Homelessness in America: Bad Luck

Imagine traveling during the day having nothing to your name, carrying bags everywhere you go and not knowing where your next meal is going to come from. Now picture thousands of homeless people living on the streets in America and many of them do not choose to live this way. Unfortunately, for some people they are victims of bad luck that leads to homelessness in America. Although, many will argue that being homeless has something to do with a personal choice also, but according to thousands of homeless people, bad luck was present too. Homeless Americans are those people who do not live in a home at all and is often the cause of being victims of bad luck.

There are many reasons why homelessness is related to having bad luck like: the lost of employment, having the problem of finding employment and having to worry about paying bills on time. Everyday in America many people are encounter with the problem with lost of employment, whether it is from being fired or laid off by an employer, both reasons can lead to financial problems. What about the people with the problem of not finding a job in America at all, the financial worries they face are extraordinary. Many people relate laziness with homelessness, but it is hard for people to find a job. People with no jobs clearly do not have any money, which leads to the last reason of having to worry about not being able to pay bills on time that can cause bills to become overdue. The arguments concerning that homelessness is a personal choice also having reasons to persuade individuals like: they have an incredible amount of proud; and they are drug and alcoholic addicts. Usually, the homeless people who process proud, refuses help from local shelters and close family members. It should come by no surprise that many homeless people are drug and alcoholic addicts and spend all their money on purchasing these vindictive products. Therefore, many Americans do not feel any compassion towards the homeless for these reasons. Simply, bad luck causes many Americans to become homeless after years of living a life with much privilege.

According to Barrett A. Lee et al, authors of “Public Beliefs About the Causes of Homelessness”, publish in 1990 argues, “Portrayals of homeless in America popular culture have long stressed laziness, immorality, wanderlust, heavy drinking, and other character deficits as reasons for one’s descent to the lowest rung of the stratification [..] the extreme failure symbolized by a lack of shelter must be judged the individual’s own fault in a society where everyone is assumes to have equal opportunity to succeed (254). Lee et al argues that Americans have the same opportunities in life, although many people have more opportunities then others, it is simply an act of being fortunate enough. He relates laziness to homeless, but what about bad luck that so many homeless people have. According to Randall E. Osborne, author of ““I May be Homeless, But I’m Not Helpless”: The Costs and Benefits of Identifying with Homelessness”, publish in 2002, argues “The longer one has been on the street and the more homeless friends one has appears to influence the degree to which one uses services [..] Not all homeless persons are seeking shelter, food, clothing, or medical care. Many who have been homeless for 18 months or more no longer seek such externally oriented interventions (50). Osborne argues that proud is a major problem with the homeless in why they do not want to seek help from shelters; this also depends on how long they have been on the streets. Both personal choice and bad luck is represented in these two arguments. Nevertheless, having bad luck is the main reason why so many Americans are considered homeless.

The U.S Census Bureau gives representation of why being homeless relates to having bad luck, by presenting data on poverty: 2005 highlights and the 1995 percentage on who could not afford to buy houses. According to the “Current Population Survey, 2006 Annual Social and

Economic Supplement”, poverty highlights were: The official poverty rate in 2005 was 12.6 percent, not