The Homeless

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The Homeless

Homelessness is a very large problem that America has come to face with. Millions of people, including
children, families, babies, veterans, and the elderly live day by day without food, water, a roof over their
head, or love. People that are mentally ill also have to tough it out on the streets, which can be very
confusing to them, and dangerous to us. This problem must be solved soon, because it's not getting better
fast enough.
    People have not always had to suffer with homelessness. Though the problem has almost always
existed, it had not reached a severe level until the early 1970's. With every war there has been a small
trickle of homeless veterans to follow, but the Vietnam war and Korean war left a wave of many people
without anywhere to go. This was just the start of the problem. Many homeless people lived in places
called Skid Row. A place with cheap bars, entertainment, and very cheap housing in buildings called SROs,
or Single Room Occupancy. They could be rented from .50 to .90 cents a night. Then cities started to
grow, and in the mid 1970s One million SROs were replaced with parking lots, buildings and apartments.
Skid Row eventually vanished. Then the government decided to decriminalize drunkenness, loitering, and
vagrancy. That means there were a great many homeless people that would normally be arrested under
these conditions, still roaming the streets. Women and children started to f!
ilter in to the homeless scene, and then in ...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 09-10-08 10:59am
Category: Science
Words: 1061
Pages: 4.24