Social Issues-Homelessness

The idea of homelessness is very relevant throughout The Glass Castle and our ongoing nation. Jeanette Walls's family is living in substandard conditions, even when they have a home. It is not until nearly the end of the novel that actual homelessness is experienced by her father and mother. Walls portrays these situations in a number of ways. At first, she talks about feeling guilty of her comfortable life, especially because her mother is living on the streets (pg.3). In the next passage, she talks about homelessness as an adventure and describes the passage from her parents' perspective (pg.255). Finally, Walls objectively talks about the realities of being homeless and describes the terrible conditions that her mother and father are succumbing to by living in the squats.

All of these ideas and problems tie in with the current issue of homelessness in the United States. There are five periods of time when homelessness has been considered a large problem. The first time was when England sent its poor population to live in the United States, the second was after the Civil War with all of the displaced soldiers and civilians, the third was with the westward industrial expansion during the late 1800s and early 1920s, the fourth was the Great Depression leading up to World War II, and the fifth is the 1980s to present day.

There are two different ways that homelessness is view: the conservative and liberal ways. Conservatives blame homelessness all on individual characteristics, while liberals blame it on structural problems. Most people accept a median between these two views. The largest problem is how the issue is dealt with. Even though economic issues and cutting of funding to homeless programs is generally considered one of the largest reasons for homelessness, the recent influx in funds to these programs and economic prosperity of the 1990s has not improved the homeless situation. Two counts of homeless were taken in 1987 and 1996, both revealing that the amount of homeless persons has not lessened. The issue has continued to be terrible and not break apart.

Most people are also in a dilemma of how to solve these problems. Some groups think that direct aid to important things are needed, such as shelter, clothing, and food. Other people see goals such as voting or helping get jobs as being more important. It all depends upon a person's view. The problem with just giving direct aid is that it may cause people to become very dependent upon the government because they are getting what they need fast and not having to work for it. The problem with helping the homeless vote is because they are uneducated and do not always understand and getting jobs usually keeps them in their current state because they get low paying, unskilled jobs.

There are so many sides to the problem that need to be addressed. The fact that some of the richest countries in the world are having these terrible problems demonstrates that it is not only the third world countries. While many classes and races and genders are typically more represented among the homeless population than others, statistics show that homelessness does affect everyone and is growing proportionally different than it used to. For instance, adults with children are beginning to show themselves more on the streets. There are well over 800,000 homeless living in the United States. An astounding number that needs to be adjusted as soon as possible.