Many people are often under the assumption that people who are homeless tend to be mentally ill. However, according to Urban Issues, this is not always the case. According to Chapter 9 of Urban Issues, “Since the early 1980s, large numbers of single parent families, veterans and mentally ill people have become homeless.” Hence, the problem posed by homelessness is to what extent should it be defined and how we should go about fixing it. Homelessness according to Urban Issues, does not take into account the number of people who stay with their families and friends before moving to shelters. “Doubling up” as it is referred to is often left out of the bracket of homelessness because there are only so many people that shelters can often hold due to a lack of adequate funding. It is for these reasons that some believe shelters can be counterproductive. Due to overcrowding conditions, many people actually prefer living on the streets for the sake of their own free will so that they are not subjected to follow any rules in the shelter. The best option as I see it and as Urban Issues discusses is to grant subsidies to people who are unable to afford housing. That way, it minimizes the cost of managing a shelter and finding permanent housing for them after. Hence, it would just be a one-time transition for them being in their own homes. In Chapter 11 of Urban Issues, the idea of having a program to provide federal housing vouchers in African American neighborhoods to move families from high crime neighborhoods to racially mixed neighborhoods, supports this.

One of the main causes of homelessness is poverty. Poverty is often caused by unemployment which in some cases refer to people who stay home to take care of their disabled loved ones. Therefore, as much as subsidies and housing vouchers may aid people who are homeless, a system still needs to be in place to prevent them from going back to being homeless and to prevent other people from being homeless as well. Thus, to really stop homelessness would mean implementing more high paying jobs, providing better healthcare and services that will compensate family members for taking care of their loved ones. An interesting point that was discussed was that the money earned from current jobs can barely cover housing, food and healthcare. To really understand this, some attention must be paid to the federal poverty level. The current poverty level is roughly around an income of $24,000 per household per year. However, this range is outdated since the cost of living in America has risen over the years and the income range has never been adjusted to accommodate this change. Therefore, even people who are earning more than $24,000 a year are finding it hard to get by but yet cannot receive the necessary federal benefits because their income is not at the said poverty level. This discrepancy does in some way contribute to poverty and therefore should be addressed.

Moreover, one thing I found interesting about Chapter 11 that focused on segregated housing, was that redlining still actually exists in some areas today. It discussed a case where only recently the Wisconsin based Association Bank provided $200 million in mortgage loans and settlements to minority customers who were affected by redlining. The truth is if neighborhoods continue to be segregated, the poor from the rich, then the advancement of low income families is very unlikely. Therefore, through integration progress as a society could definitely be made.