Homeless(A) Essay, Research Paper

Homeless What has been done to decrease the problem? – Homelessness Bums HousingOne of the largest growing concerns in Toronto is the constantlyincreasing number of citizens who are finding themselves livingon the streets. With the decrease in the number of availablejobs, the population of homeless people has literally boomed.My questions are not as simple to answer as they may appear.Why is a large portion of our community forced to live on thestreets? What has be done to decrease the problem? These arethe questions I will confront in my essay. With the economical wealth attributed to the name “Canada”, onewould have to wonder why there is a homeless situation at all.This problem is especially evident in Canada’s wealthiest city,Toronto. When it comes to the affairs of the people, it is thegovernment who should intervene. When I look at what thegovernment has done with regard to the homeless problem, I haveto doubt that everything is being done to eradicate it. TheUnited Nations implemented a universal declaration of humanrights. Article 25 Section 1 of this declaration states:Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate forthe health and well being of himself and of his family, includingfood, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary socialservices, and to the right to security in the event of unemployment,sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihoodin circumstances beyond his control. This is a step in the right direction. However, this is notenough. These rights are subject to the discretion of thegovernment of the country who decides to obey these universalrights. How much is “adequate”?The government, both at the federal and municipal levels, iscurrently working on new spending cuts. These cuts also includespending on welfare, unemployment and social services that aregeared towards helping the homeless. Spending cuts can be seenas a necessity to maintain the country economically, but thereason for having a government in the first place is to takecare of the people. How can this be done when money is beingtaken away from those services that are necessary to uphold thisobligation? Simply put, it cannot. Those obligations areserved by nonprofit organizations who depend on government

grants to maintain a standard of care for those who need theservices. The blame cannot be placed only on the government. Such asystem of assistance depends on its beneficiaries to be honestand have some integrity. Many recipients of these servicesattempt to “cheat the system”. With no will to search for workmany of these recipients remain at home and reap the benefits oftheir weekly cheques. This causes the government to createother services to control the amounts of money being distributedto those people. This process is costly and would beunnecessary if all of the recipients decided to take an honestapproach to this service. What can the government do to decrease the homeless population?Although there is no quick and easy answer to solve thisdifficult problem, Toronto has the means to attempt economicalways to research and come up with ideas to solve it. Here inOntario we have many excellent universities and colleges withequally excellent students who are taking courses in thepolitical sciences. If the government were to cooperate withthese universities and colleges and have them work inconjunction with the current research groups, then the answer todecrease the homeless population would be effectively answered.The government would encounter little expense and at the sametime give the students a chance to implement what they arelearning into real life situations. Everyone benefits from thisidea and there are no losers. In conclusion I think that our homeless problem could eventuallybe rooted out entirely if everyone were to take part in the careof their fellow neighbour. If we were to stop beingself-centered and start thinking about the other person who hasless than us, I am sure that we would benefit from it. It isn’tall that hard. A few advertisements on the television andradio, a little push from our society’s leaders and we would beoff on the right track. That worked for the recycling program.Now we should try employing this idea for even better reasons.I doubt that I will be around to see this idea in use all aroundthe world, but I do hope that I can one day see it used here inToronto. To assist all the homeless here in Toronto would be avery nice thing to see. The best part of it all would be toknow that we, as a society, would be able to work togetherdespite all the barriers created by racism and our naive naturewhen it comes to other heritages.

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