was abandoned by my mother when I was 12 I was then put into care; I was placed with my dad when I was 13 who physically abused me then sent back to care. [Tom].

David’s story provides another example of how social condition one is raised influence the choice of social connections and life partner. David has two children from two different women, both women grew up in care. Lisa one of David’s child mother is a second generation of children in care, her mother was raised in care too.

I drink to deal with problems. As I say I’ve got two kids with my girlfriend Kyleigh, but I got another lad with Lisa, he was taken off me by social services and put on for adoption ten years ago and that really what started it; to deal with that. Basically, because I was young, and I had been in care and the way I had been treated by my mum. Basically laid on me in the same score as my mum and because his mum [Lisa] was in care as well. So they treated us like that, which was just wrong. [David]

In this study, most participants identified alcohol or drugs and crime as the cause of relationships breakdown. However, the language they used indicates that these were secondary reasons rather than primary reasons for their homelessness. The typical question that MA and MG asked the interview participants was “tell us how did you become homeless”? Typically, participants cited different maladaptive behaviours to explain how they became homeless.

Alvin’s story is typical of:

Basically I started off as a bricklayer, … when the recession hit, there was an abundance of bricklayers so the prices went down in the bricklaying so basically with me having two young children and the only breadwinner in the family... so I had to kinda look for factory work and so I managed to get a job… somewhere else…. It was shift work like four 12 hour days, four 12 hour nights and six [days] off and stuff like that, you know, real hard shifts. My shift was starting Friday night and I’ll do Friday night, Saturday night to Monday night and then I was off Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but I’d treat that like me weekend you know because I’ve worked all weekend. Then… so I’d have a drink then and stuff like that, you know. 7 o’ clock on a Monday morning not really the time to be drinking, but I used to treat it like me weekend. So we argued, me and my ex-missus [wife], a little bit and in the end we split up so moved back to me mum's, but kept on with me job, I was at me mum’s for possibly about five years and but gradually the drinking got worse and worse, really bad. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. … I used to drink to get rid of the anxiety and also to numb the pain of the breakup of me marriage really, you know it wasn’t good, you know. One thing led to another and I just couldn’t stop me alcohol. I mean I’ve done drugs you know, I was into the rave scene and I’ve never done hard drugs like heroin or... I smoke cannabis and I use cocaine, and I used to go for a pint with me mates and that. It all came to a head about November/December time, you know it was like I either stop drinking or I had to move out of me mum's. I lost me job in the January through being over the limit in work from the night before uum so one thing led to another and I just had to leave. [Alvin]

Similarly, Gary identified alcohol as the main cause of his relationship breakdown. However, when one listens to the full story alcohol appears to be a manifestation of other issues, including financial insecurities and insecure attachment etc.

It [the process of becoming homeless] mainly started with the breakdown of the relationship with me partner. I was with her for 15 years and we always had somewhere to live but we didn't have kids till about 13 years into the relationship. The last two years when the kids come along, I had an injury to me ankle which stopped me from working. I was at home all day everyday. …I was drinking because I was bored. I started drinking a lot ‘cause I couldn't move bout the house. It was a really bad injury I had to me ankle. Um, and one day me and me partner were having this argument and I turned round and saw my little boy just stood there stiff as a board just staring, looking at us. And from that day on I just said to me partner that I'll move out, ‘cause I didn't want me little boy to be seeing this all the time. [Gary]

In both cases Gary and Alvin indicate that changes in their employment status created conditions that promoted alcohol dependency, though both explained that they drank alcohol before the changes in their employment status occurred and the breakdown of relationships. Both intimated that that their job commitment limited the amount of time available to drink alcohol. As Gary explained, it is the frequency and amount of alcohol drinking that changed as a result of change in their employment status:

I used to have a bit of a drink, but it wasn’t a problem because I used to get up in the morning and go out to work and enjoy a couple of beers every evening after a day’s work. Um, but then when I wasn't working I was drinking, and it just snowballed out, you know snowball effect, having four cans every evening and then it went from there. I was drinking more ‘cause I was depressed. I was very active before and then I became like non-active, not being able to do anything and in a lot of pain as well. [Gary]

Furthermore, although the participants claim that drinking alcohol was not a problem until their employment circumstances changed, one gets a sense that alcohol was partly responsible for creating conditions that resulted in the loss of their jobs. In Gary’s case, for example, alcohol increased his vulnerability to the assault and injuries that cost him his job:

I got assaulted, kicked down a flight of stairs. I landed on me back on the bottom of the stairs, but me heel hit the stairs as it was still going up if you know what I mean. Smashed me heel, fractured me heel… So, by the time I got to the hospital and they x-rayed it they wasn't even able to operate ‘cause it was in that many pieces, they weren't even able to pin it if you know what I mean. [Gary]

Alvin, of the other hand, explained that:

I lost my job in the January through being over the limit in work from the night before, uum so one thing led to another and I just had to leave. [Alvin]

In all cases participants appear to construct marriage breakdown as an exacerbating factor for their alcohol dependence. Danny, for example, constructed marriage breakdown as a condition that created his alcohol dependence and alcohol dependence as a cause of breakdown of his relationship with his parents. He explains:

I left school when I was 16. Straight away I got married, had children. I have three children and marriage was fine. Umm, I was married for 17 years. As the marriage broke up I turned to alcohol and it really, really got out of control. I moved in with my parents... It was unfair for them to put up with me; you know um in which I became... I ended up on the streets, this was about when I was 30, 31, something like that and ever since it's just been a real struggle to get some permanent accommodation. [Danny]

Danny goes on to explain:

Yes [I drank alcohol before marriage broke down but] not very heavily, just like a sociable drink after work. I'd call into like the local pub and have a few pints and it was controlled. My drinking habit was controlled then. I did go back to my parents after my marriage break up, yes. I was drinking quite heavily then. I suppose it was a form of release, you know, in terms of the alcohol which I wish I'd never had now. When I did start drinking heavy at me parents’ house, I was getting in trouble with the police being drunk and disorderly. That was unfair on them. [Danny]

The data in this study indicate that homelessness occurs when the relationships collapse, irrespective of the nature of the relationship. There were several cases where lifestyle behaviour led to a relationship collapse between child and parents or legal guardians.

In the next excerpt, Emily outlines the incidents: smoking weed, doing crack and heroin, and drinking alcohol. She also uses the words ‘because’, ‘when’ and ‘obviously’, which provide clues about the precipitating condition for her behaviours “spending long time with people who take drugs”.

