|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
According to Webster’s Dictionary, Homelessness [is] the condition of not having a permanent home or place to live. Based on figures provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services, over 700,000 men, women, and children go homeless each night in the United States. Recent evidence confirms that homelessness among families is increasing at an alarming rate. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), “A survey of 25 U.S. cities found that in 2000, families with children accounted for 36% of the homeless population (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2000), with requests for emergency shelter by families with children increasing an average of 17% from the previous year.” However, the numbers are misleading, because there are no accurate means to account for the number of homeless people and families in our country. Most studies are limited to counting people who are in public housing, people living in shelters or people living in make-shift housing on the street. There are homeless people unaccounted for, referred to as “hidden” homeless or “the unsheltered.” These people stay in campgrounds, in cars, under bridges, or in places difficult to locate. In order to understand who the homeless are, I had to remove myself from the comforts of my home…away from my safe, cozy, clean and stable home…away from friends and family. In order to relate with the homeless and these people displaced from society, I had to visually place myself at the Martinique Hotel with Jonathan Kozol, the author of Rachel and Her Children. The Martinique Hotel is located at the intersection of Sixth Avenue, Broadway and 32nd Street in what is considered the theater district of New York. One block east is 5th Avenue, where New York’s affluent reside and shop among the trendy and posh shops. The hotel is one among several hotels in New York allocated to house the homeless. Kozol spent several months among the homeless. He illustrates in his book, through first-hand, actual interviews, the horrific and degrading living conditions families are forced to live in. Families are forced to live in rat and roach infested rooms without a heating or cooling unit. Some live in rooms seeping in raw sewage. Most do not have the luxury of a refrigerator, a stove in the room or running hot water. Children are gravely ill from lead poisoning from chipped paint from the decaying walls. The children ingest the paint chips, which they mistaken for food. In most cases, fathers are not permitted to live in the hotel with their families. Kozol dismantles the stereotypic account of what is wrong with welfare recipients (too lazy to work, mentally ill and uneducated). There are actual accounts and a history of people held captive by a welfare system that would rather pay the private sector $1,900-$3,200, per month to house them in anguish rather than give them perhaps a third of that amount to seek clean and decent housing and give them an opportunity to gain back their dignity.
Approximate Word count = 1842
Approximate Pages = 7.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|