Rethinking the Solutions to Homelessness
Madison Wickware
English 1213
Professor Hammett
How can society effectively address the growing crisis of homelessness? The rising rates of homelessness can be attributed to a combination of factors, including economic disparity, housing shortages, and systemic failures in social support systems (National Alliance to End Homelessness). Addressing homelessness requires a multifaceted approach that goes beyond providing temporary shelter, emphasizing the need for long-term solutions, such as affordable housing, access to mental health services, and job opportunities.
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The first solution to prevent homelessness would be affordable housing. Affordable housing is a crucial solution to homelessness. Providing stable and accessible living conditions for low-income individuals and families could significantly impact this crisis in a positive way. The Housing First approach, which prioritizes providing permanent housing to homeless individuals without preconditions, has been credited with significant reductions in chronic homelessness. For instance, Utah’s implementation of this model led to a 91% decrease in chronic homelessness over a decade. Additionally, a Deloitte Access Economics report found that providing supported housing for the homeless could save the state government significant funds per individual over a decade. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (2022), “Housing First is rooted in the idea that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before addressing other issues such as employment, substance abuse or mental health (Home).” This evidence demonstrates that affordable housing initiatives, particularly those aligned with the Housing First model, offer stable environments that enable individuals to address other life challenges, such as employment and health issues. ​
Another potential solution is to provide comprehensive mental health support services. Failures in mental health support systems contribute to economic disparity by preventing individuals from accessing necessary care and maintaining stable employment. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI, 2023), “One in five adults in the U.S. experience mental illness each year, yet less than half receive treatment” (NAMI, 2023). As public health expert Vikram Patel explains, “When mental health is ignored, societies pay the price in lost productivity, increased homelessness, and higher healthcare costs” (Patel, 2020). Some argue that mental health care is a personal responsibility and not a government issue. However, without adequate access to affordable treatment, many individuals with mental health conditions struggle to maintain employment, leading to financial instability and further exacerbating social inequality. Expanding mental health services, integrating care into primary healthcare, and increasing insurance coverage for mental health treatment can help bridge this gap and reduce economic disparity.
The next potential solution for homelessness is job employment opportunities. Loss of employment is a major contributor to economic disparity, as it often leads to financial instability and a lack of access to essential resources. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 8 million people in the U.S. are unemployed, and many face long-term unemployment due to systemic issues in the job market (Unemployment Rates and Economic Indicators). As economist Larry Mishel states, “Job loss, particularly long-term unemployment, is a significant driver of income inequality, as it exacerbates poverty and social isolation” (Mishel). Some argue that job loss is simply a consequence of economic shifts or market forces. However, research shows that marginalized groups, including people of color and individuals without higher education, are more likely to face unemployment and experience longer job-search periods. Addressing these disparities through policies such as universal basic income, job retraining programs, and stronger labor protections can help reduce the long-term effects of unemployment and support economic stability for all.
The growing housing shortages disproportionately affect low-income individuals, worsening economic disparity. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the United States has a shortage of over 7 million affordable rental homes for extremely low-income households (The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes). As urban planning expert Matthew Desmond explains, “Without stable shelter, everything else falls apart” (Desmond 5). Some argue that housing shortages result from strict zoning laws and regulations that limit new construction. However, the lack of affordable housing forces many families into unstable living conditions or homelessness, exacerbating poverty and inequality. Without government intervention to increase the affordable housing supply, rent control policies, and incentives for developers to build low-cost housing, this crisis will continue to widen the wealth gap.
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Systemic failures in social support systems leave many domestic violence survivors without the necessary resources to escape abusive situations. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 41% of women and 26% of men in the U.S. have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime, highlighting the widespread nature of this issue (CDC). Some argue that the legal system provides adequate protections, such as restraining orders and shelters. However, many survivors face financial barriers, housing insecurity, and a lack of available services, making it difficult to leave their abusers. Strengthening support systems-such as increasing shelter capacity, expanding financial assistance, and improving legal protections-can help survivors rebuild their lives and break the cycle of abuse.
Physical health issues significantly contribute to economic disparity by limiting individuals’ ability to work and access opportunities for upward mobility. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2023), chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are leading causes of death and disability in the United States, and they disproportionately affect low-income populations. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane (OHE), ” Some argue that physical health issues are primarily a matter of personal choice or lifestyle. However, studies show that low-income communities face greater barriers to accessing quality healthcare, nutritious food, and safe environments, leading to higher rates of chronic illness. Addressing physical health disparities through expanded access to healthcare, affordable nutritious food, and community health programs can help reduce economic inequality and improve overall well-being.
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Homelessness remains a persistent issue driven by economic disparity, systemic failures, and a lack of adequate support systems. Addressing this crisis requires comprehensive solutions that tackle its root causes. Investing in permanent housing programs can provide long-term stability for individuals experiencing homelessness, reducing reliance on temporary shelters. Additionally, expanding job opportunities and ensuring fair wages can help prevent individuals from falling into poverty in the first place. Lowering housing costs through rent control policies and increased affordable housing developments would make it easier for low-income families to secure stable living conditions. By implementing these solutions, we can take meaningful steps toward reducing homelessness and promoting economic security for all.
Rhetorical Analysis
Madison Wickware
English 1213
Professor Hammett
Franz Kafka’s literary landscapes, surreal, alienating, and bureaucratically cruel, offer a chilling insight into the social and existential plight of homelessness. Through works like The Metamorphosis and The Trial, Kafka crafts a worldview in which individual identity is crushed beneath the weight of arbitrary systems and dehumanizing social roles. In these narratives, Kafka constructs a rhetoric of homelessness, not simply the lack of a physical home, but the psychological and societal displacement experienced when one is rendered invisible or monstrous by those closest to them. Explore Kafka’s point of view on homelessness as a condition marked by alienation, systemic abandonment, and familial rejection, each reflected in the absurdist and tragic circumstances of his characters.