I've got ADHD like, so obviously my mum kicked me out when I was 17 and then like I went to **Beswick** and stuff like that. My mum in the end just let me do what I wanted to do, ‘cause she couldn't cope anymore. …I mean I tried to run away from home before that, but she'd always like come after me in like her nightie and pyjamas and all that. But in the end she just washed her hands of me . [Emily]

Emily presented a complex factors that made it difficult for her mother to live with her. These included her mother struggle with raising four kids as a single parent, Emily’s mental health (ADHD], alcohol and drug use. She goes on to explain that:

Ummm, well the reason I got kicked out of my hostel was ‘cause of me drinking, so I'd get notice to quit every month, then I’d have a meeting with the main boss and then they'd overturn it and this went on every month for about six months. Also, it was me behaviour as well, but obviously drink makes you do stuff you don't normally do and all that shit. I lived here for six months, got kicked out because I jumped out the window and broke me foot. I was on the streets for six months and then they gave me a second chance and I've been here a year now. So that's it basically. [Emily]

There were several stories of being evicted from accommodation due to excessive use of alcohol. One of those is David:

I got put into foster care. When I left foster care I was put in the hostel, from there I turn into alcoholic. Then I was homeless all the time because I got kicked out of the hostels, because you are not allowed to drink in the hostel. It’s been going on now for about… I was thirty-one on Wednesday, so it’s been going on for about thirteen years, homeless on and off. Otherwise if not having shoplifted for food and then go to jail, and when I don’t drink I have lot of seizures and I end up in the hospital. Every time I end up on the street. I trained as a chef, I have not qualified yet, because of alcohol addiction, it didn’t go very well. I did couple of jobs in restaurants and diners, I got caught taking a drink. [David]

Contrary to the other incidents where alcohol was a factor that led to homelessness, Barry’s description of his story appears to suggest that the reason he had to leave his parents’ home was his parents’ perception that his sexuality brought shame to the family:

When I came out they I’m gay, my mum and dad said you can’t live here anymore. I lived in a wonderful place called Nordic... but fortunately, mum and dad ran a pub called […] [and] one of the next door neighbours lived in a mansion. His name was [….] [and] when I came out, he came out as in he said “I'm a gay guy”, but he took me into Liverpool and housed me because I had nowhere to live. My mum and dad said you can't live here anymore. And unfortunately, we get to the present day. I got attacked. I got mugged... only walked away with a £5 note, it’s all they could get off me. They nearly kicked me to death so I was in hospital for three weeks. By the time I came out, I got evicted from my flat. I was made homeless. [Barry]

We used the phrase “engaging in maladaptive behaviour” to conceptualise the behaviours that led to the loss of accommodation because our analysis appear to suggest that these behaviours were strategies to cope with the conditions they found themselves in. For example, all participants in this category explained that they drank alcohol to cope with multiple health (mental health) and social challenges.

In the UK adulthood homelessness is more visible than childhood homelessness. However, most participants in this research reveal that the process of becoming homeless begins at their childhood, but becomes visible after the legal age of consent (16). Participants described long history of trouble with people in authority including parents, legal guardians and teachers. However, at the age of 16 they gain legal powers to leave children homes, foster homes, parental homes and schools, and move outside some of the childhood legal protections. Their act of defiance becomes subject to interdiction by the criminal justice system. This is reflected in number of convictions for criminal offenses some of the participants in this study had.

Participants Ruddle, David, Lee, Emily, Pat, Marco, Henry and many other participants in this study (see Table 1 ) clearly traced the beginning of their troubles with authority back at school. They all expressed the belief that had their schooling experience been more supportive, their lives would have been different. Lee explains that being in trouble with the authorities began while he was at school:

‘The school I came from a rough school, it was a main school, it consisted of A, B, C, D and The school I came from [was] a rough school, it was a main school, it consisted of A, B, C, D and E. I was in the lowest set, I was in E because of my English and maths. I was not interested, I was more interested in going outside with big lads smoking weed, bunking school. I used to bunk school inside school. I used to bunk where all cameras can catch me. They caught me and reported me back to my parents. My mum had a phone call from school asking where your son is. My mum grounded me. While my mum grounded me I had a drain pipe outside my house, I climbed down the drain pipe outside my bedroom window. I used to climb back inside. [Lee]

Lee’s stories constructed his poor education experiences as a prime mover towards the process of becoming homeless. It could be noted in Table 1 that most participants who described poor education experiences came from institutions such as foster care, children home and special school for maladjusted children. These participants made a clear connection between their experiences of poor education characterised by defiance of authorities and poor life outcomes as manifested through homelessness.

Patrick made a distinct link between his school experience and his homelessness, for example, when asked to tell his story leading up to becoming homeless, Patrick’s response was:

I did not go to school because I kept on bunking. When I was fifteen I left school because I was caught robbing. The police took me home and my mum told me you’re not going back to school again, you are now off for good. Because if you go back to school you keep on thieving, she said I keep away from them lads. I said fair enough. When I was seventeen I got run over by a car. [Patrick]

Henry traces the beginning of his troubles with authorities back at school:

[My schooling experience]… was good, I got good, well average grades, until I got myself into [a] few fights mainly for self-defence. In primary schools, I had a pretty... I had a good report card. In the start of high school, it was good and then when the fights started that gave me sort of like a... bad reputation. I remember my principal one time made me cry. Actually made me cry, but eh... I don't know how, but I remember sitting there in the office and I was crying. My sister also stuck up for me when she found out what had happened, she was on my side; but I can’t remember exactly what happened at that time. [Henry]

Emily’s story provides some clues about the series of incidents - including, delay in diagnosing her health condition, being labelled as a naughty child at school, being regularly suspended from school and consequently poor educational attainment.

Obviously, I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD till I was like 13, so like in school they used to say that's just a naughty child. … So it was like always getting suspended, excluded and all that sort of stuff. And in the end [I] went to college and the same happened there. [Emily]

The excerpt above provides intimations of what she considers to be the underlying cause of her behaviour towards the authorities. Emily suggests that had the authorities taken appropriate intervention to address her condition, her life outcomes would have been different.

Although the next participant did not construct school as being a prime mover of their trouble with authorities, their serious encounters with the criminal justice system occurred shortly after leaving school:

Well I did a bit of time at a very early age, I was only 16… I did some remand there, but then when I went to court ‘cause I'd done enough remand, I got let out and went to YMCA in Runcorn. Well, that was when I was a kid. When I was a bit older, ‘cause it was the years 2000 that I was in jail, I was just trying to get by really. I wasn’t with Karen at the time. I was living in Crewe and at the time I was taking a lot of amphetamines and was selling amphetamines as well, and I got caught and got a custodial sentence for it. But I've never been back to jail since. I came out in the year 2000 so it's like 16 years I've kept meself away from jail and I don't have any intentions of going back. [Gary]

The move from school and children social care system to criminal justice was a common pathways for many participants in this study. Some including Lee, Crewe, David, Patrick spent multiple prison sentences (see Table 1 ). Although Crewe did not make connection between his schooling experiences and his trouble with law, it could be noted that his serious encounter with criminal justice system started shortly after leaving foster care and schooling systems. As he explains:

I was put into prison at age of 17 for arson that was a cry for help to get away from the family, I came out after nine months. I have been in prison four times in my life, its not very nice, when I came out I made a promise to myself that I’m never going to go back to prison again. [Crewe]

Lee recalls his education experience. He explained:

I left school when I was fifteen… then I went off the rails. I got kidnapped for three and half months. When I came back I was just more interested in crime. When I left school I was supposed to go to college, but I went with travellers. I was just more interested in getting arrested every weekend, until my mum say right I have enough of you. I was only seventeen. I went through the hostels when I was seventeen. [Lee]

None describe the educational experience with a similar profundity to Marco:

On few occasions I came out on the corridors I would be getting battered on to my hands and knees and teachers walk pass me. There was quite often blood on the floor from my nose, would be punched on my face and be thrown on the floor. …. It was hard school, pernicious. I would go as far as saying I never felt welcome in that school, I felt like a fish out of the water, being persistently bullied did my head in. Eventually I started striking back, when I started striking back suddenly I was a bad one. My mother decided to put me in … school for maladjusted boys, everyone who been there including myself have spent time in prison. [Marco]

The trouble with authorities that was observes in participants stories in this category appear to be part of the wider adverse social challenges that the participants in this study were facing. Crewe’s description of arson as a cry for help appears to be an appropriate summation of all participants in this category.

