poverty and homelessness persuasive essay

236 Brilliant Homelessness Essay Topics & Free Paper Examples

Homelessness is a compound problem that consists of many different aspects and causes, and you want to discuss as many as possible in your essay on homelessness. Check our article to get homelessness essay topics and thesis ideas, research questions, and inspiration from free paper examples!

🌎 How to Write a Homelessness Essay

🏆 best homelessness topics & essay examples, 👍 good homeless essay topics, ⭐ simple & easy homelessness essay titles, 💡 interesting topics to write about homelessness, ✍️ homelessness essay topics for college, 📑 memorable research topics about homelessness, ❓ research questions about homelessness.

Some people encounter obstacles in their lives and end up on the streets while they try to find a new job and improve their livelihood. Others become homeless veterans, resigning to a life without a proper dwelling.

There are also rare people who choose a homeless lifestyle of their own volition due to personal beliefs. Such individuals may be better off than the rest, but they still warrant an inspection. Depending on the category you want to discuss, you will have to select an appropriate homelessness essay thesis.

You should discuss homelessness as a systemic issue that happens to a group of people. You may use individual cases as illustrations for some of your points, but anecdotal evidence is not sufficient for strong statements.

Statistics and scholarly articles are preferable sources, though you may use journalistic pieces to support a theoretical framework. If you do so, make sure that the articles maintain an objective tone and try to remain impartial instead of appealing to feelings.

Poor journalism is possibly even less trustworthy than the unsupervised websites your instructions may have warned you to avoid. Their use would damage the credibility of your essay and, therefore, its impact.

As can be seen from the above, the reasons why people may become homeless are an excellent topic for discussion. You can link the people who are temporarily homeless to the region’s economic performance or similar factors.

Additional research would be necessary to do so, including economic analyses and interviews with homeless people. Nevertheless, the discussion will show your insight and originality in linking different ideas to explain phenomena.

It will also demonstrate your knowledge of various economic and political topics and further your understanding of social factors. You can also use a discussion of the reasons why people may lose their homes as a homelessness essay hook to shift to their current situation.

On its own, homelessness may be viewed in a manner similar to that of unemployment, with some degree of it being unavoidable and necessary to power the real estate industry. However, when people remain without a residence for an extended period, their state becomes an issue and should be explored.

In your homelessness essay topics, you should discuss the reasons why homeless people may be unable to obtain a permanent home. Physical factors such as the inability to obtain a job or the high prices of housing are excellent examples.

Mental issues such as depression and other conditions also warrant discussion. You will be able to obtain a more complete overview of the issue by inspecting its various components.

Here are some additional tips for your essay:

• The phenomenon of homelessness as it occurs on a societal level has been researched thoroughly. You may voice original ideas, but make sure that they are supported with strong evidence.
• Try to differentiate between various categories of homeless people. Homogenizing them without considering their differences and attitudes may lead you to make mistaken assessments.
• Try to consult historical data to identify periods when homelessness rose or fell and associate them with other events. You may discover effective or ineffective policy, economic growth and crises, or other ideas you can use.

Come to IvyPanda for homelessness essay titles and other helpful paper samples!

