Children Living in Temporary Shelters

How Homelessness Effects Their Perception of Home

Alice M. Epps

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317776772
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1998. The problem of homelessness is increasing nationally in volume, variety, and visibility, with the subpopulation of homeless families with children growing the fastest. An unstable living environment places these families, especially the children at risk, of accomplishing positive, adaptive socialization. In addition, the provision of supportive services to these children, impose an excessive economic burden on the public. The paucity of information and research concerning what homelessness means for children who are members of these families, are reasons for undertaking this work. The book provides a survey research model to collect and analyze information, about what the circumstances of homelessness means from the perspective of children sheltered with homeless families.

Chapter 1

Introduction

This book, a descriptive, explanatory study, provides information on selected characteristics of children staying with homeless single-parent families in emergency shelters and describes how the children view the concept of home.

A permanent, secure home is one of the key elements needed for the positive development of self-confidence in children. Increasing numbers of children are growing up without a positive permanent home environment.

This unmet need is a negative impact on the mental and physical health, education, and future of children. Children who live in very transitory situations are viewed as being at risk (Children's Defense Fund, 1978).

More than two million children fell into poverty in the 1980's while the number of billionaires in the nation quintupled between 1982 and 1989 (A Children's Defense Fund, 1990). This trend continues today. Homelessness is dehumanizing and debilitating, and the social, psychological and economic problems of the homeless multiply. Homelessness by definition is a crisis where even the healthiest of us would be confused and disoriented (Kaufman, 1985).

The composition of the homeless population is changing from the traditional group of alcoholics, drug addicts, and transients, to more people who are mentally ill, young, minorities, and women with children.

The homeless are families victimized by increased housing costs and unemployment; they are youngsters who are not wanted at home; they are middle-aged women and men from rooming houses which are demolished in the name of urban renewal and gentrification; they are deserted mothers with schoolage children, battered wives, the elderly, mentally ill people, and substance abusers. Bassuk (1984) is one of the contemporary researchers who addresses the issue of homelessness.

The alarming increase in the number of single women and their children indicates that we are witnessing the feminization of homelessness (Bassuk, 1984).

Homelessness, the crisis of people who lack permanent adequate shelter and personal resources such as money, family and friends to acquire shelter, gained increased public attention within the last few years (Arce et al., 1983; Levine, 1984; Levinson, 1963; Lipton et al., 1983). This issue was addressed by numerous media accounts (i.e., Cordes, 1984; McCarthy, 1982; Soloway, 1986; The New York Times, International, 1991) gubernatorial investigations (Cuomo, 1983), and congressional hearings on the homeless (U.S. House of Representatives, 1982; Milbura et al., 1984).

More Americans are without homes since the 1980's than at any time since the Great Depressions of the 1930s.

Kozol (1988), estimates that there are approximately three million people in this country who are homeless because of the steady loss and unavailability of low-cost housing. Housing units are lost by the thousands yearly through urban renewal, decay, fire and gentrification. The Federal housing policy under the Reagan Administration reduces support for new low-income housing by 76 percent (Reamer, 1989). Recent news and media items highlight abuse and misuse of funds administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Since 1985, homelessness in the United States is increasing, with the new homeless on the scene as evident by appearing in new locations (Hall, 1990). As poverty is increased, so is the number of homeless people. Poverty and homelessness are fundamentally associated. In the past decade, the number of Americans living below the poverty level increased from 29 million to approximately 32 million individuals (one out of seven. When an essential commodity is scarce, competition for it intensifies and the most vulnerable lose; those with the fewest resources are those with the least power (Hartman, 1989).

One approach to the problem of homelessness focuses on providing emergency services which include programs to meet basic emergency needs: such as food, clothing and shelter. Emergency services are the essences of the service delivery system, and now constitutes a separate and stable component of the human services system in most states. Little attention is given to the children living with their own families who are without a permanent place to live. Transitory living adversely effects children within their own families and the negative repercussions as severe as among children in foster care.

