Homelessness
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Homelessness refers to the condition of people who do not have a house or apartment to stay in. The term "homelessness" also includes people who sleep in homeless shelters, or in abandoned buildings, parking garages, or other places not meant for humans to live in.
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[change] Other names
The term used to describe homeless people in academic articles and government reports is "homeless people". Popular slang terms include: vagrant, tramp, hobo (U.S.), transient, bum (U.S.), bagman/bagwoman, or the wandering poor.
In different languages, the terms for a homeless person are:
- Britain: "rough sleeper" (person who sleeps "in the rough" i.e. outdoors)
- Spanish: "persona sin hogar", (person without a home) , "sin techo" o "sintecho" (person without roof above)
- French: "sans domicile fixe" (SDF, without a fixed domicile)
- German: "obdachlos" (without a roof above)
- Italian: "senzatetto" (without a roof)
- Portuguese: "sem-teto" (without a roof) or "Pessoa sem abrigo" (person without a shelter)
- Polish, Russian, Slovene: "bezdomny", "бездомный", or in more frequent use, "бомж", standing for without fixed place of living (без опрделенного место жительства), "brezdomec" respectively (without a house)
[change] Health care
Health care for the homeless is a major public health challenge. Homeless people are more likely to suffer injuries and medical problems from their lifestyle on the street. Skin diseases and conditions abound, because homeless people are exposed to extreme cold in the winter and they have little access to bathing. Homeless people also have much more severe dental problems than the general population.
[change] Main causes
The major reasons and causes for homelessness as documented by many reports and studies include:
- Lack of affordable housing
- Low paying jobs
- Substance abuse and lack of needed services
- Mental illness and lack of needed services
- Domestic violence
- Unemployment
- Irresponsible life style
- Poverty
- Prison release and re-entry into society
- Change and cuts in public assistance
- Natural Disaster
[change] Developing and undeveloped countries
The number of homeless people worldwide has grown steadily in recent years. In some Third World nations such as Brazil, India, Nigeria, and South Africa, homelessness is rampant, with millions of children living and working on the streets. Homelessness has become a problem in the cities of China, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
[change] History
In the sixteenth century in England, the state first tried to give housing to vagrants instead of punishing them. In the eighteenth century, these were replaced by workhouses. These were later replaced by dormitory housing ("spikes"). By the 1930s in England, there were 30,000 people living in these facilities.
In most countries, many towns and cities had an area which contained the poor, transients, and afflicted, such as a "skid row". In smaller towns, there were hobos, who temporarily lived near train tracks and hopped onto trains to various destinations. Many places where people were once allowed freely to loiter, or purposefully be present, such as churches, public libraries and public atriums, became more strict as the homeless population grew larger.
In the 1980s, in the United States, some federal legislation was introduced for the homeless as a result of the work of Congressman Stewart B. McKinney. In 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was enacted. Several organisations in some cities, such as New York and Boston, tried to be inventive about help to the swelling number of homeless people.
[change] Homelessness in the popular media
Popular films
- 1966. Cathy Come Home at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) - An influential film by Ken Loach which raised the profile of homelessness in the UK and led indirectly to the formation of several charities and changes in legislation.
- 1986. Down and Out in Beverly Hills at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- 1991. Life Stinks at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- 1994. With Honors at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- 1997. La Vendedora de Rosas at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- 2003. Homeless to Harvard: the Liz Murray Story at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- see Liz Murray
- 2006. The Pursuit of Happyness at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) - the story of Chris Gardner
Books
- 2005 Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (With Kids) in America by Michelle Kennedy
Documentary films
- 1985. Streetwise at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- follows homeless Seattle youth.
- 1997. The Street: A Film with the Homeless at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- about the Canadian homeless in Montreal. New York Times Review,
- 2000 Dark Days at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- A film following the lifes of homeless adults living in the Amtrak tunnels in New York.
- 2001 Children Underground at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- Following the lifes of homeless children in Bucharest, Romania.
- 2003. À Margem da Imagem at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- about the homeless in São Paulo, Brazil. Its English title is "On the Fringes of São Paulo: Homeless".
- 2004. Homeless in America at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- 2005 Children of Leningradsky at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- About homeless children in Moscow.
- 2005 Reversal of Fortune at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- Explores what a homeless who is given $100,000 and is free to do with it whatever he wishes.
- 2007 Easy Street -- about the homeless in Florida.
TV documentaries
- 1988. Home Sweet Homeless at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Visual Arts
- 2005. Photographic expose by Michel Mersereau entitled "Between The Cracks"