• On How to Eradicate Homelessness The truth of the matter is that majority of the homeless are people with dreams, ambitions and desire to succeed. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, paucity has been the key […]
• Homelessness and its Solutions This problem is caused by either inability to afford the costs of proper medication or as a result of the congestion within the concentration camps of the homeless.
• The Causes and Impacts of Homelessness Liberalists argue that homelessness results from the general nature and the poor economic structures and the manner in which finances and resources are distributed in the society.
• Homelessness in the US: Causes and Solutions Due to the income disparity, insufficient accommodations, and racial inequality, the homelessness crisis in the US has been exacerbated. To recommend the most appropriate and effective policies, the causes should be analyzed in detail.
• Kids and Youth Homelessness: Facts and Statistics in the United States There have been numerous government interventions in the form of policies since the times of the Great Depression, but the number of homeless children and teenagers has only increased.
• Homelessness as a Social Issue Research further indicates that the group is at a high risk of suffering from addiction in an effort to contain stress and ignominy associated with homelessness.
• Homelessness and Housing in Oneida County and City of Utica This research aims to assess the well-being of the community of Oneida County and the City of Utica, using the data on homelessness rates and housing prices.
• Mumbai Great Problem: Homelessness Problem in Cities From the discussion of the categories of the homeless, it is clear that it can prove to be difficult to define what homelessness truly is.
• Helping the Homeless in the Community The main task during the two hours is preparing cutlery and to serving the food to the homeless people. We particularly have to focus on the living conditions of the homeless people to highlight the […]
• Tell Them Who I am, the lives of Homeless Women by Elliot Liebow The writer though reports that it is not the interest of women to be homeless since they have the capacity to work and provide themselves with whatever they want.
• Homelessness in Vancouver, Canada: Discussing its Causes & Effects The second cause, which is characteristic of the city of Vancouver, is the increase in the number of poor people. Another cause of homelessness in Vancouver, which is diametrically related to low assistance levels, is […]
• Homelessness in the US The existing policies do not address the problem of homelessness in the US. The constitution was adjusted in 1949 to cater for the needs of the poor in society.
• Homelessness Studies and Their Ethical Dimensions It is clear that the individuals were not made aware of the consequences of these experiments. Such research can be made ethical if researchers devote more attention to people’s health during and after the trials’ […]
• Overpopulation and Homelessness in the Modern World According to the United Nations, more than half of the population resides in urban areas, making the problem of homelessness visible: cities cannot keep up with the high demand for housing, resulting in people living […]
• The Problem of Homeless People in Modern World In 1987, the number of homeless people in Canada was between 100,000 and 250,000 out of a total population of 28 million people. There are several negative impacts of homelessness to the homeless people.
• Why Is Being Homeless Not a Bad Idea? Another benefit of living on the streets is a chance to be withdrawn from the misery of modern life and technological advancements.
• Debunking the Myths on Homelessness: Misconceptions About the Social Status and Mental Health The point of concern is that the housing market, particularly in the United States, does not have enough low-cost living space that is affordable to the economical marginals and people with low income.
• Homelessness as a Major Healthcare Issue As such, relocating the money to provide shelter and improve housing for homeless people would ensure a positive result of spending the budget to care for the homeless.
• Giving Money to the Homeless: Is It Important? The question of whether a person should give money to a homeless person or not is a complicated one and cannot have the right answer.
• Homelessness: Improving Health Outcomes However, in the 1880s, the public perceptions of homelessness improved following the development of literature that appreciated their courage and willingness to deviate from monotony and oppression associated with industrial work.
• Health Problems Among Homeless People To sum up, it should be noted that homeless people, one of the most vulnerable groups in society, suffer from numerous health problems.
• Human Services and Needs Assessment of Homeless In the case study by Giffords, Alonso, and Bell, the purpose of gathering needs information is to assess and record the level of individual adolescents’ skills. A needs assessment is crucial for identifying the goals […]
• Homelessness in the United States Additionally, a variety of factors contributes to homelessness and they are deep within the makeup of the economy thus homelessness has remained an area of concern to the government, the social service providers and the […]
• The Issue of Homelessness in New York City The enormous drop in the number of single-room dwelling units in New York City during the rise of contemporary homelessness was the most crucial single shift in the city’s housing stock.
• Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” and Homelessness in the U.S. This paper aims to briefly summarize the plot and the themes of this short story and relate it to the current problem of homelessness in the United States.
• “Death of a Homeless Man” by Scott Russell Sanders The author stresses that the aim of the story is not simply to inform about the fact or some statistics concerning poverty or alcoholism in the USA.
• Poverty and Homelessness as a Global Social Problem What makes the task of defining poverty particularly difficult is the discrepancy in the distribution of social capital and, therefore, the resulting differences in the understanding of what constitutes poverty, particularly, where the line should […]
• Cultural Immersion Project for Homeless Group My practice was relatively positive and in line with the expectations and previously received information about the cultural group, as clients voluntarily underwent training and sought to reduce the level of aggression.
• Homelessness in the Context of Middle-Range Theories The purpose of this paper is to discuss the selected vulnerable group and its current health and social issues and then to analyze the application of several middle-range theories to the mentioned issues.
• Violating Norms: A Day in the Life of a Homeless Person He said it in a concerned manner that when my friend told him what I was up to, he laughed at the humor of it.
• Social Work and Homelessness Research Methodology A randomized controlled trial will be conducted to answer the following research question: what is the effectiveness of the Housing First program to street homelessness based on the experiences of both human service professionals and […]
• Homelessness in Australia: Geography of Unhealthy Housing The two primary domains that govern the social welfare needs of this population group are income support and housing assistance; however, there can be limitations in these policies that impact the well-being of homeless Australians.
• The Rights of the Homeless and the Contradictions of the Law Thus, there is a direct contradiction in this and similar municipal laws to the provision of the Constitution, as the Court of Appeals affirmed.
• Safe Golf in Sacramento: Solving the Homelessness Problem There are many problems and misunderstandings related to the problem of homelessness in Sacramento, but the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex is probably the most damaged organization in this context.
• Homelessness Solutions for the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex The point is that there is a homeless encampment behind the organization on Roseville Road, and the behavior and lifestyles of its resident deter golfers and potential guests of the complex from playing at the […]
• Homelessness in the Veteran Community Such social conditions may consist of bureaucracy, the lack of government investments, class distribution, the lack of ethical considerations within the scope of the legislation, and many others which can deprive the mentioned population of […]
• Nature and Importance of a Center for Homeless People The organizations offer community members an opportunity to give back to the community, and they will always be appreciated due to the fact that needy and homeless individuals will exist endlessly in the world.
• Understanding the Causes of Homelessness Poverty, in this case, was defined as the inability of a person to afford essential commodities such as food, shelter, and clothing. In this case, although alcoholism and drug use contributed to homelessness, the precedent […]
• Homeless People and Their Key Challenges Therefore, I continue to view homeless people as those deserving of equal compassion and sympathy as those having a home. Since I view homeless people as fellow human beings first, I continue to promote the […]
• Homeless as At-Risk Population Based on the statistics from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, about 580466 people were “experiencing homelessness on our streets and in shelters in America” as of 2020.
• Organization’s Mission to End Homelessness The rate of homelessness has been steadily increasing over the last decade in the U.S.due to foreclosures and unprecedented recessionary cycles.
• Poverty and Homelessness in American Society It is connected with social segregation, stigmatization, and the inability of the person to improve their conditions of life. The problem of affordable housing and poverty among older adults is another problem that leads to […]
• Homeless Populations in the United States For example, power is the ability to affect and manage external resources related to human behaviors and decisions that contribute to social movements and community change.
• Providing Medical Care to Homeless People During the COVID-19 Pandemic The first barrier affecting the provision of medical care to the homeless is social. The first possible socio-economic support for changes may be the opening of a department in each hospital to work with the […]
• The Homelessness Issue in Canada The amount of Canadians who are homeless on any nightly basis in Canada is believed to be at least 35,000 people.even though the average duration of stay in emergency housing is about 50 days, more […]
• Drug Abuse Among Homeless Young Adults in New Jersey The reason why young adults in New Jersey get involved in drugs and alcohol after becoming homeless is to manage their situations in an attempt to attain the tentative pleasure of life despite their problems. […]
• Promoting Wellbeing in Homeless People: Group Fitness Intervention The authors of this article conducted the study to give insight into the importance of considering homeless people in the society they belong. The importance of the study was to encourage people to have inclusivity […]
• Homelessness in the US: Effectiveness of Intervention The issue of properly maintaining a home was addressed as the client learned how to adapt to a home by himself.
• Issue of Youth Homelessness in Canada The third and fourth factors, the lack of education and unemployment, are interconnected, resulting in inconsistent and low income and the inability to afford proper housing.
• Homeless People and COVID-19: Maricopa Country Moved Homeless People In other words, it is necessary to increase the level of social assistance to the homeless, increasing the availability of housing and social benefits.
• The Health Care Delivery System for Homeless States are currently working to enhance the delivery of health services to the homeless via different shelters, abandon buildings, programs, and so on.
• Homelessness: Its Causes, Effects, and Prevention In this article, the professors collaborate in addressing the issue of homelessness and its impact on public health. In this article, the authors focus on the effects of homelessness on economies and public health.
• Vancouver Homeless Problem and Solutions It does not address the main source of the problem the financial struggles of homeless people and their inability to pay the rent.
• The National Intensive Case Management Program for Homeless Veterans: Critique The program is assessed using the four principles of community psychology, which include problems addressed, values reflected in the program approach and methods, conceptual foundation of the program, and action and research tools.
• Individual-Level Predictors for Becoming Homeless and Exiting Homelessness The research will enhance my skills into pertinence in analysis surrounding the identification of homelessness. Ways and methods that enable the analysis of a population cohort with defined characteristics to the aspect issues that impact […]
• “Homelessness, Housing Insecurity and Social Exclusion” in Asian Regions The article Homelessness, housing insecurity and social exclusion in China, Hong Kong, and Japan, written by Kennett and Mizuuchi, examines the issue of homelessness in Asian regions, emphasizing housing insecurity in Hong Kong.
• Homelessness in Canada: Reflective Analysis This analysis is intended to be an academic reflection and to cover issues related to the clarification of the topic, personal experiences, and the connection of the problem to global citizenship.
• “Homelessness Monologue”: A Fictional Story He is also white, and his appearance is disheveled: the face appears dirty and tired and has bruises; the clothes are torn, and the shoes can barely protect the feet. The partition in the middle […]
• Homelessness in Northern California The residents of Northern California faced frustration and anxiety, raising health and safety fears and causing multiple debates about poverty and discrimination in one of the wealthiest states of the country.
• Homelessness in Los Angeles County, California Hence, the purpose of this research is to explore the background of the homelessness issue in Los Angeles County, California, and provide a specific health education program for the identified vulnerable population.
• Poverty and Homelessness as Social Problem The qualifications will include a recommendation from the community to ensure that the person is open to help and willing to be involved in the neighborhood of Non-Return.
• Single, Low-Income, or Homeless Mothers’ Health and Parenting Problems To promote their wellbeing, health professionals may support homeless mothers in practices such as the use of strengths-anchored nursing, supporting ideas of good parenting, overcoming stigma, and discovering and eliminating the unsurmountable hindrances encountered within […]
• Community Meeting on Homelessness in the US The purpose of the public deliberations was to help the City Council make more informed decisions about how homeless encampments should be serviced and managed in the future. Power and influence are some of the […]
• The Issue of Homeless Veterans I learned a lot in the framework of the issue of homeless veterans. Among the primary problems, there is the absence of programs for the rapid adaptation of servicemen to a peaceful life.
• Navigating the System For Families Experiencing Homelessness As a social phenomenon, it is caused by a complex of social, economic, civil, and cultural conflicts, as a result of which a part of the population is deprived of living conditions, which are recognized […]
• The Problem of Homelessness in Society Societies begin to realize that the growth of homelessness is partly their fault, and it is also their responsibility not to let this issue get worse.
• Health Care for the Homeless According to Gent, people tend to dehumanize the people they see on the streets and respond to them as they would to objects, attempting to view them neutrally and seeing their need for help as […]
• The Problem of Homeless Youths With HIV-AIDS Studies carried out in the city of New York in 2008 showed that 21 percent of homeless youth males and 24 percent of homeless female youths had “more than 100 lifetime partners”. 5 percent of […]
• The Problem of Homeless People in St. Petersburg The problem under consideration concerns the number of homeless people living on the streets of the second-largest city in Russia. The intended results of the project’s activities are to increase the awareness of the residents […]
• Regulating Society: Criminalising Homelessness Intolerance of homelessness and homeless people by cities, law enforcement agencies, and the public accounts for such violent crimes against homeless people.
• Vulnerable Population: Homelessness In such a way, they will be more prepared to come up with quality personalized approaches to health care for this vulnerable population’s representatives.
• Drug Addiction Problem Among Homeless People There is a need to fill the data gap regarding the issues of magnitude, location, period, severity, and changeability of the SUD in the Skid Row community.
• Shelter and Public Welfare Resources for the Homeless One of the issues the campaign is currently facing is the lack of information about the problem, the current government programs, their strengths and weaknesses, and the input that general citizens can make for the […]
• Chronic Homelessness: Definition and Addressing the Issue The problem was first reported in the 1850s though it became a national problem in the 1870s shortly after the Civil War.
• Responding to Natural Disasters Considering Homeless Individuals In particular, I would ask them to pay attention to how culturally appropriate it is to put homeless people of different genders together to be compliant with Standard 11, which requires service providers to be […]
