essay homelessness unemployment

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.

• Social Issues

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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Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems Coursework

The underlying reasons for homelessness arise from numerous social and economic sources such as poverty caused by unemployment or poor paying jobs, a deficit of affordable housing and the lack of services for those who suffer from domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse. It is these and other factors that contribute to homelessness, a condition that is seldom a choice for people who must live outside the comfort and security of a home environment. It is difficult to think that people would choose this lifestyle purposely, making it necessary to investigate why and what kind of people might become homeless.

Thanks to recent public awareness campaigns by private and government agencies such as the National Coalition for the Homeless and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development respectively, long-standing societal stereotypes of the homeless are gradually evaporating. Images of creatively clothed white-bearded old men leaning against an alley wall clutching a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag have morphed into ideas of a family living in their car or a single mother and her children living in a shelter. More and more people are becoming homeless every day and it is primarily families or single mothers with young children who suffer the most.

It is a misconception that most homeless persons actually prefer that horrific lifestyle after having adjusted to it. Most people without a home certainly would not choose to live this way another day if they had an alternative. Another common fallacy regarding the homeless is that they made poor decisions in their past and therefore deserve their homeless condition. In addition to the large percentage of children that are homeless and couldn’t possibly be held accountable for their situation, many others are victims of their circumstances as well. Some veterans suffer from mental and physical disabilities resulting from combat and cannot maintain a ‘normal’ existence.

Others were abused as children or raised in homelessness and have no idea just how to break the cycle. Still others fell victims to the addiction of drugs and alcohol which decimated their working and family life. Some have become ‘unemployable’ for various reasons or can find only menial jobs after being laid-off from a high paying position. Finally, those who have lost their jobs due to downsizing and cannot find new jobs because of a glut on the market have no choice but are instead pushed into homelessness despite their best efforts.

The reasons why some of these people might have become homeless are different depending on whether they are men or women. Men are usually brought to a homeless condition as the result of unemployment while women usually find themselves in this condition as a means of escaping abuse. Other than family violence and to a lesser extent unemployment, the differences between the stated causes for homelessness are statistically equal for men and women. A similar segment of both genders cited drug and alcohol abuse, prolonged illnesses or disabilities and reaching the limits of federal assistance for their homelessness to the same degree.

Health issues, both physical and psychological, often negatively affect a homeless person’s re-entry into society. Health care services for the homeless are fundamentally inadequate. Persons without homes seldom possess credit cards or even have bank accounts and do not have any other means of securing any earnings they might have acquired, enabling them to save up for some form of shelter. They carry cash in a harsh environment where violence is common. The effects of this financial segregation are not only socially disgraceful for the homeless person, but the powerlessness that people feel when they cannot open a bank account acts as not only a psychological, but physical barrier as well to securing employment or any other type of normalcy in their lives.

Those that are homeless have numerous, multifaceted needs, particularly if they have been forced to sleep outside during their ordeal. Readjustment back into ‘normal’ society following time spent in the armed services or prison is more difficult for some than others.

• Chicago (A-D)
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IvyPanda. (2022, June 12). Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homelessness-social-and-economic-problems/

"Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems." IvyPanda , 12 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/homelessness-social-and-economic-problems/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems'. 12 June.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems." June 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homelessness-social-and-economic-problems/.

1. IvyPanda . "Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems." June 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homelessness-social-and-economic-problems/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems." June 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/homelessness-social-and-economic-problems/.

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Unemployment and Homelessness

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

Why are people unemployed and homeless? If you are jobless and on the streets who can help? This article explores both questions and more.

Unemployment is one of the leading causes of homelessness around the world. Unemployment happens because of a lack of employable skills or because of intense competition in the marketplace. Many people have healthy jobs until an unfortunate occurrence like downsizing or closure of business strips them of their employment. It is worth noting that employment doesn’t necessarily translate into homelessness. An unemployed person could still hold down a house, while an employed person could find himself living in a tent city .

Why are people unemployed and homeless?

While unemployment doesn’t necessarily cause homelessness, there is a strong correlation between the two. Many unemployed people are homeless because of a lack of financial resources to fund their accommodation needs. This rings true when you consider the skyrocketing property prices around us, especially in urban cities. If a person can’t earn enough to keep up with the rise in rent and other utility costs, they will either be evicted or forced to give up their home.

While homeless people can find employment, it can be difficult. Homelessness makes it difficult for individuals to invest in skills training, for instance. It also makes it tough to commute to the workplace regularly or be punctual.

