Family Homelessness in Mass or in America Term Paper

Total Length: 867 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

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Family homelessness has emerged as a serious global problem and over the last twenty-five years the make-up of the homeless population has changed significantly in the United States (Swick Pp). The majority of the homeless were men in the early 1980's, however, today, families make up thirty percent of the homeless population, and some scholars suggest that families may constitute up to forty to fifty percent of the homeless (Swick Pp).

The United States federal government defines homeless individuals as those lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, or those who have a primary nighttime residence that is:

*a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations

(including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);

*an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or *a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings (Swick Pp).

Regarding children and youth, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act, Section 725, as cited in 1999 National Coalition for the Homeless states homeless children and youths are those individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes those children and youths who are

*sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;

are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting foster care placement;

*children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings

*children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and *migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses above (Swick Pp).

The landscape of homelessness continues to change because many families are not technically defined as homeless, yet they have all the attributes of being homeless (Swick Pp). For example, among chronically poor families, it is common to double or triple-up with each other in order to survive financially (Swick Pp).

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Women and children now represent up to one-half of the homeless population in most cities and when families with older children and adolescents are included in the count, over fifty percent of the homeless population is families (Swick Pp).

Homelessness continues to exist as a consequence of numerous….....

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"Family Homelessness In Mass Or In America" (2004, November 18) Retrieved June 6, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/family-homelessness-mass-america-60144

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"Family Homelessness In Mass Or In America" 18 November 2004. Web.6 June. 2026. <
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Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

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"Family Homelessness In Mass Or In America", 18 November 2004, Accessed.6 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/family-homelessness-mass-america-60144