When we hear the word ‘homelessness’, you think of developing nations but not the developed ones! But you will be surprised, homelessness is a global problem and even in advanced countries it is a big problem. It is estimated that nearly 150 Million are homeless across the globe and I believe it is a very conservative estimate, as it is difficult to track & monitor the homeless.
The causes for homeless varies by country to country & region to region. The top causes, for families, are: lack of affordable housing & unemployment/insufficient-income. And for women the leading cause is domestic violence. Each is a #ProWoSo and will post about them at a later date. But, for now just wanted to have this post asking the question, can we do something to get the homeless folks back on their feet!?
There are a lot of different charities, gov services, and other support organizations are at work trying to help most of these homeless, providing them shelter & support needed. But, I see it everyday (in my current home of Seattle) they are not off the streets and not back other feet! So, what can be done? I am not sure I have come across an organization that tackles this comprehensively, i.e. provide shelter, take care of health & train/retool them with the needed skills to get them back on their feet. Is it even possible? Perhaps. Let me know if you know a city/organization that does comprehensively.
Good luck to all the Pieneers! As always, know of anyone or any startup working on this, please let me know, I will update this post.
[Image Credit: Thanks to ArtTower via Pixabay]
I like this Homelessness in prosperous cities #ProWoSo.
Cities are the hubs of the emerging digital economy, attracting knowledge workers with higher pay and tempt lifestyles. With the rise in income and rents, homelessness has risen. This is the situation in urban areas these days.
One consequence of this concentrated prosperity is raising rents and the increasing rates of homelessness in cities such as Seattle. More people living in urban areas also means more commercial vehicles are needed to serve them. This resulting in the cities with surprisingly high costs.
The US is the most developed and advanced country, the number of homeless has fallen in most of these areas. Surprisingly this situation is in coastal cities such as Seattle, in King County, Washington. In King County, it is estimated that it would cost between $360 million and $410 million a year to tackle current levels of homelessness. Sleeping on cardboard or bare ground and, their belongings in plastic bags symbolising the lives in these cities.
This situation is seen not only in these US Communities but also in Asian Countries. Globalization has accelerated the rate of industrialization within East Asian countries and while it has brought economic and social opportunities to these countries. Alongside the rise of globalization has been an increase in urbanization; 55 percent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas.
A recent World Bank Report shows that 200 million people moving to urban areas in East Asia alone, equivocal to that of the sixth-largest population for any single country. Consequently, the bulk of the economic boons of globalization are being captured by cities. Cities are becoming increasingly more complex due to the dual forces of globalization and urbanization, which makes city governance harder.
This problem is seen in India as well and in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad being developed, most of them want to live in urban areas if they want to enjoy the modern lifestyle then there wouldn’t people who produce food, which intern leads to lesser food production.
This needs to be solved as this situation of homelessness is leading to further more problems like over usage of resources in urban cities, lesser food production which is not sufficient for the exponential growth of population.