• Housing Interventions for Homelessness The interventions studied were TH and RRH with ES serving as a reference point or control, and the time length is manifested in the analysis, which assesses the general likelihood of a household returning to […]
• Homelessness: Social and Economic Problems It is these and other factors that contribute to homelessness, a condition that is seldom a choice for people who must live outside the comfort and security of a home environment.
• Homeless Shelter Health Care Services The search for articles was based primarily on the issues they addressed: they all concern the issue of health care for homeless people and try to single out the most optimal models of it.
• About the California Homeless The population of concerns is homeless youth under age 18 who seek shelter in the community of San Diego, California.
• Homelessness and Education in the USA Every child, homeless or not, has the right to a public school education that is equal to the standards of achievement that are available for all youths and children.
• Community Service Experience: Homeless Shelter The shelter also organizes outreach and humanitarian work during the day to ensure that homeless people in the community know about the shelter and the services it provides.
• Understanding of the Homeless Population The state of focus is Georgia and the County of Fulton. 2 percent of homeless individuals had severe cases of mental illnesses Nearly 34.
• Decision-Making in Business: Help Our Homeless Offspring The decision remains with the financial controller of the donor-corporation who is tasked with advising its organisation on whether to grant the funding.
• Homeless Persons as Vulnerable Population in the US The nature of homelessness and its link to the resources available, the status of health and related risks can be of great significant to nurses.
• Aggregate Homeless in Fulton County, Georgia The individuals who are homeless constituted 52% of the total homeless people in Fulton. The decrease in the numbers of the homeless was by 21 people.
• Mental Health & Incidences of Homelessness in Australia In Australia, as is the case in other countries across the world, it is generally assumed that most homeless individuals are faced with mental health challenges and that mental illness is a principal cause of […]
• Homeless Women and Healthcare: Access to Health Care, Medication, and Health Facilities Farmer suggested that the utter disregard to the plight of the marginalized who are most vulnerable in all aspects of social benefits is the “pathologies of power” that are symptoms and signs of structural inequality.
• Homeless Families Analysis One of the highlights of the existing studies is the idea of a “hunger-obesity paradox” determined by the body mass indicator of homeless adults and the rest of the people.
• A Need for an Effective Homelessness Policy in Florida 3 million disparity in the number of units available for rent and the number of households exacerbated the problem of homelessness in the country.
• The Problem of Homelessness in Australia: Social, Political, and Political Dynamics The involvement and collaboration of all key partners and stakeholders will make it possible for the country to overcome this problem.
• The Impact of Homelessness in California: Economic and Other Reasons The crisis intensified after the recession of 2008 when prices soared up, and now hundreds of thousands of people live in their tents or vehicles in LA, San Francisco, and other cities.
• Self-Efficacy and Smoking Urges in Homeless Individuals Pinsker et al.point out that the levels of self-efficacy and the severity of smoking urges change significantly during the smoking cessation treatment.
• Political Issue of Homelessness: Finding Solutions Despite the undoubted successes of the Trump administration in the economic sphere – it appeared possible to significantly reduce unemployment and overcome the mortgage crisis – the number of homeless people is constantly growing.
• The Issue of Homeless People in Los Angeles A reliable organization that provides statistics on the problem and aims to overcome it is the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA. The latter makes it difficult to find a well-paid job and get […]
• Christian Ethics: Homelessness in Atlanta According to it, it is a norm for all people to have an appropriate home where they can be safe. There is no legislation that can make others provide a vulnerable population with home, but […]
• Urban Planning Optimization and Homelessness Therefore, the urban planning should be revised regarding those private providers’ interests: the risk of failure for future city development would strongly increase in the areas of possible economic concern.
• Optimizing Urban Planning to Address Homelessness Researchers use sensitivity analysis to assess the contribution of single preference parameters to the uncertainty of the ranking of alternatives. In the same manner, authorities can create a database consisting of all the shelters for […]
• The York Region Alliance to End Homelessness The following are the objectives of the organization; To ensure that there is safe storage of furniture and other properties that belong to persons living in temporary shelters and those properties that have been donated […]
• Media’s Role in Framing Homelessness Apart from this whatever the weakness or merits of the commission’s plan are, there also exists a great and a huge gap between the policy’s level and the ways for an ordinary citizens in order […]
• The Hidden Homelessness in the City of Los Angeles Private organizations as well as volunteer groups have come to the rescue of homeless Skid Row’s residents, offering them shelter and other necessities.
• The Problem of Homeless People Is a Social The subject of homelessness allows me to understand that stable employment and control of financial accounts are the main things in the life of every person.
• Health Implications of Homelessness: Experiences and Emotional Feelings This study considers the aspect of health implications in homelessness through the essay written by a noted writer, Lars Eighner, through his various essay, significant among them being called ‘On dumpster diving.’ In this article […]
• The Homelessness Problem in the US: Issue Review A report dubbed “The changing character of homelessness in the United States” identifies a new breed of homeless in the US. According to them this was a contributing factor to the rising level of the […]
• The Problem of Homelessness in Metropolitan Areas In this sense, the authors identify four types of causes, which might appear one after another in a cycle: the underlying causes; the direct causes or catalysts which result in the loss of a home […]
• Homeless Students Problem in USA This essay discusses the causes and consequences of homelessness in the nation and a solution to decrease the problems faced by the homeless youngsters.
• The Problem of Homelessness: Media View It understands the role of the media in problem construction and the definition of the weight the matter carries to the public.
• Homelessness as a Cause of Concern Around the World Shortage and high cost of housing and the increasing cost of health care are becoming the main reasons for homelessness amongst people in most parts of the developed world. In the absence of houses to […]
• Volunteer Group Event for Homeless Children Such children will be the pillars of the future generation and hence it becomes a duty for each of us to contribute in making the lives of deprived children better.
• The Problem of Homelessness It should be pointed out that status of homeless people in the society varies from one country to another: in the United States, Western Europe or Australia, they have better opportunities of deriving support of […]
• Homeless Youths and Health Care Needs From such a perspective therefore, it is the intention of this research study to explore the issue of the challenges that are faced by the homeless youths in Cardiff, in the United Kingdom, as regards […]
• The Problem of Homelessness in the US That is why every government tries to provide the strategies for homelessness to help people to deal with the problem, but not all of them are successful.
• Problem of Homeless People in New York New York City, the city that never sleeps, and one of the most populous places on the earth, has been facing the huge task of providing homes to its citizens.
• The Homeless in Our Community The estimated half a million children that, at any one time, is homeless in America and their mothers represent the “fastest growing segment of the homeless population”.
• New York’s Homeless Children and Foster Care System Foster homes have to also face the challenge of developing the mentalities of the children are their clients, and care should be provided on that basis.
• Amicus Curiae: Defending the Rights of the Homeless Laws by the government that the poor should not be homeless and that those who are homeless should not be permitted to sit or roam around the sidewalks of the US cities are not fair.
• Evaluating the Self-Esteem of the Homeless The mission statement of the program indicates the central role played by the agency to the welfare of the society.”The Doe Fund’s mission is to develop and implement cost-effective, holistic programs that meet the needs […]
• Homelessness: A Huge Social Problem in Canada Lastly, homelessness was chosen as a topic of research because there is very little information about the issue especially in relation to health.
• Homeless Problem in the US In contrast to independent media, the task of mainstream media is to impress the audience and impress them by ‘current news’ and reports.
• Mental Healthcare Quality and Homelessness Levels According to the World Health Organization, “Health is a state of complete mental, physical and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
• Medical Care for Homeless Drug Users Homeless injection-drug abusers are a medically vulnerable group predisposed to high morbidity and limited access to high-quality care compared to non-drug users.
• Transitional Living Program Design for Homeless Adolescents The Homeless Trust organizes and directs the Miami-Dade County Homeless Plan, which is a central document of the county that regulates the government policy that addresses the issues of the homeless.
• The Issue of Homelessness in Modern World The problem is viewed from various perspectives by different authors, and many conclusions are valuable in terms of drawing attention to the issue.
• Homeless Population’s Needs and Human Services In short, the needs of homeless people are diverse and complex. In other words, rather than providing people with their everyday needs, the programs should aim at teaching the homeless about ways to overcome their […]
• Human Services: Transition for Homeless Adolescents The purpose of the program evaluation was to determine the effectiveness of the provided services and identify the barriers to the successful implementation of the program.
• Housing Families Inc. Addressing Homelessness The organization’s mission is to eliminate family homelessness with the help of providing a safe shelter and high-quality services for homeless families in need in Massachusetts.
• The US Government and Homes for Homeless People The situation with homeless people differs from one state to another, but common features of the issue and the ways the local authorities choose to deal with homelessness are similar.
• Social Work in the Military With Homeless Veterans The purpose of this statement is to immediately provide the patient with emotional support and encouragement while establishing initial rapport at the same time.
• Social Work and Homelessness in the United States The new study will analyze how different programs such as the Housing First have managed to minimize the impacts of homelessness.
• Affordable Housing Policy for American Homeless I have recently heard a politician saying that the government should offer more affordable housing to low-income housing. You may be right to some degree, but the task of government is to help those citizens […]
• The Real Needs of Homeless Youth in the United States Another threat for the homeless youth is sex trafficking the occurrence of which was documented in all the states of the USA.
• Anti-Homelessness Program’s Cost Benefit Analysis For the first program, the major benefit is the reduction of homelessness among adolescents and young adults as one of the most serious current social problems.
• Social Justice Group Work for Homeless Young Mothers The group discussed in the article was started for the purpose of assisting residents address the problem of homelessness especially in aspects of parenting and during pregnancy periods.
• Mental Illness and Homelessness in the United States Hence, there is a need to establish elaborate policies for addressing the problem of mental illness among homeless people in all regions in the US.
• The Needs of Students Experiencing Homelessness Thus, counselors will have a possibility to identify common patterns in the target learners’ behaviors and design the interventions that will help manage the emotional and psychological concerns of homeless students. It is crucial that […]
• A Look at Homelessness in Chicago When speaking about this problem in the context of the American city of Chicago, Illinois, it is worth noting that here, the level of homelessness is quite high.
• Crowdfunding Project to Help Homeless People To assess the marketability of the proposed project, it is important to answer the question, “Why is the project important?” Providing free haircuts and showers to homeless people proved to be a beneficial activity.
• Homelessness Among Students in the United States The number of homeless students is increasing due to rising costs of living and the lack of programs aimed at assisting this vulnerable population.
• Aboriginal Homelessness in Vancouver One of the examples of institutionalized discrimination is the existence of the Indian Act, first established to define the “Indian Status” and control the identity of Indigenous people.
• Homelessness in the US as a Solvable Problem The problem is believed to be caused by a wide range of social issues that have affected the country for the past centuries.
• American Homelessness, Its Causes and Solutions The United States of America has a fair share of the homeless. In the absence of poverty, the population would afford decent housing and avoid residing on the streets.
• Los Angeles: Housing, Homelessness, Drugs, Crimes For example, it is evident that Los Angeles has a number of gangs and groups living in the neighborhood. In this regard, agents recorded a significant decrease in the sale of houses in Los Angeles.
• Homelessness in “Light in August” and “Wise Blood” The concept of home is commonly regarded in relation to the process of formation of individual identity, and, in almost every culture, the definition of a home serves as an indicator of a person’s wholeness […]
• The Self-Care Habits and Patterns in Homeless Individuals This paper focuses on the collection and analysis of data in the study by Rew that targeted the self-care behaviors of homeless youth.
• Mentally Ill Homeless People: Stereotypes Therefore, it is interesting from the research point of view to analyze the stereotypes about the homeless with chronic mental conditions.
• Homelessness and School Readiness Evaluation Rog expected to define and underline the necessities of homeless families and their mechanisms of coping with the situation, review the correlation between homelessness in families, child and domestic abuse, and incidents of rape, and […]
• Mayor Schell’s Homeless Policy Reengineering The paper will also highlight the steps taken by Mayor Schell to redesign the program in order to fit the fresh goals.
• Issue of Homelessness in America Currently the numbers of homeless families have significantly increased compared with the number in 1980s and earlier. However, the numbers of homeless individuals and families have considerably augmented by over thirty percent in the last […]
• The Homeless Population Reducing The number of homeless Americans is increasing and these people, in the vast majority of cases, are also suffering from numerous diseases including HIV/AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, various mental disorders and so on.
• Homeless Veterans Causes and Effects The inability of the Department of Veterans Affairs to fast track compensation and funding for disabled veterans is linked to homelessness among many veterans.
• Christian Duty to Care for Homeless People While Catholic Social Teachings call for the people in the society to promote equality, the poor people in the society are seen as a nuisance to the financially liberated members of the society.
• Catholic Dealing With Poverty and Homelessness The idea of “common good” will support many people in the world. The practice will support many people in the world.
• Homelessness in Phoenix Arizona State People have different views regarding the help rendered to the homeless people, and indeed, there are those who feel that Arizona State should pay no attention to the homeless people.
• Public Administration: Homeless in Phoenix Various models have been adopted to eradicate the problem, but the general formula to control the issue has been through the exclusion of the homeless from the main city as lepers into the territorial confinement […]
• Minority Population at Risk: Homelessness For example, in improving the conditions of the homeless, employers should review the employment requirements and level of competencies in order to absorb the unemployed homeless.
• Homelessness in Canadian Society As a result, the demand for housing has surpassed the supply because of changes in government policies and efforts to address the issue of homelessness.
• Counting Homeless People in Seattle This research paper explores the possibilities of solving the problem of homeless and street families through counting them and presenting the best alternatives and suggestions on how this exercise should be done.
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Why it’s so hard to end homelessness in america.