Studies found that uncertainty and confusion about permanence is accompanied by unresolved loss, grief, and difficulty in forming new relationships, in children who experience homelessness over an extended period of time (Bassuk, 1964; CDF, 1990; & Walsh, 1992).

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, is the first major federal response to homelessness. The responses of professionals to the congressional report associate homelessness with those with alcohol, addiction problems or mental illness. The federal legislation encourages research, demonstration projects, the provision of shelter, and the delivery of mental health services, but not permanent housing. The establishment of the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, relegates homelessness into the category of personal problems rather than a public issue (Hartman, 1989).

What is the meaning of home to children who are with homeless single-parent families in temporary living arrangements? Are the childrens' perceptions influenced by the parents' perceptions, or by the child's age, gender, number of siblings, health status, school attendance, friends, lack of recreation, present and previous living conditions, the number of moves or length of time in temporary residence? Information that answer some of these questions can be very useful to policy-makers, program developers, and social service workers in addressing the problem of homelessness in the United States.

This work addresses issues, factors and experiences of homeless children in the hope of gaining more insight into factors that can aid in the redefining, and the redirection of some negative non productive behavior of the children.

A new data base is needed to assist this nation in formulating child development policies; new facts that one can describe as social indicators on the state of the child (Brim, 1975). A good part of this information should come from children who are encouraged to speak for themselves. The macro-structural influences (economics, cultural values, law, politics, and sociology) on child development must be linked to conventional research and services in child care.

Brim claims that surveys can add an important subjective dimension to national indicators and social responses on the lives of this nation's children, if children are interviewed and their opinions given consideration.

Failure to use such self-report information ignores a theoretically important data source that could contribute substantially to our understanding of childrens' social difficulties.

This study attempts to identify how a group of children through self-report define home, the ingredients that symbolize the term for them, as well as the significance of the symbols, and the items. The purpose is to gain information on the characteristics of these children, and to identify correlates useful for further research.

A secondary purpose is to find a way to describe characteristics of home from the childrens' point of view in a way that will respect and build on the special characteristics of our diverse population of children as a source of strength rather than a social liability. In a multicultural, multiracial American democracy this is a true test of our beliefs. Can we affirm our creed to respect the dignity and individuality of every child? Can we confirm and build on their potential strengths rather than focus on their problems? The focus of this study is to understand the plight of the homeless child with the above points of view in mind.

Definition of Terms

For the purposes of this study, the following definitions are employed.

Family—A family is a unit of one parent or legal guardian with a dependent child (under age 18).

Hispanic population—Hispanic is defined in terms of a differentiated ethnic population with focus on the prominence of the Spanish language and culture. This includes both Caucasians and blacks.

Homelessness~A homeless person is defined as an undomiciled person (whether alone or as a member of a family) who is unable to secure permanent and stable housing without special assistance, as determined by the Commissioner of the State Department of Social Services (Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (1985), New York State Department of Social Services).

Perception—Perception (the perceived world) grows out of one's emotions and experiences; it grows out of behavior, too (Stone & Church, 1966). Often we can not observe a child's awareness at first hand and the child may not be capable of telling us about it in words. Inferences can be made from the child's language or behavior, reconstructing his awareness in crude analogies drawn from adult experience (Stone & Church, 1966).

Latency—Latency period a major stage of development (ages six to twelve years) a small number of critical cognitive and affective tasks must be accomplished including, securing love and support from families, developing a positive self-image, forming age-appropriate friendships, and succeeding at school (Walsh, 1990).

Chapter II

Literature Review

The literature review pertinent to this investigation focuses on four distinct areas: 1. homelessness as a national and a regional problem; 2. homeless families with children; 3. child development theories relevant to the developmental stage of latency age children and current research; 4. and approaches to the problem.

