Causes of homelessness Essay

This essay will focus on two causes of homelessness, financial problems and family issues and illustrate some effects. In the first place, one of the main reasons that people become homeless is financial problems. As a result their physical condition will be very vulnerable. The personal bankruptcy causes their house to be repossessed, forcing them leave home and sleep anywhere they can find. No permanent house to live, no shelter, no bed, leaving them with a poor and unpredictable life. It will be a great danger especially in winter when many homeless people can sometimes freeze to death. Another thing that can affect homeless people’s health is lack of food. Their financial problems mean that they only have little money to live on. They do not even have enough money to buy basic food, not to mention high quality nutritious food. Only the cheapest food can be afforded which usually has very low nutrition and is bad quality. According to the scientific research we know long term insufficient intake of nutritious food can cause people to have a low immune system which makes them vulnerable to disease and that can lead them to another serious problem which is they do not have enough money to see doctor. Due to the financial problem they have to ignore the disease no matter how badly they are suffering. This kind behavior can cause many serious consequences because without medical care even a disease like a cold can be deadly. Although financial difficulty is a common reason for homelessness and has a serious influence on their physical health, family issues, like divorce or domestic violence, is also a significant factor that can lead to homelessness, especially among adolescents. Because teenagers have not developed maturity, in this period they need their parents’ company and guidance to develop psychological health like self-esteem, but homelessness forces them to go out into society when their m ental state is still very fragile. Since human beings have evolved into intelligent and emotional beings, self-esteem has always played a very important role in sustaining people’s mental health. Because homeless people’s living condition is very poor, they always look sloppy and that causes other people to be unwilling to talk to them. As a result the homeless people feel alienated by other people and feel no one cares about them anymore. At first they may become very angry, then they fell frustrated, and finally they quit on themselves and cannot feel their value to this society hence they start to see themselves as a burden to the  society. In this process their self-esteem becomes lower and lower and finally they may suffer severe mental damage.