Kafka’s portrayal of homelessness centers on alienation as a fundamental human crisis, a condition vividly embodied in Gregor Samsa, who, after his transformation, is “confined to his room, where he spends most of his time crawling on the walls and ceiling” (The Metamorphosis, Kafka, 1915/2004), symbolizing his complete estrangement from family and society. Kafka’s vision of alienation is not incidental but central to his critique of modern life, particularly through the character of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis. After his inexplicable transformation into an insect, Gregor is no longer recognized as a human being by his family or society, effectively rendering him “homeless” despite remaining physically within his home. This estrangement is a rhetorical tool Kafka uses to highlight the fragility of social identity and belonging. As Minar and Sutandio (2017) argue, “Gregor’s transformation can be seen as a symbolic representation of alienation, which begins as a psychological state but leads to his physical and social isolation” (p. 123). This alienation functions rhetorically to critique how quickly one can be discarded once they no longer fulfill a productive societal role. Kafka uses Gregor’s metamorphosis as a metaphor for the dehumanization faced by individuals marginalized by their inability to conform to societal norms. This mirrors the condition of homelessness, wherein individuals become socially invisible and often vilified, regardless of their personal history or intrinsic worth. The rhetorical power lies in Kafka’s insistence that this dehumanization starts within the family unit and expands outward to society at large.
Kafka uses the family structure to critique societal norms that perpetuate emotional and material homelessness. The family, in Kafka’s narratives, often embodies societal expectations and pressures that lead to internalized shame and ultimate rejection. Gregor’s family initially tolerates his condition but quickly turns hostile when his inability to work disrupts their economic comfort, illustrating a transactional model of care and belonging. “The family was getting used to the money, and they especially appreciated Gregor’s habit of keeping quiet about it” (Kafka, 1915/2004, p. 20). Fox describes the Samsa family as engaging in “soul-destroying emotional labor,” maintaining a superficial semblance of normality while repressing the monstrous reality that Gregor’s condition reveals (2023). This repression reflects society’s denial of uncomfortable truths about dependency, disability, and economic failure. By framing the family as a microcosm of capitalist values, Kafka critiques the conditional nature of acceptance. Homelessness, in this context, is not just a material lack but a failure to meet the criteria for being worthy of love and space. The rhetorical strategy here is to expose the hypocrisy of familial and social structures that claim to support their members but in practice abandon those who deviate from expected roles.
Kafka extends his critique to institutional structures, portraying them as absurd and indifferent mechanisms that perpetuate social abandonment. In The Trial, Josef K. becomes ensnared in a nightmarish legal system that offers neither clarity nor justice: “Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested” (Kafka 1925/2009, p. 1). Kafka’s depiction of the judiciary is a potent metaphor for the systemic obstacles faced by those experiencing homelessness, particularly when navigating social services or legal protections that are often labyrinthine and dehumanizing. This seemingly arbitrary persecution parallels how homeless individuals are often criminalized for their mere existence in public spaces. Kafka’s rhetorical portrayal of bureaucracy as an opaque and hostile force reveals a worldview in which institutional processes serve to confound and entrap rather than aid. For the homeless, systems intended to provide shelter or legal redress often replicate Kafka’s absurdities- marked by delays, misinformation, and impersonal treatment- effectively excluding them from the protections of citizenship.
Kafka’s surreal style underscores the psychological dislocation and existential despair intrinsic to the homeless condition. Kafka’s literary surrealism reflects the internal fragmentation experienced by individuals who are alienated from both society and self. His narratives often blur the line between the real and the absurd, mirroring the disorienting experience of being displaced not only physically but emotionally and spiritually. As Barak (1991) argues, “Kafka’s work transforms the external world into a reflection of internal anxieties, turning reality into a metaphor for psychological exile” (p. 35). This stylization forces readers to confront the full emotional weight of isolation and societal abandonment. By employing surrealism, Kafka transcends literal homelessness to expose a deeper existential homelessness, a loss of place, purpose, and recognition. This rhetorical approach appeals to the reader’s empathy by dramatizing the internal world of the ostracized, thereby making the abstract pain of alienation viscerally real.
Kafka’s rhetorical strategy is to dismantle illusions of stability and security, revealing homelessness as an ever-present possibility. Rather than presenting homelessness as a marginal or exceptional condition, Kafka’s fiction suggests it is a latent threat within the structures of modern life. Anyone, Kafka implies, can become Gregor Samsa or Josef K.- cast out, misunderstood, and ultimately destroyed by forces beyond their control. As Minar and Sutandio (2017) explain, “Kafka’s use of alienation in The Metamorphosis shows how tenuous our social identities are and how quickly one can fall from belonging to exclusion” (p. 73). The implication is that homelessness is not merely a social problem but a human one. Kafka’s rhetorical method is to universalize the experience of alienation, thereby challenging readers to reconsider their own complicity in systems that marginalize others. By destabilizing the reader’s sense of security, Kafka aligns them emotionally with those who are unhoused, thereby fostering a deeper ethical engagement with the issue.
Franz Kafka’s literary rhetoric offers a profound meditation on the condition of homelessness, not just as a physical state but as an existential crisis rooted in alienation, systemic cruelty, and emotional abandonment. Through surreal narratives and absurdist structures, Kafka exposes the fragility of identity and belonging in a world governed by impersonal institutions and conditional relationships. His works compel readers to confront the ease with which society discards those who no longer serve a clear function, warning that the line between home and homelessness is thinner than it appears. In Kafka’s universe, the true horror is not in the transformation itself, but in the world’s reaction to it, a mirror held up to the soul of modern civilization.