The participants’ description of the social conditions in which were raised and their references to maladaptive behaviours which led to them becoming homeless, led us to conclude that they believe that their social condition affected their life chances: that these conditions were responsible for their low quality of social connections, poor educational attainment, insecure employment and other reduced life opportunities available to them.

The key feature that distinguish this study from comparable previous studies is that it openly acknowledges that data collection and analysis were influenced by the principles of social justice [ 28 , 30 , 31 ]. The resulting theoretical explanation therefore constitutes our interpretation of the meanings that participants ascribe to their own situations and actions in their contexts. In this study, defining homelessness within the wider socioeconomic context seemed to fit the data, and offered one interpretation of the process of becoming homeless.

While the participants’ experiences leading to becoming homeless may sound trite. What is pertinent in this study is understanding the conditions within which their behaviours occurred. The data were examined through the lens of social justice and socio-economic inequalities: we analysed the social context within which these behaviours occurred. We listened to accounts of their schooling experiences, how they were raised and their social network. The intention was not to propose a cause-and-effect association, but to suggest that interventions to mitigate homelessness should consider the social conditions within which it occurred.

Participants in this study identified substance misuse and alcohol dependency as a main cause of their homelessness. These findings are consistent with several epidemiological studies that reported a prevalence of substance misuse amongst the homeless people [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. However, most these studies are epidemiological; and by nature epidemiological studies are the ‘gold standard’ in determining causes and effects, but do not always examine the context within which the cause and effect occur. One qualitative study that explored homelessness was a Canadian study by Watson, Crawley and Cane [ 37 ]. Participants in the Watson, et al. described ‘lack of quality social interactions and pain of addition. However, Watson et al. focus on the experiences of being homeless, rather than the life experiences leading to becoming homeless. To our knowledge the current study is one of very few that specifically examine the conditions within which homelessness occurs, looking beyond the behavioural factors. Based on the synthesis of data from previous studies, it makes sense that many interventions to mitigate homelessness focus more on tackling behavioural causes of homelessness rather than fundamental determinants of it [ 38 ]. From the public health intervention’ point of view, however, understanding the conditions within which homelessness occurs is essential, as it will encourage policymakers and providers of the services for homelessness people to devote equal attention to tackling the fundamental determinants of homelessness as is granted in dealing behavioural causes.

Participants in this study reported that they have been defiant toward people in positions of authority. For most of them this trouble began when they were at school, and came to the attention of the criminal justice system as soon as they left school at the age of 16. These findings are similar to these in the survey conducted by Williams, Poyser, and Hopkins [ 39 ] which was commissioned by the UK Ministry of Justice. This survey found that 15 % of prisoners in the sample reported being homeless before custody [ 39 ]; while three and a half percent of the general population reported having ever been homeless [ 39 ]. As the current study reveals there are three possible explanations for the increased population of homeless young people in the criminal justice system: first, at the age of 16 they gain legal powers to leave their foster homes, parents homes, and schools and move beyond some of the childhood legal protections; second, prior to the age of 16 their defiant behaviours were controlled and contained by schools and parents/legal guardians; and third, after the age of 16 their acts of defiant behaviour become subject to interdiction by the criminal justice system.

The conditions in which they were born and raised were described by some participants in this study as ‘chaotic’, abusive’, ‘neglect’, ‘pernicious’ ‘familial instability’, ‘foster care’, ‘care home’, etc. Taking these conditions, and the fact that all but one participants in this left school at or before the age of 16 signifies the importance of living conditions in educational achievement. It has been reported in previous studies that children growing up in such conditions struggle to adjust in school and present with behavioural problems, and thus, poor academic performance [ 40 ]. It has also been reported that despite these families often being known to social services, criminal justice systems and education providers, the interventions in place do little to prevent homelessness [ 40 ].

Analysis of the conditions within which participants’ homelessness occurred reveals the adverse social conditions within which they were born and raised. The conditions they described included being in an abusive environment, poor education, poor employment or unemployment, poor social connections and low social cohesion. These conditions are consistent with high index of poverty [ 37 , 41 , 42 ]. And several other studies found similar associations between poverty and homelessness [ 42 ]. For example, the study by Watson, Crowley et al. [ 37 ] found that there were extreme levels of poverty and social exclusion amongst homeless people. Contrary to previous studies that appear to construct homelessness as a major form of social exclusion, the analysis of participants’ stories in this current study revealed that the conditions they were raised under limited their capacity to engage in meaningful social interactions, thus creating social exclusion.

Homeless people describe the immediate behavioural causes of homelessness; however, this analysis revealed the social and economic conditions within which homelessness occurred. The participants’ descriptions of the social conditions in which were raised and their references to maladaptive behaviours which led to them becoming homeless, led us to conclude that they believe that their social condition affected their life chances: that these conditions were responsible for their low quality of social connections, poor educational attainment, insecure employment and other reduced life opportunities available to them.

Limitations

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participants in this study; without their contribution it would not have been possible to undertake the research. The authors acknowledge the contribution of Professor Paul Kingston and Professor Basma Ellahi at the proposal stage of this project. A very special thanks to Robert Whitehall, John and all the staff at the centres for homeless people for their help in creating a conducive environment for this study to take place; and to Roger Whiteley for editorial support. A very special gratitude goes to the reviewers of this paper, who will have expended considerable effort on our behalf. 

This research was funded by quality-related research (QR) funding allocation for the University of Chester.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical restriction and privacy of participant data but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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MM wrote the entire manuscript, designed the study, collected data, analysed and interpreted data, and presented the findings. AY contributed to transcribing data and manuscript editing. MG contributed to data collection, and transcribed the majority of data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Mabhala, M.A., Yohannes, A. & Griffith, M. Social conditions of becoming homelessness: qualitative analysis of life stories of homeless peoples. Int J Equity Health 16 , 150 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-017-0646-3

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Homelessness: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

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Table of contents

Causes of homelessness, economic factors, social factors, effects of homelessness, physical effects, psychological effects, solutions to homelessness, short-term solutions, long-term solutions, current state of homelessness.

