Running head: THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME 1

There’s no Place like Home: The Analysis of Homelessness in Virginia

Andrew T. Moore

First Colonial High School Legal Studies Academy

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME 2

Abstract

This paper is about the issues of homelessness in America and Virginia in particular. The author

will start off the paper explaining the history of homelessness in America and will explain how

far back homelessness dates in this country. After that he will then explain the different ways to

help prevent homelessness from growing. The author also lays out the leading causes of the issue

and then explains ways to assist the homeless in their struggle to survive on the street. He

outlines different organizations that help the homeless population in the United States and his

home state of Virginia. Once he defines all of the causes, the author will then state some laws

that help and hurt the homeless. Finally the author will present solutions to solving the issue of

homelessness and the best ways to get involved in aiding the process of ending homelessness.
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME 3

There’s no Place like Home: The Analysis of Homelessness

History of Homelessness

Homelessness has been present in America since 1640. In the 1640s homelessness was

seen as a moral deficiency. It was generally believed a good Christian, under God’s grace, would

naturally have their needs met. People outside of that were deserving of their misfortune as God

enforced justice fairly. Today, those experiencing homelessness has nothing to do with a

person’s religious beliefs but rather their financial situation most of the time. Homelessness is a

complex social issue with many moving parts. Unfortunately, for those experiencing

homelessness, the impact of the values of the 1640s are still present. “Displacement of people

has many causes; industrialization, wars and subsequent problems, natural disasters, racial

inequities, medical problems, widowhood, and the values of a nation as represented by their

policies relating to the disenfranchised” ("The History of Homelessness in America 1640s to

Present," 2014).

There was an abundant amount of people in America who were homeless during the 19th

century, and this lead to the development of poorhouses. Poorhouses were tax-supported

residential institutions to which people were required to go if they could not support themselves.

They were started as a method of providing a less expensive alternative to solve the problem.

This method was called outdoor relief back then, but now it is known as welfare. If someone had

needs that were great or likely to be long-term, they were sent to the poorhouse instead of being

given relief while they continued to live independently. Sometimes they were sent there even if

they had not requested help. That was usually done when they were found guilty of begging in

public. Before poorhouses, people who could not support themselves and their families were put

up for bid at public auction. In an unusual type of auction, the pauper was sold to the lowest
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME 4

bidder. This was the person who would agree to provide room and board for the lowest price for

a specific period of time. The person who got the contract got the use of the labor of the person

or their family for free in return for feeding, clothing, housing and providing healthcare ("History

of 19th Century American Poorhouses," n.d.).

Poor safety regulations in the poorhouses caused a lot of physical disability and death.

One of the regulations of each poorhouse was that every homeless person that stayed in the

house had to provide labor. If they couldn’t work, then they couldn’t stay, and if they became

sick, then they were kicked out. Women were taken away from their kids to assist the

superintendent around the house and be their maid. There were also rules about disciplining

those staying in the poorhouse. If someone acted disobediently, then they were put into solitary

confinement and fed bread and water. These conditions caused many families to break up. The

1850s brought the first cases of homeless youth, many of whom were kicked out of their homes

because their parents could no longer afford to raise them ("History of 19th Century American

Poor Houses," n.d.).

The Civil War was the first war where the newly discovered painkiller morphine was

used. With the discovery of this new drug, opiate addiction became rampant with 100s of

thousands of war veterans addicted. This lead to chronic homelessness from 1870-1890, as

people could purchase morphine and heroin with syringes. ("The History of Homelessness in

America 1640s to Present," 2014). “Many rural housewives also became addicted in response to

the monotony of life in the middle of nowhere. Criminalization of drug addiction soon followed

in response to the epidemic. The terms “tramp”, “hobo” and “bum” were born out of this era”

("The History of Homelessness in America 1640s to Present," 2014).

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Homeless Prevention/Preservation

There are many organizations that assist the homeless in getting off the streets and back

on their feet. In Virginia Beach, the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Organization ,for

example, provides funding to other organizations in Virginia to help the homeless, and they team

up with organizations from other cities to help prevent homelessness in all of Virginia. One of

the organizations that Housing and Neighborhood Prevention provides funding to is the Tenant

Based Rental Assistance Program. It provides rental housing vouchers that are approved by the

Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. To be eligible for the rental assistance program, an

individual has to have low income, be homeless or in danger of becoming homeless

("Homelessness Prevention Services ," n.d.).