The above areas constitute the conceptual frame of reference within which the researcher explores the relevancy of the topic for social science research with a specific focus on the impact of homelessness on a subpopulation of latency age children living with homeless single-parents; the state of existing theories that relate to this stage of development; and what is currently being done about the problem.

Homelessness as a National and a Regional Problem

Homelessness as a social problem is not a new field of study for social scientists. There is a wide range of literature published on this topic (Milburn, et al., 1984).

There are historical and literary articles (Clements, 1917; Holmes, 1912; Mohl, 1972). During the early 1900's, sociological and anthropological research in the form of observational studies began in the United States and Great Britain (Anderson, 1923; Graham, 1926; Nascher, 1909). During the Great Depression, research continued with an emphasis on the homeless as hobos, vagrants, and migrant laborers (Caplow, 1940; Cross & Cross, 1937; Locke, 1935; Outland, 1939).

From the 1950's through the early 1970's, studies focused primarily on homeless and chronically ill male alcoholics (Jackson & Connor, 1953; Levinson, 1957; Wood, 1979).

Deinstitutionalization of mental patients during the late 1960's prompted studies that examined the homeless as the chronically mentally disabled (Lazare et al., 1972; Leach, 1979; Segal et al., 1977; Homeless in America, 1988).

There are several reports on the national problem of homelessness, i.e., Homelessness: A Complex Problem and the Federal Response, (General Accounting Office, April, 1985) and Homelessness in America: A Forced March to Nowhere, (Community for Creative Nonviolence, 1982), which note the difficulties in determining both national and local figures on the number of homeless people.

This society, with all its computers and all its enormous wealth of resources and research, cannot count the homeless. Without addresses, telephone numbers or steady places of employment, they float, from soup kitchen to shelter, from season to season, from north to south and east to west, observed in passing but untracked (Homeless in America, 1988.)

No one knows how many homeless people live in America because of the many difficulties in counting them. Estimates range from a low of 250,000 to 350,000 country-wide, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to a high of 2 to 3 million by the Community for Creative Nonviolence, a Washington, D.C. located advocacy group and shelter provider (Children's Defense Fund (CDF), 1990).

The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) estimate the total homeless population at 1.5 million to 3 million (Rossi, 1988).

The National Income Housing Coalition estimates:

that one out of every four households with incomes of less than $15,000 now pays more than 60 percent of its income for rent (CDF, 1989.)

The National Low Income Housing Information Service in 1985, reports eight million units available to families with incomes of $ 15,000, while more than 11 million households who need housing they could afford within that income range. To compound the problem, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, one-third of those eight million low-cost units, were actually available to households earning about $10,000 (CDF, 1991). The decline in the availability of low cost housing, that is multi-room units appropriate for families, is extremely problematic in the large urban cities, especially in New York and Los Angeles, but it resembles cities of all sizes (Wright & Lamb, 1987).

The Census Bureau, reporting for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in a 1990 annual housing survey, has documented in city after city declines in the proportion of housing renting for forty percent or less of poverty-level incomes. The range of these declines was from 12 percent in Baltimore between 1978 and 1983 to 58 percent in Anaheim, California in the same period.

In twelve large cities studied during that period, the number of inexpensive rental housing units available to poor families decreased, averaging thirty percent. The number of households living at or below the poverty level increased by thirty-six percent. The outcome of these two trends is a severe shortage in housing that poor households can afford with the burden of excessive rent (Rossi, 1988).

The new homeless are a more heterogenous population than their homeless counter peers of past years. Social workers who face the current homeless population are beginning to recognize that the homeless are minority young people, women and families, and all are more visible in urban communities. Recent community surveys report large and growing numbers of black, Hispanic, native Americans and other minority groups (single women with children) comprising the majo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Literature Review
• 3. Problem Formation
• 4. Methodology
• 5. Description of Study Subjects
• 6. Testing Hypotheses and Data Analyses
• 7. Summary, Conclusions, Recommendations
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Index