• Poverty: Poverty is the primary cause of homelessness. Homeless individuals often lack access to basic resources such as food, clothing, and shelter. Poverty can result from a lack of education, low wages, or job loss.
• Unemployment: Unemployment is another significant economic factor contributing to homelessness. Many homeless individuals are unable to find stable employment due to limited education, job skills, or discrimination.
• Lack of affordable housing: The lack of affordable housing is a significant contributor to homelessness. Many individuals cannot afford the high cost of rent, and affordable housing is often limited in urban areas.
• Domestic Violence: Domestic violence is a significant social factor contributing to homelessness, particularly among women and children. Many victims of domestic violence flee their homes and become homeless.
• Substance Abuse: Substance abuse is another significant social factor contributing to homelessness. Homeless individuals often turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with their difficult situation, leading to addiction and further isolation.
• Mental Illness: Mental illness is a significant social factor contributing to homelessness. Many homeless individuals suffer from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, making it challenging to maintain stable housing and employment.
• Malnutrition: Homeless individuals often lack access to healthy food, leading to malnutrition and related health problems.
• Exposure to Extreme Weather: Homeless individuals are often exposed to extreme weather conditions such as heat, cold, and rain, leading to health problems such as hypothermia or heat stroke.
• Poor Hygiene: Homeless individuals often lack access to basic hygiene products such as soap and water, leading to poor hygiene and related health problems.
• Depression: Homeless individuals often experience feelings of hopelessness, loneliness, and depression, leading to mental health problems.
• Anxiety: Homeless individuals often experience anxiety related to their uncertain living situation, leading to mental health problems.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Homeless individuals who have experienced trauma, such as domestic violence or natural disasters, may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, leading to mental health problems.
• Emergency Shelters: Emergency shelters provide temporary housing and basic needs such as food, clothing, and hygiene facilities for homeless individuals.
• Food Banks: Food banks provide free or low-cost food for homeless individuals who lack access to healthy food.
• Outreach Programs: Outreach programs provide support services such as counseling, job training, and healthcare for homeless individuals.
• Affordable Housing: Affordable housing provides stable, safe, and affordable housing for homeless individuals.
• Job Training Programs: Job training programs provide homeless individuals with the skills and education needed to secure stable employment.
• Mental Health Treatment: Mental health treatment provides homeless individuals with the necessary mental health support to manage their mental health issues and improve their quality of life.
• Statistics: According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were an estimated 580,000 homeless people in the United States in 2020.
• Homelessness and COVID-19: The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the homelessness crisis, with many homeless individuals lacking access to healthcare and shelter.
• Homelessness in Urban vs Rural Areas: Homelessness is more prevalent in urban areas, but rural areas also have a significant homeless population, often with limited access to resources and support services.

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Unemployment Is Homelessness

When we think about the challenges we face in recovery, the most obvious one is probably staying sober and resisting the temptation to use again. There are some additional, unseen challenges that we might not be aware of if we haven’t experienced them firsthand. These difficulties can be so overwhelming and disheartening that they deplete us of our willpower and contribute to our chances of relapsing. Many of these challenges are things people don’t necessarily want to talk about publicly, because there is still stigma surrounding them. People in recovery can suffer in silence and isolate themselves rather than seek out the help they need.

One unseen challenge that affects people in recovery is unemployment. Many of us lose our jobs because of our addictions or have to take time away from work to complete treatment. Once it’s time to reenter the workforce, we can find it harder than expected to pick up where we left off. Employers can be hesitant to employ us if they know of our history with addiction. Interviewers can take our lapse in work to mean we are undependable and not a good hiring choice. Even if we are working our recovery program successfully, hiring managers can assume we will fall off the wagon and be a liability. The stress that can come from joblessness can contribute to our inability to cope with the demands of life, leading us back to our drug of choice to try to escape that stress.

A harsh reality of unemployment is homelessness. We know that many addicts find themselves homeless because of their struggles with addiction, but what we may be less aware of is that many people still grapple with homelessness even when recovering. It can be tremendously difficult to get back on our feet after addiction has taken over our lives and totally destabilized us. If we can’t find work or if no one will rent to us, we can easily find ourselves homeless. Without the stability of work and shelter, we can become depressed and susceptible to relapsing.

When we are not financially independent, many of us find ourselves forced to be dependent on other people. Unfortunately for many of us, the relationships in our lives that developed out of our addiction are abusive, and in recovery we find ourselves dependent upon abusive partners. Domestic violence is a huge problem for people struggling with addiction and those already in recovery. When we can’t find the resources we need to make a life for ourselves and be independent, we are more easily caught in cycles of dependence and abuse.

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Homelessness and Education in the USA Essay

Introduction.

Every child, homeless or not, has the right to a public school education that is equal to the standards of achievement that are available for all youths and children. As stated by the federal government, the fact that a child is homeless is not sufficient reason to keep them out of school. The definition of homeless youth is an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence (Boden, 2012). The current economic recession is a leading factor in the increase of homelessness among youths. In the past two years, there has been a 38% increase in the number of homeless youths (Boden, 2012). It is projected the recession will cause 2 million children to be homeless in the next two years (NAEHCY, 2012). Some parts of the United States have greater risks than others. In a state report card ranking of states with the greatest risk of homelessness (Bassuk et al, 2010), Missouri ranked amongst the bottom five percent of the 52 states, while Illinois was in the middle. The two states are responsible for 86,000 of the nation’s homeless (Bassuk et al, 2010). Missouri and Illinois must tap into current resources from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to assist in providing education to homeless children. The Act documents legislation that requires schools to designate a liaison to identify homeless children. It provides funds for schools to provide education and transportation for the homeless (NAHECY, 2012). However, the program was not equipped for the economic crisis (Boden, 2012). The federal government has provided one-time additional funding for assistance in the monetary shortage of the funds. Because the United States is still in a recession, additional funding is necessary to honor the federal guidelines for educating homeless children. The current economic recession has caused an increased amount of homeless children in Missouri and Illinois leaving schools with the burden of educating the youths that suffer from additional health, emotional, and financial problems associated with homelessness without the appropriate funds or resources. If the federal government does not redefine existing legislation and distribute additional assistance, then every child’s right to an equal education is at risk.

Homelessness: A Real National Issue

Who is homeless.

A homeless child is one who does not have adequate sleeping arrangements. This definition includes children who are accompanied by a parent who is sharing housing with others, living in motels, emergency shelters, cars, or other public places (NAEHCY, 2010). One of the main reasons for the increase among accompanied homeless youths is the financial challenges facing parents and guardians. Since 2006, the American economy has suffered the collapse of financial institutions. The effects caused home foreclosures to increase for the past three years. Between 2005 and 2010, the foreclosure rate increased by 176% for Missouri and 94 % for Illinois increased to 194 % (State Report, 2010, p.33). Besides the collapsing housing market, unemployment continued to increase, thereby adversely affecting and lowering incomes among families.