There is also the stigma associated with being homeless. Participants in a study reported the shame they experienced when giving their shelter’s address to an employer.

Other factors behind continuous unemployment for homeless people include lack of educational opportunities, disabilities, and substance abuse . The result is that for some unemployed people, going into homelessness means slipping further down the unemployment hole with little chance of getting out.

Unemployment and homelessness statistics

Unemployment is a prime factor behind homelessness in the US. Here are some interesting statistics to consider:

• The national unemployment rate has been 5.75 percent , on average, between 1948 and 2020
• The highest unemployment rate has been 14.7 percent in April earlier this year, while the lowest was 2.5 percent back in May 1953
• Approximately 553,742 people were experiencing homelessness on any given night as of January 2017, or about 17 people per every 10,000 people in the general population
• 20 percent of participants were employed either full-time or part-time
• 45 percent of participants were unemployed and looking for jobs at the time
• 8 percent of respondents claimed to have received remuneration for work over the past year
• 64 percent of participants had been experiencing homelessness for over a year
• Over 75% of people who earn between 30% and 50% of their area’s average median income are rent-burdened

What can the government do to prevent unemployment and homelessness?

The most straightforward way in which the government can prevent unemployment is to ensure that the number of employment opportunities can keep up with the demand for employers nationwide. This can come about by reducing barriers to entry associated with employment. For instance, the number and scope of scholarships for attending universities can be increased. Investing in education and skills training programs will ensure that more people can avail of high-level jobs. Startups and small businesses employ people with a range of skills and often require little or no experience.

The government can fund the creation of a healthy startup environment to foster job opportunities. Regarding solving homelessness, the government needs to increase the number of available and affordable housing units. When the demand for low-income housing isn’t met, people have no choice but to settle for homelessness. It doesn’t have to be that way, and a focus on affordable housing units can change that.

There is also a need for ‘Housing First’ across the US. 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. You don’t have to be in the government to help unemployed and homeless people, though. You can still make a difference for them as regular citizens. 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 you are unemployed and homeless, who can help

If you are a homeless person suffering from unemployment, you have a few options. Your first move should be to check in with employment programs in your community. You can find out more about them by asking around or searching them up on the Internet. You may also reach out to social workers and relevant NGOs. They will help you get in touch with potential employers who might be interested in availing of your services.

further reading

This article focused exclusively on unemployment and homelessness. What it focused little to none on, however, is sleeping in your car...

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Read " Sleeping in Your Car - how to do it without getting arrested or dying ."

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other helpful resources

• " Understanding Homelessness Articles ." This page is an excellent next stop because it offers dozens of other interesting articles related to understanding homelessness.
• " Veterans and Homelessness ." Why are so many veterans homeless? How do they become homeless? This article answers both these questions and more!
• " List of Tent Cities in America ." Why are tent cities allowed in the U.S.? Where are they in the country? This article explores 27 tent cities in America.
• " Why is Homelessness a Social Problem? " Homelessness is a social problem because it affects other people. This article explores the 4 reasons homelessness impacts society.
• " Poverty and Homelessness ." How does poverty cause homelessness? What are the top 5 most impoverished cities in the world? This article answers both and more!
• " Cities That Have Solved Homelessness ." What cities have the smallest homeless population? What have each of these cities done to solve homelessness? Read this to find out!
• " Homeless with a Job ." When you work full time and cant even afford to pay the rent, something is terribly wrong. This article explores being homeless with a job.
• " Why do Families Become Homeless? " Over half a billion people are homeless worldwide. About 30% of them are families with children. How do families become homeless?
• " Why Are Most People Homeless? " Do most homeless people choose to be homeless or are they victims of circumstance? This article explores why most people are homeless.
• " Why Are Homeless People Mentally Ill? " What makes the homeless mentally ill? This article explores 8 common reasons why homeless people are mentally ill.

key takeaways

• Homelessness is a severe social issue prevalent across the world that affects all kinds of people
• Homelessness occurs when people lack safe, adequate, and stable places to live in
• One of the leading causes of homelessness is unemployment
• We can define unemployment as the state of being unable to have a job
• Unemployed people become homeless because of an inability to fund their accommodation needs
• Homeless people might stay unemployed because of many barriers, including the lack of education, skills training, inability to commute regularly and be punctual, and substance abuse
• Government can reduce unemployment by investing in more employment programs, reducing barriers to education and skills training, and fostering a healthy business environment
• Homelessness can be reduced by creating more affordable housing units and by investing in ‘Housing First’
• Even as a regular citizen, you can help homeless people by spreading awareness and advocating for their rights
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First, the gap between rich and poor will widen. According to a report by CNN, “The gap between rich and poor could get even wider." This is important because, it will make the poor poorer and the rich richer. The reasoning behind this is it will make the poorer people with less education have trouble getting a job, and people who are rich and have a good education get jobs that require more advanced thinking.

