The predominant trigger of families of homelessness in NYC is a shortage of affordable housing and immediate consequences such as evictions and overcrowded housing. Other causes are domestic violence, job loss, and dangerous and hazardous living conditions. NYC there are many adults who suffer from mental illness and addiction disorders and mostly other severe health defects and issues (Burt, 2010).
NYC has seen a major rise in cases of homeless especially by children in 2014 and 2015 especially due to lack of affordable housing crisis (Libal, 2015). Effects of Bloomberg era of elimination of housing for the homeless families and children. The State has failed in the area where it refused to act quickly to restore desperately needed permanent housing resources for families with children.
The state in NYC is opposed to efforts to enhance rental housing and assistance for families without housing and in turn, it has proposed an inadequate housing plan that has not solved the problem. Homelessness has had a huge effect on African Americans due to racial and ethnic inequality where they end up lacking jobs. However, the most severe impact that homelessness has placed is on children and families.
Empirical Data
New york has experienced homelessness for a very long time. People in Newyork have the chance that they either have been homeless or know someone who is homeless or have shared a sidewalk with a person who is homeless. The city has 8.4 million people where more than 52,000 are homeless men, women, and children sleep in the shelter for the homeless. More than 32,000 homeless people sleep in subways and the streets. These numbers show that in every 152 residents of New York 1 is homeless (Alterman, 2015).
As of 2015 homelessness was had hit especially to children. The Coalition State of the Homeless 2015 established that children are the most hit by homelessness in NYC. Analysis established that one in every 43 NYC children spent a night in the municipal shelter and NYC has 2.3 % of its city population are under 18 years (Alterman, 2015). I have 17 African American kids and 1 in 34 Latino kids, were children who were homeless.6.0 percent of NYC African American population are under the age of 18 years.2.9 percent of this used NYC shelters that were compared to 1 in 368 white children that amounts to 0.3 percent (Libal, 2015).
The number of homeless children in shelters in NYC increased by 12 percent whereby it reached 25,459 children by January 2015. By January 2015, the number of homeless families soared by 14 percent, hitting 14,524. The number of single adults that slept each night in the shelters rose by 12 percent to 12, 724 by January 2015, which included both women and men (Alterman, 2015). Shelters for homeless families with children generally declined by 1 percent in the past year of 2014.In 2015, the number of children in the shelters stayed there for more than 432 days especially in January (Libal, 2015).
It is estimated that 1 in 72 NYC families spend at least one night in the municipal shelter and 1 in 31 African American families use the system. The Capital that story tracker released a report in 2015 stating the state of homelessness in NYC. It called on the government to deal with the state of homelessness sin NYC. It reported that 116,000 people inclusive of 42,000 children stayed at the city shelter, and this number included African American (Libal, 2015).
A report carried out in 2015 by Newyork municipality established that homeless mothers in NYC have experienced domestic violence (Libal, 2015). One in five parents who are homeless has been in foster care when they were children. It is estimated that 90% of homeless people are black and Latinos, but it is good to note that 53% of people in New York are black or Latino. The homeless have been in New York since the 1800 until today, but the number keeps growing day by day due to high standards of living and poverty lives in the city.
Statistics shows that a large majority of homeless people in NYC live with mental disorders where four out five are men. NYC unsheltered homeless population is located in the central business district of Manhattan where 60% live there permanently (McAllister, 2010). In NYC, the homeless shelter population has risen in the past year that is 2014 where it increased by 13 percent averagely using nightly census of 60,670 people in 2015 January.
Discussion and Debate
There has been debate whether the government should help the homeless or not in New York. Many have argued that it should help most families who live in the streets have mental disabilities, and, therefore, cannot be able to work for their families and they need medical services to enable them to make a living.
New Yorkers have experienced a widened gap between rents and incomes. This affordability gap affects the poor and low-income earners in NYC. Between the year 2011 and 2014 monthly apartments for rent were at $1,000 in 2014 and 2015 medium apartments rent went high by 3.4 % due to inflation (Alterman, 2015).
Some people may view helping the homeless as using resources of the government badly instead of redirecting such resources to other areas or different projects. However the homeless have their rights and freedoms that must be guaranteed .Therefore, the government of America should ensure that every citizen of New York has proper shelter that is those that sleep on sidewalks and subways are taken to the shelter or provided with affordable housing facilities.
The most issue that led to homelessness in NYC is poor policies by the former mayor and the state failed to reverse quickly and act with the flawed Bloomberg–era policies. This policy had established that there would be an elimination of all permanent housing assistance that was to help the homeless who had children and children, in general. Under this policy, the City increased the rate of homelessness families to around 3,000 families in every night cluster, and this represented one-quarter of homeless children (Furgang, 2014).
The current mayor upon taking office pledged to reverse the failed policies of the previous state and address homelessness (Furgang, 2014). This is where the current mayor in 2014 introduced the new rental assistance programs that would help the homeless. However, there are policy disputes with governors of NYC administration where it refused to approve the new programs for the rental assistance programs.
The implementation of the rental assistance programs was also hampered by private property owners who stated that the state imposed rent were low, and they felt flawed by the Bloomberg –era programs. Due to such delays and inadequate allocation of resources in the city, the city was only able to move only 1,000 homeless families including children to permanent housing facilities (Furgang, 2014).
Policy Formulation
The homelessness situation in NYC needs bold action from the state where it needs to stop derailing and withdrawing state authorization in delivering housing based relief to NYC children who are suffering in municipal shelters. The state must also do more and addressing the state of homelessness in NYC that mostly affects children. The state must strengthen rental aid services to prevent high vacancy rates, and can create and distribute public housing units to families of children who are homeless. In NYC, the state must guarantee that the new housing units are aimed at homeless people. State policymakers would pay the state’s part of the deal to build housing units to help homeless families and children and others with special needs (Estrine, 2010). If these steps are taken, then NYC would experience a reduction in the number of children who are homeless. This would mean that by the year 2019, the number of homeless children would reduce by 85%. The Mayor of NYC has introduced policies for 2015, and this means that the number of homeless families and children will reduce (Alterman, 2015).
Conclusion
Homelessness in New York is high due to poverty and lack of affordable housing. The elderly, children, and women have affected every person. The government has formulated policies to deal with the menace especially when it comes to housing and ensuring proper health care service is provided to the homeless. The most affected people in NYC are children especially due to their parent’s lack of affordable housing, and this affects their health, their right to education, and their general safety.