The Economic Downturn of 2009-2010

The economic downturn forced families to abandon their homes. A. Z. Humbolt of the Unified School District stated his frustrations with the school year of 2008. “So many of our families are just not making it financially and are desperate for help” (NAEHCY, 2010, p. 2). The recession was cited as the number one reason for the increased enrollment of homeless students in 2007 and 2008. Projections indicate that the crisis is not yet over. It is projected that the recession will cause 2 million children to become homeless in the next two years (NAEHCY, 2012). These homeless families are forced to educate their children in school districts where they no longer reside (NAEHCY, 2010, p. 2).

The homeless youths suffer additional handicaps in attending schools. The McKinney- Vento Homeless Assistance Act states that homeless youths have the right to be educated within the school district where they last maintained permanent residency (Miller, 2012, p.310). However, the family’s financial circumstances do not allow for the affordability of school fees or transportation costs. Many find themselves unable to provide paperwork requirements for enrollment. In 2002, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was reinstated with the No Child Left behind Act (Miller, P., 2012, p. 209). The Act provided programs and funds meant to alleviate financial concerns associated with homeless youths’ education. Also addressed in the McKinney-Vento Act was legislation that would provide homeless students with stability and academic support. The original funds appropriated were not enough to service the steady increase in homeless children since 2007 (NAEHCY, 2010, p. 2).

The recession caused more damage to Missouri and Illinois because a large population of people was supporting their families on incomes beneath the poverty line. The low-income families had limited supplies and access to funds to assist with the loss of income from employment. Low-income families suffer a greater risk of health problems, accidents, and other traumatic experiences. The search for affordable housing became more difficult due to the reduction of low-income housing options over the past few years (Miller, 2010, p.310). These factors further heightened the mobility of families, thus making educating their children an additional burden.

It was not only low-income families that were affected by the recession. Another contributing factor was employment. While all states suffered some increase in unemployment rates, Missouri experienced an increase of 3.8 % (Appendix A) while Illinois reported a 3.2 percent (Appendix B) from the Beginning of 2006 until the December of 2011. Middle-income families were surprised by a loss of employment. The inability to find employment was heightened by the number of people that were already unemployed. Middle-income families were in the same situation as low-income families. They too had failed to set aside enough funds, which left them homeless. Brandie Roark, an administrative assistant for Illinois district 113 found herself in this sudden state.

After working for the same company for 8 years, she was let go on a workforce reduction from her employer. Ms. Roark sought employment for a year and moved in with a boyfriend to avoid homelessness. After one year she was evicted while carrying her first child. Brandie stated in her interview, “It can happen to anyone. I was careless with money and made a few bad decisions. A person’s income does not matter. People need to understand this does not just happen to the poor. They are one poor decision away from homelessness” (Roark, 2012). The confidence that Ms. Roark had felt in her employment and future had disappeared instantly, leaving her with the anxiety of finding a home without any source of income. Millions of Americans have found themselves in Ms. Roark’s position with the added stress of trying to keep their children’s education intact.

The embarrassment and stigma associated with homelessness make families reluctant to alert schools to their mobility. Parents are under the false impression that school districts no longer need to provide an education for their children if they are living in alternate situations. A homeless student “has the option of continuing to attend their school of origin with transportation provided by school district upon request (Bowman, 2010). The legislation put into place has to be better publicized, so it can reach the many new homeless families of all different income brackets (Bowman, 2010.). A parent, whether homeless or not, should not have to struggle to understand how to fund or provide their child with a public school education.

Statutory Remedies

The laws provide assistance through the McKinney-Vento Assistance Act. However, many families were unaware of the laws that are in place to assist the child. Children sit in classrooms silent out of fear that they will be separated by and from their parents (NAEHCY, 2010, p.2). While the federal government’s intention was to look out for homeless children, its efforts were muddied by paperwork and policies that administrators and parents could not comprehend. As a result, the homeless child’s chances at education remain at risk.

The silent homeless child is in jeopardy of experiencing a number of school-related problems associated with not only poverty but homelessness as well. Studies indicate that the homeless student’s academic performance is beneath that of a student who has a home. “Results from these studies showed that homeless children experience high rates of grade retention and absenteeism, significant behavior problems, and significantly lower scores on a standardized test of reading and math when compared to all students” (Bowman, 2010, p.11). In the case of homelessness, a child’s wellbeing is at stake, yet Missouri and Illinois rank in the lowest 10% of the states for protecting the wellbeing of a homeless child (Bassuk et al, 2010, p. 33). The student’s ill performance translates to increased dropout rates.

A State report card for Illinois and Missouri schools documented only one in four homeless children graduate from high school. Further statistics indicate that each high school dropout earns $200,000 fewer earnings over their lifetime (Bassuk et al, 2010, p.4). The already struggling economy could use the additional revenue associated with these future earners. These children are ignored even with awareness of the effects of parental mobility on a homeless child’s education. In all cases mobility is a new reality; however, the ability to continue to provide an education to the child can be accomplished with further assistance from school administrators and government funding.

School administrators have been able to assist with some of the resources provided; however, according to the NAEHCY it was still not sufficient to make up for the growing demand (NAEHCY, 2010, p.2). By 2008 the McKinney- Vento fund was depleted. Congress stepped in and provided an additional $70 million in funding. The stimulus funding was a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Even with the additional funding, less than one in five school districts received funds (NAEHCY, 2010, p.2). As the recession continues the schools face greater challenges in supplying each child with an equal education.

Counter Argument

The increase of homeless children in the past several years has been largely attributed to the recession. However, an argument can be made that the increase is the result of a change in legislation by the federal government. In 2002 when congress reenacted the McKinney-Vento Assistance Act, the definition of a homeless child was changed as well. The original definition was from the United States Department of Urban Housing and Development (HUD). The new definition passed by congress now included children who were living in a double occupancy environment. Tom Morgan explained, “…interestingly, because of the new McKinney Vento Act, we count children who are in a temporary housing situation differently now but do not include their parents- who are in the same situation” (Morgan, 2012). These newly defined homeless youths as of 2011 make up 72% of homeless children (Bowman, 2012, 7). Therefore, a conclusion can be made that the large increases are a result of a redefinition in homeless youths versus the economic recession.

Further analysis of the data of the years that followed the redefinition does not corroborate this argument. If the increases were only because of a redefinition that occurred in the year 2002, then they would not have continued to increase every year following. The largest increases in homeless children are in direct correlation with the recession years of 2006 until the present (Bowman, 2012, p.6). The statistics of rising unemployment, and home foreclosures, are too great to ignore. The consequences of the economic crisis were the loss of home by several families. It also should be noted the purpose of the redefinition. It was the federal government’s intention to include children of double occupancy because the youths needed assistance in continuing their education. The federal government changed the definition as recognition of the educational barriers and challenges faced by children and youth experiencing homelessness. The government acknowledged that the sharing of a home did not change the amount of transportation, financial, and emotional burdens that homeless children face. Ignoring a fraction of the homeless children would be concluding that one child’s circumstances are more meaningful than the other, thus contradicting the countries desire to educate every child equally.