City of Boston workers clear encampments in the area known as Mass and Cass.

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Alvin Powell

Harvard Staff Writer

Experts cite complexity of problem, which is rooted in poverty, lack of affordable housing but includes medical, psychiatric, substance-use issues

It took seven years for Abigail Judge to see what success looked like for one Boston homeless woman.

The woman had been sex trafficked since she was young, was a drug user, and had been abused, neglected, or exploited in just about every relationship she’d had. If Judge was going to help her, trust had to come first. Everything else — recovery, healing, employment, rejoining society’s mainstream — might be impossible without it. That meant patience despite the daily urgency of the woman’s situation.

“It’s nonlinear. She gets better, stops, gets re-engaged with the trafficker and pulled back into the lifestyle. She does time because she was literally holding the bag of fentanyl for these guys,” said Judge, a psychology instructor at Harvard Medical School whose outreach program, Boston Human Exploitation and Sex Trafficking (HEAT), is supported by Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Police Department. “This is someone who’d been initially trafficked as a kid and when I met her was 23 or 24. She turned 30 last year, and now she’s housed, she’s abstinent, she’s on suboxone. And she’s super involved in her community.”

It’s a success story, but one that illustrates some of the difficulties of finding solutions to the nation’s homeless problem. And it’s not a small problem. A  December 2023 report  by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said 653,104 Americans experienced homelessness, tallied on a single night in January last year. That figure was the highest since HUD began reporting on the issue to Congress in 2007 .

Abigail Judge of the Medical School (from left) and Sandra Andrade of Massachusetts General Hospital run the outreach program Boston HEAT (Human Exploitation and Sex Trafficking).

Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer

Scholars, healthcare workers, and homeless advocates agree that two major contributing factors are poverty and a lack of affordable housing, both stubbornly intractable societal challenges. But they add that hard-to-treat psychiatric issues and substance-use disorders also often underlie chronic homelessness. All of which explains why those who work with the unhoused refer to what they do as “the long game,” “the long walk,” or “the five-year-plan” as they seek to address the traumas underlying life on the street.

“As a society, we’re looking for a quick fix, but there’s no quick fix for this,” said Stephen Wood, a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics and a nurse practitioner in the emergency room at Carney Hospital in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. “It takes a lot of time to fix this. There will be relapses; there’ll be problems. It requires an interdisciplinary effort for success.”

A recent study of 60,000 homeless people in Boston found the average age of death was decades earlier than the nation’s 2017 life expectancy of 78.8 years.

Illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff

Katherine Koh, an assistant professor of psychiatry at HMS and psychiatrist at MGH on the street team for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, traced the rise of homelessness in recent decades to a combination of factors, including funding cuts for community-based care, affordable housing, and social services in the 1980s as well as deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals.

“Though we have grown anesthetized to seeing people living on the street in the U.S., homelessness is not inevitable,” said Koh, who sees patients where they feel most comfortable — on the street, in church basements, public libraries. “For most of U.S. history, it has not been nearly as visible as it is now. There are a number of countries with more robust social services but similar prevalence of mental illness, for example, where homelessness rates are significantly lower. We do not have to accept current rates of homelessness as the way it has to be.”

“As a society, we’re looking for a quick fix, but there’s no quick fix for this.” Stephen Wood, visiting fellow, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics

Success stories exist and illustrate that strong leadership, multidisciplinary collaboration, and adequate resources can significantly reduce the problem. Prevention, meanwhile, in the form of interventions focused on transition periods like military discharge, aging out of foster care, and release from prison, has the potential to vastly reduce the numbers of the newly homeless.

Recognition is also growing — at Harvard and elsewhere — that homelessness is not merely a byproduct of other issues, like drug use or high housing costs, but is itself one of the most difficult problems facing the nation’s cities. Experts say that means interventions have to be multidisciplinary yet focused on the problem; funding for research has to rise; and education of the next generation of leaders on the issue must improve.

“This is an extremely complex problem that is really the physical and most visible embodiment of a lot of the public health challenges that have been happening in this country,” said Carmel Shachar, faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. “The public health infrastructure has always been the poor Cinderella, compared to the healthcare system, in terms of funding. We need increased investment in public health services, in the public health workforce, such that, for people who are unhoused, are unsheltered, who are struggling with substance use, we have a meaningful answer for them.”

“You can either be admitted to a hospital with a substance-use disorder, or you can be admitted with a psychiatric disorder, but very, very rarely will you be admitted to what’s called a dual-diagnosis bed,” said Wood, a nurse practitioner in the emergency room at Carney Hospital.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Experts say that the nation’s unhoused population not only experiences poverty and exposure to the elements, but also suffers from a lack of basic health care, and so tend to get hit earlier and harder than the general population by various ills — from the flu to opioid dependency to COVID-19.

A recent study of 60,000 homeless people in Boston recorded 7,130 deaths over the 14-year study period. The average age of death was 53.7, decades earlier than the nation’s 2017 life expectancy of 78.8 years. The leading cause of death was drug overdose, which increased 9.35 percent annually, reflecting the track of the nation’s opioid epidemic, though rising more quickly than in the general population.

A closer look at the data shows that impacts vary depending on age, sex, race, and ethnicity. All-cause mortality was highest among white men, age 65 to 79, while suicide was a particular problem among the young. HIV infection and homicide, meanwhile, disproportionately affected Black and Latinx individuals. Together, those results highlight the importance of tailoring interventions to background and circumstances, according to Danielle Fine, instructor in medicine at HMS and MGH and an author of two analyses of the study’s data.

“The takeaway is that the mortality gap between the homeless population and the general population is widening over time,” Fine said. “And this is likely driven in part by a disproportionate number of drug-related overdose deaths in the homeless population compared to the general population.”

Inadequate supplies of housing

Though homelessness has roots in poverty and a lack of affordable housing, it also can be traced to early life issues, Koh said. The journey to the streets often starts in childhood, when neglect and abuse leave their marks, interfering with education, acquisition of work skills, and the ability to maintain healthy relationships.

“A major unaddressed pathway to homelessness, from my vantage point, is childhood trauma. It can ravage people’s lives and minds, until old age,” Koh said. “For example, some of my patients in their 70s still talk about the trauma that their parents inflicted on them. The lack of affordable housing is a key factor, though there are other drivers of homelessness we must also tackle.”

The number was the highest since the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began reporting on the issue to Congress in 2007 .

Most advocates embrace a “housing first” approach, prioritizing it as a first step to obtaining other vital services. But they say the type of housing also matters. Temporary shelters are a key part of the response, but many of the unhoused avoid them because of fears of theft, assault, and sexual assault. Instead, long-term beds, including those designated for people struggling with substance use and mental health issues, are needed.

“You can either be admitted to a hospital with a substance-use disorder, or you can be admitted with a psychiatric disorder, but very, very rarely will you be admitted to what’s called a dual-diagnosis bed,” said Petrie-Flom’s Wood. “The data is pretty solid on this issue: If you have a substance-use disorder there’s likely some underlying, severe trauma. Yet, when we go to treat them, we address one but not the other. You’re never going to find success in the system that we currently have if you don’t recognize that dual diagnosis.”

