Introduction
Homelessness is defined as not having a permanent place to reside or a place to call home. It could be moving from one temporary shelter to another. This includes houses of family and relatives, despite having a roof over your head. It does not only mean living in the street. Homelessness started in colonial America in early 1640. European settlers were displacing the Native Americans, also resulting in conflicts (Waterman, 2014). The first almshouse was established in 1730 in New York. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss homelessness and how service-learning can help curb homelessness.
Service-learning is an educational approach that is combined with community service with learning objectives to provide progressive experience in education and meet societal needs. Its purpose is for students to learn how to apply what they acquire knowledge and skills academically to address their community and real-life needs. Service-learning can be indirect, direct, research, or advocacy. Service-learning began in the early 1970s (Waterman, 2014). examples of service-learning are research projects, field trips, awareness campaigns.
There are many causes of homelessness to mention only a few significant reasons are unemployment. This is where a person does mot work; therefore, it means no sauce of income and will not afford to pay for rent or buy a place to call home. Poverty, being unable to provide basic needs like food shelter, one can be working but earning a low pay that they cannot afford to pay for housing. Abuse is experienced mostly by women who are in domestic violence. Most survivors are left with nowhere to run to but the streets.
Homelessness can be placed in three categories. First is primary homelessness; this is people living in the streets with no conventional housing; they live in improvised shelters like cars for temporary homes. Second is secondary homelessness. This is people who move from one refuge to another. They live with another household temporarily could be family or friends, also those people who stay in boarding houses for the short term. The third is tertiary homelessness; this is where people live in caravan parks or boarding houses on a short-term basis with no security of lease.
Homelessness has a lot of adverse effects on people, like when one lives in the street, they become vulnerable to abuse, they are attacked randomly, and even women are being raped. Homelessness also causes families to tear apart like in some shelters they only accept to shelter girls and vice versa. Some do not allow children forcing parents to give away their children to foster care, which in turn leads to depression. Homeless people are also at high risk of getting health conditions, like pneumonia, because of the cold at night.
Homelessness can be curbed and prevented by the following ways one by government creating employment and also good wages so that people can get income do that they may afford to buy or rent houses by also making the availability of affordable housing and encouraging people to own homes. Creating awareness of the effects of homelessness can decrease the number of domestic abuse and substance abuse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, homelessness can be prevented by the creation of awareness of the importance of having a home. It promotes family bonding, good health, both psychologically, physically, and emotionally. It is a problem that has been there ever since and in as curb as it cannot be avoided, there is a chance to reduce it.
