Carli Pope
Mrs. Roberts
Sociology
November 18, 2013
Homelessness in the City of Chicago, Illinois
Throughout the United States of American there are homeless people in every state. In different locations the population of homeless people vary. A few of the cities and states are Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, New York, NY and Washington, DC. The estimated homeless figures in the United States range from 600,000 to 2.5 million people. 1.37 million of the total homeless population in the USA are children, 41% of single males and 14% are single females. Some people might not understand what homelessness is but it can be from not having enough money to not having anywhere to go (2009). Homelessness is the state or condition of having no home, the state of living in the streets. An individual who is a resident in transitional housing, a homeless person without permanent housing who may live on the streets, stay in a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle. Any person with an unstable or non-permanent situation. Chicago, Illinois is one of the main cities in the United States that has a high number of homeless people. In Chicago, 116,042 Chicagoans were homeless throughout the year. Almost half of Chicago cannot afford a market-rate one-bedroom apartment. Most the time people will go to shelters or stay in their cars. Homeless people are mostly likely to be found in the poorer parts of Chicago. Most of them live on the streets because they are to embarrass to live in a shelter or with a family member. Some people might not have any family to take them in. A lot of veterans are homeless. There are usually three categories of people when they are homeless (homelessness). The three categories are Episodic, Transitional and Chronic. Episodic is when an individual or a family who goes in and out of shelters. They ten to be younger leave shelters when they get income or use shelters seasonally. Transitional are individuals or families who become homeless due to housing, health care or other financial crisis. They come into the shelter system and remain there about three months, and often do not become homeless again. Chronic is when individuals and families have been homeless for a year or more, or four times in the last three years. Many of their people use the shelter system for extended periods of time and are thought to consume fifty percent or more of total shelter days. Other homeless sub-population face special circumstances in escaping homelessness. People suffering from severe mental or physical illness or chronic substance abuse. Households experiencing domestic violence. Ex-offenders or people released from institutions with no place to go. Young people that have been thrown out of their house because they are gay in some way. Veterans, including individual suffering from posttraumatic stress disorders. These all make life a little harder for people that are trying to get jobs and be able to own there own house to live in. There are a lot of different reasons why people become homeless in Chicago. It can even start with the littlest thing like gender. There are more males in Chicago that are homeless then females. Most studies show that single homeless adults are more likely to be male than female. In 2007, a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that of the population surveyed 35% of the homeless people who are members of households with children are male while 65% of these people are females. However, 67.5% of the single homeless population is male, and it is this single population that makes up 76% of the homeless populations surveyed.
First, it is necessary to consider aspects of the male gender role that might make men more likely to be homeless: for instance, men’s greater likelihood of being veterans, or the tendency of men to not seek treatment for their mental illnesses and substance abuse. Looking at it without the gender lens risks missing important