Services offered to those in housing should avoid what Koh describes as a “one-size-fits-none” approach. Some might need monthly visits from a caseworker to ensure they’re getting the support they need, she said. But others struggle once off the streets. They need weekly — even daily — support from counselors, caseworkers, and other service providers.

“I have seen, sadly, people who get housed and move very quickly back out on the streets or, even more tragically, lose their life from an unwitnessed overdose in housing,” Koh said. “There’s a community that’s formed on the street so if you overdose, somebody can give you Narcan or call 911. If you don’t have the safety of peers around, people can die. We had a patient who literally died just a few days after being housed, from an overdose. We really cannot just house people and expect their problems to be solved. We need to continue to provide the best care we can to help people succeed once in housing.”

“We really cannot just house people and expect their problems to be solved.”  Katherine Koh, Mass. General psychiatrist

Koh works on the street team for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

Photo by Dylan Goodman

The nation’s failure to address the causes of homelessness has led to the rise of informal encampments from Portland, Maine, to the large cities of the West Coast. In Boston, an informal settlement of tents and tarps near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard was a point of controversy before it was cleared in November.

In the aftermath, more than 100 former “Mass and Cass” residents have been moved into housing, according to media reports. But experts were cautious in their assessment of the city’s plans. They gave positive marks for features such as a guaranteed place to sleep, “low threshold” shelters that don’t require sobriety, and increased outreach to connect people with services. But they also said it’s clear that unintended consequences have arisen. and the city’s homelessness problem is far from solved.

Examples abound. Judge, who leads Boston HEAT in collaboration with Sandra Andrade of MGH, said that a woman she’d been working with for two years, who had been making positive strides despite fragile health, ongoing sexual exploitation, and severe substance use disorder, disappeared after Mass and Cass was cleared.

Mike Jellison, a peer counselor who works on Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program’s street team, said dismantling the encampment dispersed people around the city and set his team scrambling to find and reconnect people who had been receiving medical care with providers. It’s also clear, he said, that Boston Police are taking a hard line to prevent new encampments from popping up in other neighborhoods, quickly clearing tents and other structures.

“We were out there Wednesday morning on our usual route in Charlesgate,” Jellison said in early December. “And there was a really young couple who had all their stuff packed. And [the police] just told them, ‘You’ve got to leave, you can’t stay here.’ She was crying, ‘Where am I going to go?’ This was a couple who works; they’re employed and work out of a tent. It was like 20 degrees out there. It was heartbreaking.”

Prevention as cure?

Successes in reducing homelessness in the U.S. are scarce, but not unknown. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, has reduced veteran homelessness nationally by more than 50 percent since 2010.

Experts point out, however, that the agency has advantages in dealing with the problem. It is a single, nationwide, administrative entity so medical records follow patients when they move, offering continuity of care often absent for those without insurance or dealing with multiple private providers. Another advantage is that the VA’s push, begun during the Obama administration, benefited from both political will on the part of the White House and Congress and received support and resources from other federal agencies.

The city of Houston is another example. In 2011, Houston had the nation’s fifth-largest homeless population. Then-Mayor Annise Parker began a program that coordinated 100 regional nonprofits to provide needed services and boost the construction of low-cost housing in the relatively inexpensive Houston market.

Neither the VA nor Houston was able to eliminate homelessness, however.

To Koh, that highlights the importance of prevention. In 2022, she published research in which she and a team used an artificial-intelligence-driven model to identify those who could benefit from early intervention before they wound up on the streets. The researchers examined a group of U.S. service members and found that self-reported histories of depression, trauma due to a loved one’s murder, and post-traumatic stress disorder were the three strongest predictors of homelessness after discharge.

In April 2023, Koh, with co-author Benjamin Land Gorman, suggested in the Journal of the American Medical Association that using “Critical Time Intervention,” where help is focused on key transitions, such as military discharge or release from prison or the hospital, has the potential to head off homelessness.

“So much of the clinical research and policy focus is on housing those who are already homeless,” Koh said. “But even if we were to house everybody who’s homeless today, there are many more people coming down the line. We need sustainable policies that address these upstream determinants of homelessness, in order to truly solve this problem.”

The education imperative

Despite the obvious presence of people living and sleeping on city sidewalks, the topic of homelessness has been largely absent from the nation’s colleges and universities. Howard Koh, former Massachusetts commissioner of public health and former U.S. assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, is working to change that.

In 2019, Koh, who is also the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, founded the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health’s pilot Initiative on Health and Homelessness. The program seeks to educate tomorrow’s leaders about homelessness and support research and interdisciplinary collaboration to create new knowledge on the topic. The Chan School’s course “Homelessness and Health: Lessons from Health Care, Public Health, and Research” is one of just a handful focused on homelessness offered by schools of public health nationwide.

“The topic remains an orphan,” said Koh. The national public health leader (who also happens to be Katherine’s father) traced his interest in the topic to a bitter winter while he was Massachusetts public health commissioner when 13 homeless people froze to death on Boston’s streets. “I’ve been haunted by this issue for several decades as a public health professional. We now want to motivate courageous and compassionate young leaders to step up and address the crisis, educate students, motivate researchers, and better inform policymakers about evidence-based studies. We want every student who walks through Harvard Yard and sees vulnerable people lying in Harvard Square to not accept their suffering as normal.”

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Essays About Homelessness: Top 8 Examples Plus Prompts

Everyone has heard of homeless people at some point in their lives; if you are writing essays about homelessness, read our top essay examples and prompts.

Poverty is one of the greatest evils in the world. Its effects are seen daily, from people begging on the streets to stealing to support their families. But unfortunately, one of the most prominent and upsetting diversity is homelessness. Homelessness is a significant problem in even the most developed nations, including the U.S. and Canada. Despite all the resources used to fight this issue, countries often lack the means to reduce homelessness significantly. With the proper aid, homelessness can be entirely eradicated in the future. 

If you want to write essays about homelessness, keep reading to see our essay examples and helpful writing prompts.

2. A journey with the homeless by Sujata Jena

3. i chose to be homeless: reflections on the homeless challenge by emily kvalheim, 4. my experience being homeless by scott benner, 5. what people get wrong when they try to end homelessness by james abro, 1. causes of homelessness , 2. how can homelessness be reduced, 3. mental illness and homelessness, 4. reflection on homelessness, 5. is homelessness a “personal problem”.

Are you looking for more? Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays

1. That Homeless Man is My Brother by Megan Regnerus

“But the subtext of my friend’s statement is really Why should I give money to someone who’s lazy; who isn’t willing to work for money like I do?’ And to that I say, her opinion that people who ask for money are freeloaders who could work but choose not to, is based on assumption. It relies on the notion that the two things that shape us into able-bodied adults who can hold down a regular job, nature and nurture, are level playing fields. And they’re not.”

Regnerus writes about a friend’s claim that the homeless are “lazy,” reminding her of her homeless brother. She cites genetics and circumstance as contributing factors to homelessness. Despite the other woman being her friend, Regnerus strongly refutes her belief that the homeless are non-disabled freeloaders- they should be treated with empathy. For more, check out these articles about homelessness .

“I realize that the situation of poverty and homelessness is a huge social problem around the world. But when I meet them, I face fellow human beings, not some abstract “social problem.” The very phrase, “What would Jesus do at this scene?” haunted me.  I ventured to ask their names, age, where they came from, where they live (street, bridges, cemetery) and the reason they are on the streets. Their stories are poignant. Each one has a unique story to tell about his/her reason to be homeless, how they were forced to leave distant rural villages to live on the city streets. I tried to listen to them with empathy.”

In her essay, Jena remembers the homeless people in Manila, Philippines. She can see them beyond some “aspect of society” as human beings. She empathizes with them extensively and recalls the words of Jesus Christ about loving others, particularly the neediest.

“I, too, have not been compassionate enough, and I have allowed my prejudices to distort my view of the homeless. One woman, who sat across from me at a feeding program, talking to herself erratically, may have seemed strange to me before the Homeless Challenge. But when I really saw myself as her equal, and when I took the time to watch her get up and laugh as she danced to the music playing in the background, I thought she was beautiful. She had found her own happiness, amidst despair.”

Kvalheim details her experiences during an immersion challenge with the homeless. She recalls both the discrimination and generosity she experienced and her experiences with other homeless people. She was amazed to see how they could stay positive despite their terrible circumstances. We should be thankful for what we have and use it to help others in need. 

“As my funds dwindled, and the weather got colder, I sought shelter at Father Bill’s in Quincy Ma. When you are homeless, sometimes very small things mean a lot. A dry pair of socks, shoes without holes, a pocketful of change. You begin to realize how much you value your personal space. You begin to realize other people want space too. A lot of people have issues or have suffered in one way or another and you can see their pain. I think that there are people who for a variety of issue are chronically homeless and a larger portion of homeless are transitioning through a series of bad events.”

Benner’s essay, written for the company ArtLifting, reflects on his experience of being homeless for a brief while. Then, he and his wife grew ill, and Benner sought refuge at a homeless shelter after his company shut down. After that, he realized how his struggles were very different from those of others and the value of the more minor things he previously took for granted. Luckily, he escaped homelessness by making art with the help of ArtLifting. 