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Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow

• Reflective Essay
• Published: 10 September 2019
• Volume 1 , pages 233–247, ( 2019 )

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The twenty-first century is the era when populations of cities will exceed rural communities for the first time in human history. The population growth of cities in many countries, including those in transition from planned to market economies, is putting considerable strain on ecological and natural resources. This paper examines four central issues: (a) the challenges and opportunities presented through working in jurisdictions where there are no official or established methods in place to guide regional, ecological and landscape planning and design; (b) the experience of the author’s practice—Gillespies LLP—in addressing these challenges using techniques and methods inspired by McHarg in Design with Nature in the Russian Federation in the first decade of the twenty-first century; (c) the augmentation of methods derived from Design with Nature in reference to innovations in technology since its publication and the contribution that the art of landscape painters can make to landscape analysis and interpretation; and (d) the application of this experience to the international competition and colloquium for the expansion of Moscow. The text concludes with a comment on how the application of this learning and methodological development to landscape and ecological planning and design was judged to be a central tenant of the winning design. Finally, a concluding section reflects on lessons learned and conclusions drawn.

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The politics of designing with nature: reflections from New Orleans and Dhaka

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The landscape team from Gillespies Glasgow Studio (Steve Nelson, Graeme Pert, Joanne Walker, Rory Wilson and Chris Swan) led by the author and all our collaborators in the Capital Cities Planning Group.

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Evans, B.M. Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow. Socio Ecol Pract Res 1 , 233–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00031-5

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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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Family of four faces homelessness as single mother struggles to get unemployment

A mid new software rollout and communication delays within the Oregon Employment Department, a single mother and her family have been served with an eviction notice and are facing homelessness after waiting months for her unemployment claim to get processed.  

"We don't really have anywhere else to go, it's just been me, it's always just been me," said Wilsonville resident, Chendara Spencer. 

She had been working full-time as a customer support lead for an online therapy company for three years before losing her job in December. She filed a claim for unemployment insurance in January and then waited roughly eight weeks for the Employment Department to go through the processes of determining eligibility. 

In February, Spencer received a letter instructing her to report to a Worksource office to complete tasks needed to move her claim forward. 

"I don't drive so getting transportation is difficult for me so it took a bit to finally get transportation available and I was able to go into the Worksource office in Oregon City," she said noting that she was able to make it to the office on Feb 23rd. 

The Department was closed to customers and was not processing claims from Feb 27th-March 4th while it migrated to a new computer system. 

Spencer said since then her claim has been showing "suspended." She said the letter she received did not indicate why her claim was suspended but said when she calls she is told she reported being away from her job market. 

It's an error several claimants have been calling and emailing KATU about. According to claimants, they never indicated being away from their job market. 

The Employment Department's director David Gerstenfeld has stated multiple times that this is an issue on the users' part and is not the result of a software or code error. 

Spencer has received some rental assistance but it's not enough to cover the two months of back rent she owes. Her eviction court date is at the end of April and she doesn't have friends or family to help. 

She supports her two daughters who are seven and ten years old and has another child on the way. She also supports her mother who quit her own job to move in with her and help take care of her grandchildren. 

Spencer said she is not asking for a handout and is more than willing to work. She said she has been looking for work and fulfilling all of the weekly claim requirements. 

While working full-time she has also been pursuing her bachelors online. She said she wants to become a licensed clinical therapist because "there are not enough BIPOC therapists out there." 

Statement from the Oregon Employment Department:

We understand that many of our customers are coming to us at a difficult time, including some in especially urgent circumstances.

For this reason, we have an internal escalation form that all OED staff have access to.

Any time a customer interacts with OED, their claim could be escalated using this form. This includes calling the UI Contact Center, sending us a message through their Frances Online account or the Contact Us form, or visiting a Work Source Oregon center.

Escalations are directed to a specialist according to the specific nature of the issue. For instance, we have staff who specialize in overpayments or adjudication, so cases are escalated to staff who have the experience and expertise to address the issue.

Customers do not have to contact the media to have their claim escalated. The method we recommend, if they have set up their Frances Online account, is to log in and send us a message. If they don’t have a Frances Online account, we recommend using the Contact Us form at unemployment.oregon.gov. We ask that customers send only one message about a particular issue because we must review each message even if their issue has already been resolved.