Many people don’t realize that a significant amount of the homeless population are

veterans. In 2014 there was a projected 49,933 homeless veterans in the United States. This

number has dropped by 10 percent since then, but there is still much work to be done. The

Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program in Virginia provides rental housing vouchers to 25

veterans so they can afford rental housing. The city of Virginia Beach helps over 60 homeless

veterans obtain affordable housing each year ("Homelessness Prevention Services ," n.d.).

The Cloverleaf Apartments in Virginia Beach teams up with the Homeless and

Neighborhood Prevention to provide 60 units of housing to single adult homeless people. In

Virginia Beach there were 389 homeless people in the year 2016. 280 were adults and 109 were

children under the age of 18, 339 (87%) of them were in shelters and 50 (13%) of them were

unsheltered. 46 out of 270 households (17%) were families with children. Many people don’t

realize that a lot of homeless people are young single people or families. The fastest growing part

of the homeless population is families. 214 out of 270 households (79%) were single families. 10
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households (5%) were disconnected youth, without any adults accompanying them. 209 males

and 179 females were counted as homeless and 1 was a transgender ("Homelessness Prevention

Services ," n.d.).

The Samaritan House is another organization that aims to help end homelessness in the

future. They aren’t connected to Homeless and Neighborhood Preservation but they have similar

goals in ending homelessness. The Samaritan House has provided help to homeless since 1984.

They provide emergency and permanent housing for the homeless and operate 11 safehouses for

emergency shelter. They house about 110 people a night and rehouse around 200 families every

year. 65% of those they help and serve are children. The average age of children in their shelters

is 11 ("Home," n.d.).

In an interview conducted with Ms. Kemlee Burns who ran a chemical dependency and

mental health assistance program in Kentucky for 10 years, she stated that in her professional

opinion halfway houses were a good way to prevent homelessness. The name of her corporation

was Western Kentucky Regional Mental Health Board Incorporated. These types of facilities

allow the homeless to live there and receive treatment for their illnesses. They could live there as

long as they were taking their medications and either working or looking for a job. The best way

to aid them in getting a job would be to provide the homeless people living in the halfway house

vocational rehabilitation services. Receiving real life job training and taking the proper

medication allows most homeless people to get back on their feet (K. Burns, Personal

communication, October 26, 2017).

Causes of Homeless

One of the leading causes of homelessness in America is substance abuse.

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Credible estimates of the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse suggest that alcohol abuse

affects 30 to 40% and drug abuse 10 to 15% of homeless persons. A review of policies

that address substance abuse among the homeless finds that interventions alternate

between control and rehabilitation. However, the unique needs of a changing homeless

population require an integration of alcoholism and drug abuse recovery services with

programs for women, adolescents, and the mentally ill. Alcohol- and drug-free housing is

essential to support and maintain recovery. Psychology can contribute in the development

of effective programs for homeless individuals struggling with addiction and alcoholism

("Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, and the Homeless," n.d.).

This quote backs up the claim that substance abuse is one of the leading causes of homelessness

by providing the statistics to prove it.

Many homeless people are alcoholics or drug addicts. Many of the homeless population

smokes either cigarettes or cigars. They do this as a means of coping with stress, anxiety and

loneliness. The result is more sickness and stress in the long run. They end up wasting a

substantial amount of money over the course of their life for the addictive products and it leads

to financial trouble and causes health risks which leads to more money spent ("Alcoholism, Drug

Abuse, and the Homeless," n.d.).

Some of the causes of homelessness are straightforward and many can be avoided.

Correctly defining poverty and homelessness is a key issue in determining the extent of the

problem at hand. The World Bank defines poverty as living on less than $1.25 per day. A major

cause of homelessness is the loss of a job. For a lot of people in Virginia, losing a job means

losing hope and motivation to find another job. Many people may have a job but it doesn’t pay

enough to sustain them and eventually they can’t pay for housing ("Introduction to Poverty and
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Homelessness: Current Controversies." Poverty and Homelessness. Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit:

Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 1 May

2015," n.d.).

The leading cause of homelessness among women in America is domestic violence and

abuse. 90% of women who are homeless say they have experienced physical violence or sexual

abuse. Domestic violence is also a leading cause of homelessness for women in Virginia as well.

Many victims of sexual assault and incest are forced to live on the streets to avoid the abuse.

These victims may be emotionally scarred without a way to provide for themselves. The vicious

cycle has begun and they are now a statistic ("Home," n.d.).