The inclusion of this population of homeless children and the recession increased the application by schools for funding. The monumental scope of the problem has brought several new legislative proposals to the government. Congress, currently in recess, has proposed bills H.R. 1253 and S. 571 that amends the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, as well as Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The legislation was brought in response to the lapsing of the AARP funds. These bills provide for the continuation of extra funding of the McKinney Act (Facts About, 2012). However, while a need for new funds is necessary, the funds do not address the source of the problem. Tom Morgan states, “The leading source of homelessness in the US is a lack of affordable housing” (Morgan, 2012).

If the parent of an accompanied homeless child is given easier opportunities for getting a home, then the homeless child will no longer need the resources to assist in their education. The funds could be directly allocated to HUD and assist with a permanent solution to the problem. The recession has further exasperated the gap between supply and demand for affordable housing. ” The dual problem of declining housing stock and increasing rents for existing housing has been exacerbated by a failure of housing assistance programs to keep pace with the need” (Bassuk et al, 2010p.10). The additional funds needed to assist a homeless child with education would be unnecessary if the child was no longer homeless. In order to give an equal education to homeless children, the child needs to be in the same situation as children who have homes.

While there is a need for additional funds to be placed in affordable housing, that problem is a separate issue to educating homeless children. The funds need to continue to be separate. The recession has further exasperated the gap between supply and demand for affordable housing. A homeless youth versus a homeless adult experiences a separate amount of problems. By allocating specific funds to education versus affordable housing, the federal government is investing specifically in problems associated with homeless children’s obstacles to learning.

There is a safeguard of funds associated with the McKinney- Vento Act. In 2002 the legislation was changed to require school districts to appoint a liaison that would ensure that the funds and laws for educating homeless children were implemented correctly (Bowman, 2012, p.8). A family’s inability to provide a home for the child can be due to an array of reasons, including financial, emotional, and even for the safety of the children. It would be impossible and prejudicial for funds to be allocated based on the degree of homelessness; therefore, keeping the funds separate so the assistance in education continues for the length of the problem is the most efficient way to appropriate funds to help the child. Furthermore, the circumstances which left the child homeless are often not within the child’s control, yet he or she is the one whose future is at a greater risk. A child should not have to struggle to sustain their public education. Yet legislators, community residents, school officials, are aware of the struggles as it relates to statistics and finances that affect their community. These children are not merely statistics that are showing up in shelters, tent cities, hotels, and streets.

Jayden is an 8-year-old child suffering from severe asthma and depression, as a result of his homelessness. Jayden’s story began 2 years ago when he and his mother Suzanna moved out of his apartment suddenly. Since Jayden was an infant, he and his mother withstood the physical abuse of Jayden’s father. Suzanna and her four children left for a domestic violence shelter out of fear that Jayden and her safety were in jeopardy. The four lived in various one-room shelters until they left for another state. Jayden’s dismissal living conditions triggered severe asthma attacks, which placed him in the emergency room on several occasions. After two years of homelessness, this is the emotional state that he lives in.

“Jayden feels excluded from the community in which he grew up. Emotionally isolated, he has had difficulty connecting with his peers at school. While Jayden is aware that the search for safety spurred his family’s move, he still longs for the life that he has lost. He blames himself for their presence in the shelter and apologized to his mother for being unable to prevent his father’s violence. Nightmares plague his sleep along with the pervasive fear that his father will return. His ailments interfere with school attendance and homework” (Bassuk et al, 2010, p.4).

Jayden is not just a statistic he and several children like him are the future of America. Jayden’s education is equally important to any other child. His education is dependent upon legislators to provide the resources that he can continue. It is four times more likely for children to fail to complete high school. Many homeless children who are old enough to work feel the need to contribute to the financial burden; therefore, educators struggle to keep children enrolled for the sake of their future. As stated there is a revenue loss the nation for the dropouts, but what about the emotional strain that an uneducated life will bring. Janice Ronan described a 15-year struggle of homelessness in an interview. It started 15 years ago when a decision to not abort her pregnancy left her without a home in Illinois. She dropped out of school in an attempt to support her unborn child.

Janice moved to multiple states living on the streets, with friends, and even in cars. She married the father of her child in California but quickly exited an abusive relationship. Without a diploma, she was unable to find work and gave custody of her child to the father. Her intention was to get her back. Janice moved back to Illinois and her mother assisted her to get a job and become more self-reliant. Janice regained custody and began raising her child when she was 11 years old. Four years ago the recession hit Janice hard. She lost her job, daughter, and home. In the interview, Janice tearfully recalls being in and out of homelessness. When Janice was asked to describe the most difficult moments she responded, “Trying to keep the relationship with Al going while living in a truck and jobless was hard. We would take it out on each other. I can remember one night when he came close to killing me. I stayed with him anyway. We stayed together because of love but found it very hard” (Ronan, J. 2012). Today Janice works a steady job and has an apartment. The strain on her relationship with her daughter has left her estranged. Janice’s daughter is now fifteen, homeless, and has dropped out of school. Her years without two stable parents have been equally painful. Janice was unaware of the assistance that the government had to help her daughter maintain an education. Below is Janice’s response to questions about how her life might have been different with a diploma.

Question: Had you gotten a diploma, how do you think life would be different?

Answer: I am positive things would have been a lot different. First I would have a better job. I think I’d make better decisions and have a clearer outlook on life. I regret not getting it greatly. (Ronan, J., 2012)

Janice and her child are neither a statistic nor the only devastating story of homelessness. There is a new face to homelessness that is sweeping the nation. Janice is correct that according to studies it is likely that the diploma would result in a better job. The uneducated are now competing for jobs with college-educated students. The solution is both in continuing to fund efforts to provide an education to homeless children. Also to raise awareness in parents and educators of the services that are provided.

The approval for new funding must wait until after the congress reconvenes in the New Year. As a nation, we need to get behind the efforts to assist with educating the homeless. First, implore Congress to fully fund the McKinney- Vento Homeless Assistance Act with the $210 million which is proposed. This will ensure that America can provide for homeless children education without bias to circumstances. Secondly, with only one out of five districts currently receiving government funds, local and state governments need to provide a training program for school districts on how to receive funding. Lastly, efforts need to be turned inside the schools to educators. Provide tools for them to be able to locate and support students of homelessness. Educate the person about the trauma of homelessness. Then develop policies and programs that will alleviate some of the obstacles and enhance a child’s ability to learn (State report, 2010, p.13). These policies and funding will help bring America back to a country that provides equal education for all children.