“The court denied my sister’s request and named me our mother’s legal guardian, but it appointed my sister as guardian of her property.  In 2009, when my mother passed away, my sister evicted me. The day I was scheduled to move out, I stood in a convenience store, dazed, as I stared at microwaveable meals.  These would be my new staple when I moved into the motel room. My phone rang—my sister.  She told me she needed me out of the house in a couple of hours—she was a real estate agent and a client wanted to see the house. ‘No hard feelings,’ she said.”

Similar to Benner, Abro narrates the circumstances surrounding his homelessness. After his mother’s death and a conflict with his sister led to his eviction, he ended up homeless. While his situation was unfortunate, he believes that there are many people worse off than him and that something must change to address the housing and poverty crises in America.

Top 5 Prompts On Essays about Homelessness

For your essay, it would be interesting to write about how people become homeless in the first place. Research the different causes of homelessness and elaborate on them, and be sure to provide sources such as statistics and anecdotes. 

What solutions to homelessness can you think of? In your essay, propose at least one way you think the homelessness problem can be solved or at least reduced. It must be concrete, realistic, and defensible; be sure to explain your solution well and defend its feasibility, backing up your claims with facts and logic. 

Homelessness and mental health can be linked—research into declining mental health and how homelessness can impact a person’s mental well-being. Make sure to use research data and statistics to show your findings. Conclude whether poor mental health can cause homelessness or if homelessness causes poor mental health.

You can write about what homelessness means to you in your essay. Perhaps you’ve heard stories of homeless people, or maybe you know someone who is or has been homeless. Use this essay to highly the effects of homelessness and how we can work together as a society to eradicate it.

Many say that homeless people “choose to be homeless” and are underachievers; otherwise, they would simply “get a job” and lift themselves out of poverty. Is this true? Research this topic and decide on your stance. Then, write about whether you agree with this topic for a compelling argumentative essay.

If you’re still stuck, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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California is the U.S. capital for homelessness. What will it take to turn that around?

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Three cities offer hope on California’s homelessness crisis

After roughly 11 years living on the streets of San Diego, Rachel Hayes moved into an apartment last summer. But adjusting to the roof over her head has been a process. For a while she’d wake up every few hours in the night, unfamiliar with the stillness, solitude and quiet of her own space. She even returned to her tent to sleep on the street some nights.

She felt lucky — and a little guilty — to have a home again when so many of her friends and neighbors don’t.

“I shouldn’t be the only person on this block to get housing,” she said. “If it takes 10-plus years to get housing, there’s something wrong in the system … it’s fixable, but it’s broken.”

California leads the nation in homelessness

Despite tens of billions of dollars allocated in recent years, homelessness has worsened.

The state’s homeless population has climbed 40% over five years. The latest federal estimates show more than 181,000 Californians were unhoused in 2023, with nearly 70% living on the streets.

About half of all unsheltered people living in the U.S. live in the Golden State, according to the California state auditor’s office , which summed up the problem plainly:

“We build only a fraction of the affordable housing residents need.”

And if you thought the state was diligently tracking the outcomes of the programs all those billions fund, my colleague Mackenzie Mays has some bad news for you .

“I’m not interested in funding failure any longer,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week . “I want to see results. Everybody wants to see results.”

The systems that respond to homelessness are not working

I spent months speaking to people in power, people doing what they think can help their unhoused neighbors and people who’ve forged a path into housing for themselves.

Everyone told me a version of the same thing: The systems meant to respond to and reduce homelessness mostly fail to get people on paths to secure housing. They pointed to government ineptness, entrenched political inertia or forces beyond local control such as the global pandemic.

“We’re at a place in California, unfortunately, where doing well is often running in place,” said Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine and director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (BHHI) at UC San Francisco.

Cities can pour more resources into the emergency solutions, such as new and larger temporary shelters, Kushel said. That could “remove the problem from the public eye” and might look like an improvement in a city’s metrics.

“But [it’s] not really,” Kushel told me. “And everyone is still homeless.”

A supreme court case could change the equation

In rulings over the last nearly 20 years, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has said that arresting or fining people who have no access to shelter violates the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

If the Supreme Court reverses the 9th Circuit in a case lawyers are arguing today, city officials and their police forces in the Western states could remove homeless encampments from sidewalks, parks or other public areas.

But moving homeless people around is different than solving homelessness.

A consensus is growing: The problem is housing

While mental health issues and substance abuse play a major role, ultimately it’s poverty that deepens the spiral for people living on the streets. The growing consensus from experts, advocates and government officials is that increasing affordable housing is the key to reducing homelessness.

“In 2023, California had only 24 units of housing available and affordable for every 100 extremely low-income households,” BHHI researchers noted in a recent study .

My colleagues have been diligently reporting on the relationship between housing and homelessness.

Some examples:

• California is building fewer homes. The state could get even more expensive.
• California spent billions on homelessness without tracking if it worked.
• The truth about our homelessness crisis: As Californians age, they are priced out.
• The Times’ investigations into Skid Row’s troubled housing providers.
• Why clearing encampments became harder in California than most other states.

And there’s more to unpack.

A broken but fixable system?

When I checked in with her months later, Rachel Hayes had an update: she’d packed up her tent and is living in her apartment with her boyfriend full time. She continues to visit her friends, and advocate for the city to house them.

“It should be a constitutional right to have housing, no matter what the circumstances are,” she said. “We have people’s grandparents living out here. We have young people [like] my neighbor. She’s pregnant. She’s on the streets. That’s inexcusable.”

Rachel hopes that she can heal from the trauma of over a decade of living outside.

“You can’t show weakness on the streets; you always have to be in survival mode and constantly be aware of everything around you,” she told me. “There are times I want to run from housing back to what I’ve known for over the past 10 years. [But] housing is giving me the foundation to fix me.”

Over the next three days, I will take you on a journey across California to unpack what I heard from Rachel and others about the system itself: that it’s broken — but “fixable.”

We’ll head to:

• Bakersfield , where an intense focus on new metrics helped the city and county solve homelessness. It just didn’t last.
• San Diego , where some business leaders are floating their own solution.
• Sacramento , where the unhoused community unionized and signed a first-of-its-kind lease with the city.

Today’s top stories

Climate and environment

• California tribal leaders see a “symbol of hope” in the roughly 500,000 salmon the state has released into the Klamath River. That hope could be realized in a few years when the salmon make their way back upstream a revitalized river.
• California wants to harness more than half of its land to combat climate change by 2045.
• New scientific interventions are here to fight climate change. But they aren’t silver bullets.
• A new study has found that climate change supercharged a heat dome, which intensified the 2021 fire season.
• A Santa Monica elementary school has plans to modernize its campus. Then toxic dry cleaning chemicals were found in the soil.

State, local and national politics

• Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling out Republican abortion policies in a new TV ad running in Alabama.
• A federal subsidy that helps nearly 3 million Californians and millions more households across the U.S. connect to the internet is slated to expire in May.
• L.A. Mayor Mayor Bass’ ambitious housing program calls on the city’s wealthy. Can she pull it off?
• The House votes for possible TikTok ban in the U.S., but don’t expect the app to go away any time soon.

Festival of Books

• Some writers and readers wrestle with tough subjects at the 29th event.
• Check out the best portraits from the festival , including Henry Winkler, Octavia Spencer and Mark Harmon.
• Poet Victoria Chang touches on feminism, grief and art.

More big stories

• The Supreme Court hears a case today that could upend California’s homelessness policies.
• Inside an Arizona abortion clinic: uncertainty looms and optimism reigns.
• Police responded to an alarm around the time of a $30-million heist, but thieves were undetected.
• A suspect was arrested in a break-in at L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’s home.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here .

Commentary and opinions

• George Skelton: California’s budget relies on the richest taxpayers, and we’re paying the price.
• Robin Abcarian: Here’s how antiabortion absolutists plan to drag California back to the 19th century.
• Mark Z. Barabak : Kevin McCarthy wants vengeance. Now he’s free to pursue it.
• Opinion: USC got it wrong in canceling valedictorian’s speech. Here’s what the school should do now.

Today’s great reads

Along the 110 Freeway, a set of encampments built from repurposed housing materials epitomize the L.A. homelessness crisis. Times reporter Nathan Solis visited and spoke with immigrants who have fashioned their own home in gentrifying Highland Park , finding sanctuary “at a time when so many throughout the region are struggling to get by.”

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected] .

For your downtime

• 🛏️ What is it like to live in an L.A. hotel? Here’s a glimpse.
• 🥁 USC Thornton’s Chamber Music Festival is happening this week. Catch winds and percussion at Monday’s free performances.
• 🎞️ Provocative ‘Civil War’ prevails at the box office in its second weekend.
• 📺 Good news for “Bluey” fans: following last week’s special “The Sign,” a new episode is available now on Disney+.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for chocolate sheet cake.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games .

And finally ... a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! We’re running low on submissions. Send us photos that scream California and we may feature them in an edition of Essential California.

Today’s great photo is from Kevin Smalley of West Hollywood: a tiny spotted visitor enjoying Refugio State Beach , in Goleta, Calif.

Kevin writes: “A camping trip to Refugio State Beach in Goleta, CA, provided tons of rock formations, tide pools, palms, and reliable breathtaking sunsets to photograph. But my favorite shot happened when I sat down near the water’s edge to simply admire the view. It seemed so unexpected to find the polka dot creature crawling among sea glass and kelp!”

