Homelessness as a Long-Standing Problem in US

Homelessness
Student's Name
Department Affiliation, University Affiliation
Course Number: Course Name
Instructor's Name
Assignment Due Date
Homelessness
Homelessness has been a long-standing problem in the US over the years. There has been a surge in homeless people spending their nights on the streets in recent years. The rising numbers of homeless people across the country have ignited a debate over the need to find lasting solutions to the menace. The various causes of homelessness have been well documented in the extant literature, including government reports. Among the many causes of homelessness include massive unemployment, poverty, lack of affordable housing, domestic violence, and drug and substance abuse, among many others. This shows that homelessness is a major social problem whose effects can be felt by everyone in the city and not just those spending their nights on the streets. Homelessness predisposes individuals to a wide range of problems, including unfair laws and regulations and injustice. Therefore, it is important to develop implementable solutions that can help resolve the problem to make cities habitable for everyone. The nature, causes, impact, and solutions to the growing cases of homelessness have been widely explored in contemporary social work literature. This paper reviews some of these works by Wasilewska-Ostrowska, (2020), Yoshioka-Maxwell (2020), and Zufferey (2011). Based on the review and analysis of these peer-reviewed articles, it can be argued that some of the major strategies that can be implemented to address the problem of homelessness include opening up more access to affordable housing, harm reduction, and the coordination of comprehensive care.
The first article was written by Katarzyna Wasilewska-Ostrowska. Wasilewska-Ostrowska is a professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. She teaches at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, where her interests primarily include social work, youth pedagogy, care, and educational pedagogy. She has conducted several research studies on various social issues, including social problems that youths and families face today. In her article titled, "Social work with a person in the crisis of homelessness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland," published in the International Social Work, she looks at the challenges that homeless people face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative article highlights some of the challenges that social workers face when working with these marginalized groups of individuals in society. Many people on the streets are middle-aged people who have a lot of potentials to offer to the county in terms of socio-economic growth (Wasilewska-Ostrowska, 2020). When the county's authorities put in place relevant strategies for tapping on this potential, there will be massive economic growth due to utilizing human capital. That is being wasted on the streets due to a lack of opportunities. Financial inclusion entails creating opportunities where the homeless can find employment or become entrepreneurs to create more job opportunities for others from the streets (Wasilewska-Ostrowska, 2020). If the county is to grow exponentially in terms of its economic prospects, th...