However, that is just the leading cause for women; the majority of people who are

homeless in America suffer from chronic mental health issues particularly the severely mentally

ill as cited by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. There are approximately 39%

of homeless people in Virginia that have a mental condition. Experts also say that homelessness

continues to be a difficult issue in Virginia because of the closing of state funded mental

institutions ("Introduction to Poverty and Homelessness: Current Controversies." Poverty and

Homelessness. Ed. Noël Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 1 May 2015," n.d.).

Those with untreated psychiatric illness make up one third of the homeless population in

the United States or 250,000 out of 744,000. Two thirds of them are single people and the other

one third are families. However, homelessness in Virginia seems to be declining, according to

the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, because states are identifying the

causes of this issue. Statistics show 7,020 Virginia residents are without permanent shelter, down
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from 9,080 in 2010 - a 23 percent decrease. In South Hampton Roads, homelessness also

dropped over that same time period in Portsmouth and Virginia Beach (Martin, 2015).

Another leading cause of homelessness is that most of the homeless population is caught

in a vicious cycle with the court system and the law. They are kind of caught in a revolving door

of being on the street and then going into the hospital, then getting stabilized. Once back in the

real world with nowhere to go, they end up back where they started on the street and then the

cycle is repeated. Homelessness also greatly affects the entire community. There is not only an

economic drain on associated health and welfare issues, but a community will begin to have a

sad, rundown feeling to it. In a city like Virginia Beach, the more homeless people there are, the

less tourism there is. Another effect of homelessness is that it breaks apart families. Studies have

shown that when someone is homeless for whatever reason, it breaks families apart. Couples

tend to get divorced because of the hard times associated with this problem. Also there is an

increased number of arrests in the homeless population. Policeman will arrest homeless people

for peddling for money, loitering, stealing. Jails begin to fill up because of all the arrests.

Children that are homeless have a difficult time getting a solid education. Trying to focus on

studies while they are dealing with life issues makes learning extremely difficult. Homelessness

breaks the spirit of many people in many communities in Virginia (K. Burns, Personal

communication, October 26, 2017). Ms. Burns is stating that more needs to be done to assist the

homeless population to get back into society. The homeless need to be seen as real people who

need help and who are not a problem to society.

Homeless Assistance

The winter is usually when more services are available and fewer homeless people live

on the street, said Todd Walker, executive director of the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center,
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which runs a 50-person shelter, dining hall and service center in Virginia Beach. But the count is

still necessary, even if it's flawed, he said. "We have to do it so we have a picture of what our

situation is," he said. HUD attributes the drop in homelessness partially to a more aggressive

effort to find supportive housing for the chronically homeless, the release said (Virginian-Pilot,

2015).

The estimates are crucial "in understanding the scope of homelessness and measuring

progress in reducing it." Walker has noticed that Virginia Beach staff and organizations are

doing a better job of working together to assess the needs of each homeless person, which allows

them to find housing faster. "I'll be interested to see what Virginia Beach looks like in a year," he

said (Walker).

McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides $70 million in

additional funding for services for homeless students. Through the McKinney-Vento Homeless

Assistance Act, Virginia was receiving $1.1 million in additional funding and was distributing

sub-grants to school divisions by August 8, 2009. The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance

Act of 1987 is a United States federal law that provides federal money for homeless shelter

programs. It was the first significant federal legislative response to homelessness and was passed

and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 22, 1987. The act has been reauthorized

several times over the years (Education, n.d.).

The McKinney Act originally had fifteen programs providing a spectrum of services to

homeless people, “including the Continuum of Care Programs: the Supportive Housing Program,

the Shelter Plus Care Program, and the Single Room Occupancy Program, as well as the

Emergency Shelter Grant Program” (Education, n.d.). The legislation has been amended several
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME 11

times since it was first written and enacted. Even though this law has been amended several

times, it needs to have an additional amendment to address the biggest issue facing the homeless

community: mental illness. It should state that upon entering a homeless shelter, every person

will be evaluated by a mental health professional and assigned a specific course of action for

treatment. The amendment should put a mentor program in place to help track progress and

supply a support system with those who have been through the program similar to Alcoholics

Anonymous (Education, n.d.).