The No Child Left behind Act was put into place to ensure that every child was given an equal education. It is not meant to apply only to children who have a home. Ignoring the fact that homeless children are not receiving the same opportunities as other students is a violation of the laws and morally unsettling. The economic recession is a consequence that millions of Americans have lived with for the past 6 years. It has left Jayden’s family and a growing amount of children without a home. All indications provide that the recession will continue leaving more children struggling with obstacles of receiving an education while lacking adequate nighttime residency. As Janice Ronan experienced, life without a home is extremely difficult. A diploma can lessen that burden and give future earnings to a country that’s economy can use it. Currently, there is legislation that can assist the country to uphold the obligation of educating all children. Unfortunately, the fault and outdated legislation need to be updated to reach the growing needs of children. Educators and administrators need to be able to access funds with ease, otherwise, the funds will continue to reach only a few schools that can understand the procedures. Education for homeless children should not have to be sought out by the parent. Jayden’s mother has pressures that do not need to include how to enroll her children in school, pay the school fees, or transport her children from the various shelters they live in. This is not a problem that can be ignored. The consequences to the country for turning their back on educating homeless children can further devastate an already crippled country.

Bassuk, L. E et al (2010). State Report Card on Child Homelessness: Americas Youngest Outcasts. (2010). The National Center on Family Homelessness, p38, 50. Web.

Boden, P. (2012). McKinney-Vento turns 25; homelessness still grows. For Those Who Can’t Afford Free Speech. Web.

Bowman, D., Dukes, C., & Moore, Jan. (2012). Summary of the state research on the relationship between homelessness and academic achievement. National Center for Homeless Education. Web.

Facts About Homeless Education. (2012). National Association for Education of Homeless Childeren and Youths. Web.

McKibben, S. (2009). Foreclosed: Two Million Homeless Students and Counting. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review , v74 n9 p9-11. 3 pp. Web.

Miller, P. (2011). A Critical Analysis of the Research on Student Homelessness. Review of Educational Research ., Vol. 81 Issue 3, p308-337, 30p. Web.

Morgan, T. (2012) Homelessness: It Isn’t What You Think. Charlotte Review . Web.

NAEHCY (2010). A Critical Moment: Child and Youth Homelessness in Our Nation’s Schools. (2010). National Association for Education of Homeless Children and Youths. Web.

Roark, B. (2012). One Bad Decision [Personal interview].

Ronan, J. (2012). Repeating Homelessness [Personal interview].

Swanson, C. (2010). Graduation by the numbers. Education Week. Web.

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Bibliography

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Homelessness in Idaho

BY Mahwish Moiz . LAST REVISED ON August 20th, 2023 .

Why are people homeless in Idaho? What parts have the greatest problems with homelessness? This article explores both questions and more.

Why are people homeless in Idaho?

Homelessness is a severe social issue in Idaho. At least 9,255 people in the state suffered from homelessness in 2019 . One-third of these homeless people were children , with another 38% suffering from a disability, 14% having survived domestic violence, and 13% holding veteran status. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2,012 people are homeless on any given night statewide. Homelessness in Idaho results from both systemic and social barriers. Poverty, unemployment, rising rent, domestic violence, legal problems, drug abuse, and mental and physical illness are all significant factors.

People living below the poverty line find it difficult to afford housing . Their poor financial condition deprives them of adequate shelter. The asset poverty rate in Idaho is about 20% , which is about one out of every 6.9 Idahoans living in poverty.

Unemployment

Unemployment might be long-term, or it may be a sudden occurrence. Either way, the person suffering from it cannot afford rent or mortgage. The resulting job insecurity leads to housing uncertainty. According to unemployment reports , Idaho’s unemployment rate has recently jumped to 11.5%.

Skyrocketing property costs

The general rise in property prices has made life even more difficult for these people. An increase in urbanization causes an increase in property demand. This is because people move to these urban centers in search of better living standards. But, this also drives prices upward. This makes it difficult for those living below the poverty line to afford housing.

Domestic Violence

Domestic abuse and violence affect people in many ways. One of these is forcing the victims to leave their homes. While they get respite from the abuse, they find themselves on the streets. Returning to their abusive relations is hardly an option. Thus, they end up spending a long time without a decent home. 14% of Idaho’s homeless population in 2019 comprised survivors of domestic abuse.

Legal Problems

Prisoners awaiting trial often end up losing employment and housing, too. They have no choice but to settle for temporary shelters or drop-in centers.

Drug Abuse and Alcoholism

Drug addicts often face expulsion from their homes. Their problems with addiction make them unbearable for their family members. These individuals spend a lot on drugs, which leaves little behind for rent or mortgage. They will usually refuse to seek help with housing, despite their homelessness. Thus, their addiction problems continue without a roof over their heads.

Mental and Physical Illnesses

Victims of mental and physical illnesses face homelessness, too. Their families either can’t bear them or can’t afford treatment for them. Thus, such individuals end up living on the streets as well.

What parts of Idaho have the greatest problems with homelessness?

The most populous cities of Idaho have the biggest problems with homelessness. These include Boise City, Meridian, and Nampa. These urban centers attract people from many parts of the US and from around the world. This results in an increase in demand for essentials, including housing. As property prices skyrocket, the poorer members of society struggle to afford housing. They have no choice but to settle for temporary shelter or even a place on the streets. They will usually make flimsy shelters out of cardboard and plastic. One of the most common sights is people sleeping under bridges and flyovers in these cities. They have to put up with abuse, harassment, and ridicule. With little to no security, they have to bear with it for as long as they can.

What is Idaho doing to help the currently homeless?

Volunteer organizations and social workers play a vital role in helping the homeless. They provide various support and emergency services to those on the streets. Soup kitchens are also common across Idaho. These kitchens are accessible and allow the homeless to have a decent meal. Many charitable groups organize food drives for the homeless. They also distribute blankets and clothes to people living on the streets. Drop-in centers allow the homeless to gain shelter and interact with others like them. Day centers and night shelters provide essential refuge to the homeless as well.

What is Idaho doing to prevent future homelessness?

According to Idaho’s Action Plan to Reduce Homelessness, the state is attempting to focus on developing community-wide programs to meet the needs of its homeless population. This will involve creating drop-in day centers for the chronically homeless and subsidizing healthcare treatment centers. Yet another point of focus will be increasing the number of available housing units, especially for low-income households. Funding will be acquired from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop additional permanent housing units every year. To prevent conditions that result in chronic homelessness,  the state plans to expand outreach efforts to vulnerable people and connect them to essential services like skills training and educational programs.

What measures can the governor implement to end homelessness in Idaho?

The governor can invest in housing for low-income households. There is a need for more affordable housing units for a growing population of homeless people. There is also a need for ‘Housing First’ in Idaho. This is the principle of giving unconditional accommodation to a homeless person up-front. The person can then access other forms of support as well. This differs from expecting a homeless person to ‘qualify’ for housing. This policy guarantees a home for the homeless and gives them a stable base for dealing with other problems. Finland implemented ‘Housing First’ and achieved immense success . In the US, Veterans Affairs has reduced homelessness to a vast extent using this approach.

What can citizens do the help end homelessness in Idaho?

As a citizen, you may not improve homeless lives overnight. But, you can change your attitudes for the better.

For starters, every citizen must make it a point to empathize with homeless people. We must not be wary of greeting them or engaging with them. We must acknowledge their existence as worthy human beings.

It is also possible to prepare special care packages for the homeless. These could include food, water, and clothes that will help them get through another day. Volunteering at drop-in centers, food banks, or local shelters will also have an impact. Not only will it allow you to help the homeless, but it will also make it easier for you to empathize with them.