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Ryan Fonseca, reporter Joe Mozingo, deputy Metro editor Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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Ryan Fonseca writes the Los Angeles Times’ Essential California newsletter. A lifelong SoCal native, he has worked in a diverse mix of newsrooms across L.A. County, including radio, documentary, print and television outlets. Most recently, he was an associate editor for LAist.com and KPCC-FM (89.3) public radio, covering transportation and mobility. He returns to The Times after previously working as an assistant web editor for Times Community News, where he helped manage the websites and social media presence of the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press and La Cañada Valley Sun. Fonseca studied journalism at Cal State Northridge, where he now teaches the next generation of journalists to develop their voice and digital skills.

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Poverty and Homelessness

Introduction

According to Rios, E. more than 43 million people in the US are poor. To put this into perspective, 43 million is like a seventh of the population. Statistically, this may not be so bad. However, if one is to consider each of these 43 million people as individuals rather than just a part of the American equation, the situation is quite sickening. 43 million people struggle to put food on the table and even get a warm place to sleep. They struggle with health care and education as well as access to other essential utilities like electricity and the internet, all things that those who are not poor would take for granted. Another considerable challenge associated with poverty in the US is homelessness. Poor people cannot afford their rent or mortgage payments, and they cannot qualify for a loan in any financial institution in the US. Also, not everyone has a relative with whom they can stay until they can pay their rent and this situation leaves many people out on the streets. Statistics indicate that 1 in 5 children in the US lives in abject poverty too. Such demographics only makes the case even bleaker. It can thus be noted that the US has enough poor people to fill an entire nation, with more than 15 million children also being unable to access basic needs due to their socio-economic status.

While some people have argued that poverty is perceived, homelessness is real problem afflicting many people even in developed economies such States of America despite the governments intervention.

Defining Poverty and Homelessness Within the American Context

Being homeless is simply not having a place to call home. Most people who are homeless live on the streets while there are those who live in the homeless shelters or abandoned buildings on the outskirts of the cities. Within the US, the official poverty level for a family of four is around $24,300. It can be noted that in most states, the minimum wage set by the federal government is around $7.25 per hour. To make $24,300 per year, one adult worker would have to earn at least $11.68 per hour and work for at least 40 hours a week. Most states intend to increase their minimum wage to over $12 by 2020, but until then, most of the working class in the US is living below the poverty line. Not all poor people are however homeless. Some reside in slums, others live in their homes and get to struggle with property taxes, while others live with relatives. A majority of these poor people, however, spend over half of their income on housing, with limited money remaining for other utilities and food stuff. And while such families should be grateful for having a roof over their heads, they languish in poverty just like their homeless counterparts on the streets only because they cannot afford food, electricity, and water. They thus get cold at night just like those out in the streets, and they sleep hungry a little too often. They cannot afford a health care cover, and they rely on public education for the children. It was recorded in 2013 that over 1.3 million school going children were homeless, with another 51% of those children being too young to go to school but still living on the streets. Comparatively, there are over 2.7 million children on the streets of the United States.

There are many reasons for homelessness within the US. The first and considerably apparent reason are that the market prices for housing are significantly high compared to the minimum wage in the country. If a majority of the families are unable to make 24,000 a year, it is expected that most of them would not be able to afford the increasing rent prices across the nation. The average rent in a small apartment within the US is $1000 per month. This is in some of the middle and low-income neighbourhoods, exclusive of power, water, and the internet. The average price of electricity is around $0.12 per kWh. The average electricity bill for a family of four is close to $200 especially in the colder states where heating is mandatory for most of the year. Furthermore, the costs go higher based on the needs of the family. At a minimum of $1200 per year, the family would need at least $14,400 for the housing only. Food prices are also rather high, not mentioning clothes, gas for transportation, and school necessities such as books and pens that may not be provided for the students. Also, there is the rare illness that may need an over the counter prescription. Catering to the housing needs often leaves a family destitute especially if the breadwinner is a minimum wage worker. If both parents work, the family has a better chance of making it comfortably since one of their salaries can cover food and clothes while the other is dedicated to the housing and other related bills.

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Another reason for homelessness in the US is unemployment. Some families may have finished paying their mortgages in the past, but with the rising level of unemployment, they were either unable to pay the property taxes, or they took out a mortgage and could not afford to pay back thus their homes being foreclosed. Regardless of the reason, in this case, it is important to note that the financial institutions in the US are responsible for most of the homeless situations in the country. The last recession saw a lot of foreclosures, and there still are many families that are yet to recover. This means that most of the homeless families on the streets are a result of an economic meltdown that was not in any way their fault. Another group of victims is those who ended up on the streets after the massive downsizing initiatives that saw thousands of Americans losing their jobs. The recent past has not been very favourable for the middle, and low-income Americans as most of them ended up on the streets.

Government Response

The US is one of the largest economies in the world, with most of the wealth consolidated in the top 1% of the population. Members of the working class in the country are consistently victims of unfavourable policies that leave them stranded in the cycle of poverty. They either spend all their money on rent or they live on the streets and have something to eat. It is often a tough choice to make, with most of the low-income families living in slums and wallowing in so much debt that they are consistently on the verge of being thrown out of their homes as well. The American government has not been completely ignoring the poverty issue, but the government has spent more time focusing on the rich than on the poor. Once upon a time, the concept of the American dream was realistic and very achievable, but in the recent past, only the rich get richer as nobody remembers the poor. Thus, when considering what actions the government has taken so far, it is more reasonable to focus on what the government should do to handle this problem efficiently and sustainably.

Poverty is associated with many other demographic factors within the US. Gender and ethnicity are the most common ones in this pretext. Illegal immigrants are automatically expected to be among the poorest people in this country since they get most of the minimum wage jobs and are in some cases even further exploited by the employers based on their illegal status. For an illegal immigrant, living on the streets is far too dangerous as well, but in most cases, they have no alternative considering they cannot afford rent on their meagre earnings. African Americans and Latinas then follow, based on their inability to access well-paying jobs that are often reserved for the educated people. Families that live on the streets rarely get to send a child to college. This means that the children raised on the street have a high chance of ending up on the same streets that they grew up in. As such, the government is not doing anything that can be expected to have tangible results. The school systems make people dependent on joining college and getting a job, with not enough jobs to employ all the graduates either. Thus, the masses remain in poverty and living on the streets for most of their lives.

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Despite being in the top tier of the global wealth statistics, the US has the highest number of poor and homeless people. Ideally, the government would be working tirelessly to change the situation, but the US government is more interested in the 1 out 100 people who are rich than in the 1 out of 7 individuals who are poor. This leaves many families with over 15 million children living below the poverty level and close to 3 million children living on the streets. It would be impractical to expect the government to provide shelter for all the homeless people in this country, but there should be some commitment towards ending poverty in the country preferably. One of the solution the US government can use to alleviate poverty is through raising the minimum wage faster than the 2020 timeline that most states have, seeing as this is how families end up on the street in the first place.

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Poverty And Homelessness Essay

Poverty and Homelessness are two very big problems in the world today. Poverty is defined as the state of being poor, uncomfortable or having little money. According to the World Bank, poverty is when a person lives on less than $1.90 a day. homelessness is defined as the condition of people without a regular dwelling. A home may be lost due to eviction, foreclosure, or disaster, among other reasons. Homelessness has many causes, including job loss, mental illness, and addiction.

Poverty and homelessness are often linked together because people who are homeless often have very little money. This can make it hard to afford things like food and shelter. Poverty can also lead to mental health problems, which can make it even harder to find and keep a job. Poverty and homelessness are both major problems that need to be addressed.

There are many ways to help people who are homeless or living in poverty. One way is to donate money or time to organizations that help these individuals. Another way is to volunteer at shelters or food banks. You can also advocate for policy changes that would help reduce poverty and homelessness.

Poverty and homelessness are complex issues with no easy solutions. But by working together, we can make a difference in the lives of those who are affected by these problems.

This analysis will focus on the causes of homelessness and poverty, as well as some possible solutions to these problems. Poverty and homelessness are complex issues, but by understanding them better, we can make a difference in the lives of those who are affected by them.

Children who attend school are affected by homelessness and financial scarcity. It has gotten worse in recent years, with 1.5 million children homeless, according to Introduction to Teaching. The issue of kids being homeless was addressed in the essay I selected.

The first step is to identify the signs that a child may be homeless. These include:

-The child is constantly tired and falls asleep in class

-The child comes to school dirty and unkempt

-The child does not have the proper supplies or clothing for school

-The child is constantly hungry

If you see any of these signs, it is important to reach out to the child and see if they need help. There are many ways to help a homeless student. You can donate clothes or supplies, you can tutoring them after school, or even just being there to listen to them. It is important to remember that each child is different and will need different things. The most important thing is to just be there for them.

Because chapter two discusses the concerns that homeless children confront when going to school, and the essay is a guide for assisting those kids, it is connected to chapter 2. The article explains simple yet effective procedures for how educators may help as well as emphasizing why it’s so crucial that we assist these youngsters. It’s critical that teachers be present to assist students who don’t have a permanent residence situation.

The article then gives five tips of what educators can do to help. The first tip is to be proactive and make sure that the school is a stable environment for the child. This means having a consistent place for the child to go, and making sure they have the supplies they need. The second tip is to communicate with the parents or guardians, if possible. This way, you can work together to make sure the child has what they need.