Habitual Drunkard Law

The “Habitual Drunkard” law is a law that has been in place for over 10 years, and it is

keeping homeless people on the streets. There are people who are part of the homeless

population that are alcoholics and they can’t get the help because of the law. The law states that

if a person who is labeled a habitual drunkard comes in contact with or is near an addicting

substance, they will automatically be arrested and fined. If a homeless person breaks the law,

then they are thrown in jail and they receive no treatment. From 2006 to 2016, there were 4,743

homeless people that were arrested because of this law in Virginia. The law applies to people

who are alcoholics and the law prohibits them from even being near intoxicating substances

(Lupkin, 2016).

Court Case Thayer v. City of Worcester

This court case was a huge victory for the homeless. The law that was in question was an

ordinance that prohibits aggressive begging, soliciting and panhandling in public places. Under

the ordinance’s definition of begging, all begging would be considered to be aggressive. This

case went to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted the Homelessness

Empowerment Project to file an amicus brief and the Supreme Court granted the petition for writ
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of certiorari. Originally the lower courts ruled that the ordinances were constitutional (Flanagan,

2015).

The Supreme Court issued a judgement vacating the judgement of the lower courts and

remanded the case to the United States Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals remanded the

case to the United States District Court and the District Court ruled that the ordinances were

unconstitutional. This decision is so important because it protects the rights of all Americans

including the homeless (Flanagan, 2015).

Solution

There are many proposed solutions to homelessness ranging from easy quick fixes, like

giving handouts, to much more difficult long term ideas.

Determining the causes of poverty and homelessness is important in order to address the

problem and to find effective, long-term solutions. While homeless shelters and

affordable permanent housing address the immediate needs of people who are homeless,

they may not be the solution in the long run if the causes of homelessness are not

understood. Experts say the number one cause of homelessness and poverty is mental

illness in addition to the closing of state-funded mental institutions. The “U.S.

Interagency Council on Homelessness has started a program called America's Road

Home: A Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness. This program aims to work with

mayors of cities to support local solutions to ending chronic homelessness, a condition

defined, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, as long-term or

repeated homelessness of a person with a disability. The NCH is concerned that the

government’s focus on chronic homelessness and its lack of understanding that the key
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causes of homelessness are economic will worsen the problem of homelessness going

forward (Merino, ed., 2009).

Merino is stating that the government needs to better understand why the homeless population is

still present and why the issue isn’t going away.

There are many solutions to the issue of homelessness. One solution is known as

horticultural therapy and it is a rather new discipline in the field of landscape sciences.

Horticultural therapy for the homeless population is an interesting, positive approach to mental

wellbeing. There is much research done its effects with mental illness and parts of the homeless

population. Horticultural therapy for low income families, recovering drug users, those suffering

from mental illness and high levels of stress are some examples of those who could benefit from

horticultural therapy. The Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz, California, for example, has

been working with horticultural therapy for the homeless for 17 years (Niklasson, 2007).

Using horticulture to provide physical and emotional benefits is not a recent discovery.

Humans have been using gardens for relaxation, creative outlets and nourishment for body and

soul since the ancient Egyptians times. This idea expanded to America and the western world

throughout the early 1900s to encompass the mentally handicapped, at risk youth and war

veterans. New diseases, as well as social and physical changes in our society, brings with it new

groups with their own unique needs. HIV and AIDS patients, people suffering from burnout

disease, and homeless people are some examples of groups that in recent times have been helped

by horticultural therapy (Niklasson, 2007).

Conclusion

Everyday there are homeless people in Virginia Beach on the street corners of Laskin

Road and First Colonial Road. While some people offer them a few dollars, their situation
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doesn’t seem to change from day to day. Virginia Beach United Methodist Church is the

makeshift home for many homeless people at the oceanfront. Every night young and old bring

their blankets and their belongings to the cement steps outside the church… this becomes their

resting place. It is hard to imagine what daily struggles they must face. There is an obvious need

in the community to help these less fortunate men, women and children. If lawmakers and

community leaders could see the world through the homeless viewpoint, real changes might

occur to help end the chronic problem. The homeless people need a voice to champion their

cause and sympathetic solutions to help them on the path to recovery. In a recent book titled,

Same Kind Of Different As Me, real life homeless issues are now being presented to the public.

The book aids in the awareness of ordinary people fighting the lonely battle of living on the

streets. “Homelessness is epidemic and anyone who fights the battle to help correct the battle

deserves our respect and appreciation” (Hall, Ron/ Moore, Denver/ Vincent, Lynn (CON), 2017).

The author of the book, Ron Hall, states “For the last fifteen years, I have dedicated much of my

life to helping the world see homelessness through God’s eyes.”

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