You can make donations to charities or programs geared towards ending homelessness . Such programs need all the funds they can get to have a positive impact on the lives of the homeless. Even a paltry amount donated by you can go a long way in helping the needy.

You could also consider becoming an advocate for the homeless. This can include educating people about the plight of the homeless. You can also fight for the rights of those who face constant harassment. By raising awareness like this, you can improve the lives of the homeless.

If I am homeless in Idaho, who can help me?

Social workers and NGOs can help you. They can guide you to drop-in centers, soup kitchens, and other helpful places. If you struggle with addiction, they may also help you with rehab. They can even help you find a decent place to live for the long term. It is easy to find them via the Internet or by asking around.

further reading

This article focused exclusively on homelessness in idaho. What it focused little to none on, however, is is it illegal to sleep outside?...

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IS IT ILLEGAL TO SLEEP OUTSIDE??

Read " Is it Illegal to Sleep Outside? - if you are homeless: yes ."

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key takeaways

• Poverty, unemployment, rising rent, domestic violence, legal problems, old age, and mental and physical illness are all responsible for homelessness in Idaho
• Populous cities like Boise and Nampa face the greatest problems with homelessness
• NGOs and social workers help the homeless with emergency shelters, services, jobs, and rehab
• The state plans to end homelessness by investing in community-wide programs for the homeless, increasing the number of available housing units, and expanding outreach to vulnerable people
• The governor must fund more affordable housing units and invest in ‘Housing First’
• You can help the homeless by spreading awareness and advocating for their rights
• As a homeless person, you can seek help from relevant NGOs and social workers

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EU slaps sanctions on Russian justice officials blamed for jailing Alexei Navalny

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The European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on the Russian justice and prison officials responsible for imprisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny before his death last month.

“Alexei Navalny’s slow killing by the Kremlin regime is a stark reminder of its utter disregard for human life,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement announcing the move.

Borrell said the sanctions, which target 33 officials and two prisons and involve asset freezes and travel bans, “demonstrate our determination to hold Russia’s political leadership and authorities to account for the continuing violation of the human rights in Russia.”

Navalny, the most persistent foe of President Vladimir Putin , was serving a 19-year sentence when he died. He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

The cause of his Feb. 16 death has been described by officials only as due to natural causes.

The EU said that its measures would hit the IK-6 corrective colony and IK-3 maximum security corrective colony, including the official in charge Vadim Kalinin, where Navalny had been held before his death.

“Both colonies are known for exerting physical and psychological pressure, full isolation, torture and violence on prisoners. In both places Mr. Navalny suffered abuses, including through repeated solitary confinement in a punishment cell and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, leading to the severe deterioration of his health,” it said.

Justice officials targeted by the EU measures include Andrey Suvorov, who last year sentenced Navalny to 19 years in a special regime colony, and Kirill Nikiforov, who rejected Navalny’s lawsuit against IK-6 to appeal his transfer to a punishment cell for 12 days. It’s unclear whether the officials traveled to or through EU countries or had significant assets in Europe.

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Public Workers Joined Ring That Stole IDs of Homeless People, D.A. Says

Eighteen people, including nine New York City public employees, were charged with joining a conspiracy that made ghost guns and defrauded a state Covid relief program.

By Christopher Maag

Eighteen people, including nine public employees, engaged in a broad criminal conspiracy that included the manufacture of ghost guns, burglary and defrauding a state pandemic relief program, according to four indictments filed Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney.

The defendants include five employees of New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, a worker for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, an employee of the New York City Housing Authority and a school safety police officer.

The Homeless Services workers were involved in a scheme to steal the personal information of homeless people to file for fraudulent benefits, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said.

“This kind of conduct by our public servants is unacceptable and, we allege, criminal,” Mr. Bragg said at a news conference on Thursday.

The investigation began in 2022 with suspicions that two people were using 3-D printers to manufacture ghost guns — untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home — in an apartment in the East Village. Evidence uncovered after the execution of a search warrant confirmed that Craig Freeman, 56, and another defendant had used eBay and Amazon to purchase machines and materials to build illegal guns in their homes. Both were employees of the Barbara Kleiman homeless shelter in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In the summer of 2022, Mr. Freeman got a text message from a co-defendant saying, “We can make some serious bank.”

When the guns were ready, the defendants texted each other pictures of the finished products, Mr. Bragg said. Mr. Freeman and the other defendant, whose name was not released, were charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon.

The evidence search uncovered a broader scheme, in which five city workers, including Mr. Freeman, used their jobs at the Department of Homeless Services to steal the personal information of homeless people. With this information, they filed 170 false applications to receive money from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, operated by the State Department of Labor, Mr. Bragg said.

The scam succeeded for a time, and the state mailed bank cards directly to the defendants’ homes. To minimize their risk of exposure, the scammers eventually moved their addresses to a location on the Upper East Side, where they enlisted Sabur Khalifah, 43, a letter carrier with the Postal Service, to pluck the envelopes from the mail and deliver them to the leaders of the conspiracy, Mr. Bragg said.

The fraud netted $1.2 million. Eventually, members of the group came to disagree about how the money would be divided, and some believed that one of the ringleaders had withheld thousands of dollars in proceeds and was keeping the money in a safe in his apartment. Two people, including Sameera Roberts Baker, 34, broke into the ringleader’s home, Mr. Bragg said. The other burglar has not yet been indicted, he said.

Charde Baker, 35, was a leader of the scheme to defraud the pandemic relief fund, Mr. Bragg said. She worked for the Department of Homeless Services, and used her employment there to steal the identities of homeless people, he said. She used money from the fraud to fund two trips to Mexico and another to Tanzania, Mr. Bragg said.

As the scammers filled out applications for bank cards, they discussed different professions they could list for the homeless people they were impersonating. In a text, an unnamed co-defendant told Ms. Baker in September 2020 that she had described a homeless person as a freelance writer, which she hoped “wasn’t cliché” according to the indictment.

A month later, a defendant named Shanice Roberts, 30, texted Mr. Baker to suggest they describe someone as a hairstylist. “Put suttin good so bread can be split 3 ways,” Ms. Roberts wrote.

As investigators closed in, the conspirators also took steps to suppress evidence, Mr. Bragg said. After one person was arrested, that defendant texted another, “throw it out the window…bro…throw it out,” referring to ghost gun parts and manufacturing equipment.

The recipient, a defendant named Adrienne Manigault, 25, texted back, “I did.”

The sprawling scheme included members who conspired on some elements but not on others, Mr. Bragg said. In a spate of crimes that involved illegally manufactured guns, identity theft, defrauding the government and burglary, Mr. Bragg said, “We have street crimes and white collar crime intertwined,” describing an increasingly common pattern. “We see a clear link between those engaging in violent crimes and traditional white-collar fraud at the same time.”

Christopher Maag is an enterprise reporter covering the New York City region for The New York Times. More about Christopher Maag