Marcia Amidon Lusted - Coping with Homelessness

1. CHAPTER 1
   Who Are Todays Homeless?
2. CHAPTER 2
   Homelessness Through History
3. CHAPTER 3
   Homelessness and Teens
4. CHAPTER 4
   Help for the Homeless
5. CHAPTER 5
   What Can Be Done?
6. CHAPTER 6
   Moving Beyond Homelessness

Published in 2018 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2018 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lusted, Marcia Amidon, author.
Title: Coping with homelessness / Marcia Amidon Lusted.
Description: New York : Rosen Publishing, 2018 | Series: Coping | Audience: Grades 7-12. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017016805 | ISBN 9781508176916 (library bound) | ISBN 9781508178514 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: HomelessnessJuvenile literature. | Homeless teenagersJuvenile literature. | Homeless personsServices forJuvenile literature.
Classification: LCC HV4493 .L87 2017 | DDC 362.5/92dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016805

Manufactured in the United States of America

CHAPTER 1
Who Are Todays Homeless?

CHAPTER 2
Homelessness Through History

CHAPTER 3
Homelessness and Teens

CHAPTER 4
Help for the Homeless

CHAPTER 5
What Can Be Done?

CHAPTER 6
Moving Beyond Homelessness

INTRODUCTION

I t was a cold winter night in a pleasant suburban neighborhood. Families were safely inside their warm homes, protected from the bitter temperatures. It was a common scene in towns all across the United States.

However, in this neighborhood, a young woman named Karen was walking down the street in the freezing night air. She was only fifteen years old, and her mother had just kicked her out of their house. Her mother had mental health issues that made it difficult for Karen to be there. Exhausted and desperately needing to get warm, Karen stayed with a friend for a few days until the family asked her to leave. She told her story to the Covenant House shelter. I spent the night on a grate," Karen said. After an unsuccessful attempt at living at home, Karen was homeless again a year later. This time, she could not find any friends willing to put her up, even for a few days. When my friend wouldnt let me stay at her house, I stayed in her backyard, but the family didnt even know it," Karen admitted. It was cold, but at least it was safe.

Going to school and living a normal life was no longer an option. Karens life became centered around trying to find somewhere warm to stay. She wandered the streets trying to find a safe, warm location. She would go to all-night restaurants and order a single cup of coffee, sipping it slowly until she was asked to leave. The best thing she could find was a hot-air grate on the street, where the warm air might keep her from freezing to death. You worry about freezing to death... you worry about being robbed and beaten up...about where youre going to get something to eat" She stole food from grocery stores. They saw me, but they didnt chase me because they could tell that I needed it" Karen finally found a place in a homeless shelter for children and teens.

A homeless man stands over a steam vent in an attempt to stay warm during an ice-cold Philadelphia winter.

Karens story is just one of many, many stories about children, teens, adults, and families who are forced to live on the streets. These people may not fit accepted preconceptions: they may have jobs, have come from wealthy households, or be top students in their schools. But for reasons that can include economic circumstances, ill health, or abusive situations, they find that they no longer have permanent homes of their own.

Homelessness is a complicated issue both for those who are affected by it and those who deal with homeless people on a regular basis and try to help them. It is often a terrifying experience to be homeless, but no one who is going through it is ever alone. There is help out there for coping with homelessness and for finding a way out of it.

CHAPTER ONE

H omeless people are a common sight on city streets, huddled in doorways or in makeshift shelters of cardboard and old blankets. But these homeless people are only one small portion of the larger number of people who have no permanent place to call home.

According to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on a single night in 2016, 549,928 people were homeless. Ofthis group, 68 percent were staying in emergency shelters or other forms of transitional housing, while 32 percent were unsheltered, meaning that they were living in unsheltered locations, such as on the street or in abandoned buildings. Of these homeless people, 31 percent were children and teens younger than the age of twenty-four, and 69 percent were adults.

Homeless teens often panhandle for money on the streets; sometimes they will use signs as a way to ask for donations.

Homelessness includes people of every age, from children to the elderly, and both employed and unemployed people. According to Greendoors statistics on homelessness on a given night:

• 25 percent suffer from mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.

• 17 percent are considered chronically homeless.

• 13 percent are fleeing domestic violence.

• 12 percent are veterans.?

Beyond these groups, the people most at risk for becoming homeless are those living below the poverty level, the working poor (people who cant earn enough to survive), single parent families, people recently released from prison, and teens who have gotten too old for the foster care system. The elderly are also a growing homeless population as they lose jobs or benefits or become ill and unable to work.

Homeless teens in particular may find themselves living rough, which means that they are sleeping on the streets without shelter.

Women and children are the fastest-growing population of homeless people, often because of abusive or economic situations. Many end up living in their cars, like one woman and her daughters in California. They told their story to the television show America Tonight:

For four years, the only life Paula Corb and her two daughters have known is the one inside their 2000 Mazda minivanstopping once in a while for take-out, groceries and gas...For them, making a pit stop for gas is the equivalent of paying rent. We go on about a four-block radius," Corb explained. Its $5 to $10 a day. You see, thats $70 a week times four. I mean, thats more than we really have got" It was scary. It was depressing" said Alice Corb, 22, the older daughter, of the first night living in the van. I just kept thinking, How could this have possibly happened? And this mantra in my head just repeated over and over: I want to go home. And I just kept avoiding this one thought in my head that says, You dont have a home to go back to.