Homelessness

Effects of Homelessness

The effects of homelessness on homeless people are large. They range from health issues to personal entrapment. It is believed that many homeless individual failed in their lives to cope with their difficulties and this makes them alienate themselves from the rest of the world.

There are many effects of homelessness on individuals.

1. Health- homeless people often encounter a lot of health issues in their lives. Their health gets worse from time to time because they lack attention from people such as doctors, wives, husbands, and family members. And because of lack of necessities they suffer from multiple diseases such as:

Cold Injury
Cardio-Respiratory diseases
Tuberculosis.
Skin diseases
Nutritional deficiencies
Sleep deprivation.
Mental Illness
Physical and sexual assault
Drug dependency
Mortality
HIV/AIDS

2. Personal – at the time when a homeless person realizes that he/she won’t have a roof to live under forever. It is hard for them to believe. It is this fact of not dealing with reality that makes homeless people less able to take actions, but they suffer psychologically as a result.
Here some of the consequences:

Loss of self esteem
Becoming institutionalized
Increase in substance misuse
Loss of ability and will to care for oneself
Increased danger of abuse and violence
Increased chance of entering the criminal justice system
Development of behavioral problems

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Sources:

"Causes and Effects of Homelessness." OSW. OSW. 17 Jul 2007 <http://www.spa.ucla.edu/dup/projects/HomelessWebPage/Effects.html>.

"Effects of homelessness on the Individual." 17 Jul 2007 <http://www.spa.ucla.edu/dup/projects/HomelessWebPage/Effects.html>.