The third tip is to be aware of the signs of homelessness, so you can identify children who may need help. The fourth tip is to advocate for children who are homeless. This means speaking up for them and making sure their needs are met. And finally, the fifth tip is to provide resources and referrals to families who are homeless. This can help them get the help they need to get back on their feet.

If we can all take these simple steps, we can make a big difference in the lives of homeless children. We have the power to change their future, and it starts with us.

When people think about the poor and homeless, they typically envision individuals who are sleeping or resting on park benches or bridges. They consider those who are filthy, ragged-clad, untidy, and begging or fundraising for food. Poverty and homelessness can affect anybody at any age, race, or gender.

Poverty is defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Poverty can also be described as a lack of resources to meet basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter. Homelessness is the condition of people without a regular dwelling.

People who are homeless are often forced to live in shelters, on the streets, in cars or abandoned buildings. Poverty and homelessness often go hand-in-hand. According to the National Poverty Center, “As of 2010, there were 643,067 homeless people in the United States.” The majority of homeless people are male (70%), but females and children make up a significant portion of the homeless population as well.

There are many causes of poverty and homelessness. Some of the main causes are: loss of job, illness or disability, domestic violence, drug or alcohol addiction, and mental illness. Poverty can lead to homelessness, and vice versa. Homelessness can cause a person to lose their job because they may not have access to transportation or proper clothing to interview in.

They may also miss out on work opportunities because they don’t have a safe place to store their belongings or take care of personal hygiene. Poverty can also cause homelessness indirectly. For example, if a family is living in poverty and cannot afford rent, they may be evicted and become homeless.

Poverty and homelessness often go hand-in-hand because they both can lead to a downward spiral that is hard to break out of. Poverty can lead to homelessness, and then homelessness can lead to more poverty. A person who is homeless may not have access to resources that could help them get out of poverty, such as education or job training. They may also struggle to meet their basic needs, which can make it difficult to focus on anything else.

There are many different ways to help those who are affected by poverty and homelessness. Some of the main ways are: providing shelter, food, clothing and other basic necessities; offering job training and education; and providing mental health and addiction counseling. There are many organizations that work to fight poverty and homelessness, such as government agencies, non-profit organizations and faith-based groups. These organizations often provide financial assistance, resources and support to help those in need.

Poverty and homelessness are complex issues that affect people of all ages, races and genders. There are many different causes of poverty and homelessness, and they often go hand-in-hand. There are many different ways to help those who are affected by poverty and homelessness, but more needs to be done to address these issues.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Homelessness — Homelessness Problem Solution

Homelessness Problem Solution

• Categories: Homelessness Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Words: 440 |

Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 440 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Causes of homelessness, solutions to homelessness.

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Cecil Williams, Whose San Francisco Church Became a Haven, Dies at 94

As the well-connected pastor of the Glide Memorial Church in the blighted Tenderloin district, he preached a “radically inclusive” gospel in serving people in need.

By Richard Sandomir

The Rev. Cecil Williams, a charismatic minister who turned a fading church in the gritty Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco into a vibrant hub of worship, activism and social services, died on Monday at his home in the city. He was 94.

His death was announced by the Glide Foundation, an offshoot of the Glide Memorial Church, which he transformed over the course of 60 years as its pastor and spiritual leader.

Mr. Williams preached the need to be “radically inclusive,” which he said meant creating a community to alleviate suffering and break the cycle of poverty.

“The reason this place is what it is, is that there are those of us who love unconditionally,” he said in a recorded sermon. “We don’t put no barriers up. Everybody is alike even though we’re different.”

He added, “We’re going to break all of the barriers and let you know that we love you and accept you.”

That open door extended to people with drug addictions, the homeless, and the L.G.B.T.Q. community. He performed same-sex weddings decades before they were legalized in the United States.

“Cecil helped build the lesbian, gay and transgender movement,” Randy Shaw, the executive director of the nonprofit Tenderloin Housing Clinic and author of “The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco” (2015), said in an interview. “At the same time that police were arresting gays and lesbians in bars, they had a home at Glide.”

Mr. Williams was a whirlwind inside and outside the church. He was a founder of the ministerial Council on Religion and the Homosexual in 1964 and welcomed to the church groups like Huckleberry’s for Runaways and the National Sex Forum. He hosted events for the Black Panthers and in 1970 lobbied to free Angela Davis, the leftist activist and professor, who had been imprisoned on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. (She was acquitted in 1972.)

He made Glide a home to the antiwar movement and was chairman of Citizens Alert, a 24-hour hotline for people who had been harassed or beaten by the police, especially those in marginalized communities.

In 1974, Mr. Williams acted as an intermediary between the family of Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical group that had kidnapped her.

Fifteen years later, he convened a conference to find solutions to the crack cocaine epidemic that was devastating the Black community.

“We’ve been through slavery, but this is a new kind of slavery,” he told The Oakland Tribune in 1989. “I’ve seen on the streets how our brothers and sisters are suffering. We’re here today to pick up the pieces.”

With his wife, Janice Mirikitani (who was the poet-laureate of San Francisco from 2000 to 2002), Mr. Williams built Glide into a citadel of social services that include free meals, child care, and H.I.V. and hepatitis C testing; an intervention program for battering cases and another to help women recover from various kinds of trauma; a legal clinic; and a walk-in center for those in need of housing, hygienic help and emotional support.

The Glide Foundation has also built 52 units of low-income federal housing near the church, in partnership with another foundation.

“The true church,” Mr. Williams told USA Today in 1995, “stays on the edge of life, where the real moans and groans are.”

Albert Cecil Williams was born on Sept. 22, 1929, in San Angelo, a segregated city in central Texas. His father, Cuney Earl Williams, was a janitor at a white church, and his mother, Sylvia Lizzie Best, was a teacher who later owned an employment agency. His maternal grandfather had been enslaved.

His mother told Cecil early on that he was going to be a minister. By some accounts, she nicknamed him “Rev” when he was as young as 2 years old.

“Someone’s going to be the reverend in this family, and you’re it,” he recalled her saying in a joint memoir with Ms. Mirikitani, “Beyond the Possible: 50 Years of Creating Radical Change in a Community Called Glide” (2013).

At 12, he had a terrifying nervous breakdown that was caused, he wrote, by “the contrast between my family telling me I was the ‘Rev’” and actions by white people that “confirmed I was powerless.” When he recovered, he focused on becoming a minister and leading a church that would embrace people of every color.

Mr. Williams received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Huston-Tillotson College (now University) in Austin, Texas, in 1952. That year, with four other Black students, he integrated the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He graduated in 1955.

Over the next eight years, he served as a pastor at churches in Hobbs, N.M., and Kansas City, Mo.; was an instructor at Huston-Tillotson; and studied at the University of Texas, Austin, as well as at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif.

In 1963, when he was appointed to Glide — then a part of the United Methodist Church — Mr. Williams knew that people referred to the Tenderloin as “the last circle of hell,” with its many homeless, poor and troubled people, its flophouses and its brothels.

Yet, he wrote, as he walked through that downtown neighborhood for the first time, he had a different vision: “I saw the most blessed place on earth.”

Mr. Williams made changes at the church, which had been a conservatively run institution founded as the Glide Memorial Evangelistic Center in 1929 by Lizzie Glide, the wife of a wealthy cattleman. (The name was changed to the Glide Memorial Methodist Church in 1939.) He removed all the crosses from the sanctuary as a message to emphasize life, not death. “We must all be the cross,” he said.

A compelling speaker, Mr. Williams added a rollicking choir and a house band. He boosted membership from double figures into the thousands. Along the way, he became one of the most prominent religious figures in San Francisco, through his social programs and fund-raising. He had “a personal relationship with super-wealthy people,” Mr. Shaw said.

Mr. Williams worked with Dianne Feinstein during her tenure as the city’s mayor, from 1978 to 1988, and was a friend to his fellow San Franciscan Nancy Pelosi, the future House speaker, who after his death praised him as a “spiritual giant.”

Glide raised more than $50 million through annual auctions of lunches with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett , including $19 million in 2022, his last. (Mr. Buffett’s wife, Susie, had tipped off her husband to the church’s myriad good works.)

Mr. Williams is survived by his daughter, Kim Williams, and his son, Albert Jr., both from his marriage to Evelyn Robinson, which ended in divorce in 1976; a stepdaughter, Tianne Feliciano; three grandchildren; and one step-grandson.

Ms. Mirikitani took a job at Glide as a temporary typist in 1965 and rose to church program director and became president of the Glide Foundation in 1982, the year she and Mr. Williams were married. She died in 2021.

Mr. Williams retired as pastor in 2000 but remained the church’s spiritual leader in other roles and chief executive of the foundation. He formally stepped away from the church last year.

Marvin K. White , the church’s minister of celebration, or senior minister, said in an interview that Mr. Williams’s physical decline over the last decade had served as something of a message to the congregation.

“When I came here as an intern, he was able-bodied and wandered the pews,” Mr. White said. “Then he was on a cane, and he took up less space. And then he used a walker, and I had to help him stand up. He was visibly wobbly, and the congregation would lean forward as if he was going to fall. Then he was in his final shape, in a wheelchair.

“Every time he stepped back and made himself smaller,” Mr. White said, “he asked us to fill in the space.”

Richard Sandomir is an obituaries writer. He previously wrote about sports media and sports business. He is also the author of several books, including “The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic.” More about Richard Sandomir