Comparison of Homelessness in the U.S and South Africa Essay

The term homelessness has a very(prenominal) wide scope and many a(prenominal) different agencies and governments attempt to define it differently. The homeless committee of the city of Montreal pick out some definition of the homeless. Casavant (1999) further translates the definition as a mortal with no fixed address, stable, safe and healthy housing for the next 60 days, an extremely low income, adversely discriminated against in access to services, with problems of mental health, inebriant and drug tread or social disorganization, and not a process of any stable group, (para 9).Comparison of homelessness in the U. S and confederation Africa Having realised a fairly clear definition of the homeless, it is paramount therefore that the terce types of homelessness be pointed out. First are the chronic ally homeless whose case is more than severe than the rest and they face some other problems like drug abuse or mental illness. The other groups are known as the cyclicall y homeless who have forfeited their homes due to some situation arising from for example a prison term or released unemployed detainees.The last category are referred to as the temporarily homeless, who lose their dwellings for a very short fulfilment of time due to circumstances such as floods, drought and clashes interlingual rendition (Casavant , 1999) . The United States of the States does face the homelessness issue like any other nation. Statistics on the number of homeless people in the United States of America is never fixed and is ever fluctuating because of the cyclical, nomadic and temporary nature. From youthful studies done, the numbers do range amidst 650,000 to 2. million people depending on factors that have been analyzed above (McCarty, 2005).The 2004 U. S conference of Mayors study gives the side by side(p) information regarding the numbers and ethnicities involved. accord to the survey that was carried out in all the cities, it was established that the numbe r of homeless people in the United States in stages increased at a rate of 7% per annum in numbers. Of the correct state 41%, were men. 40% of the population was composed of families while notwithstanding a meager 14% were women.The youth comprised of only 5% of the population. By ethnicities, the African American population took the big bulk of people with rough 49% composition. 35% were whites, 13% Hispanics, 2% Native Americans and 1% Asian. According to the survey, also the veterans or old people accounted for 10% of the population (McCarty, 2005). siemens Africa on the other hand gives a different picture as compared with the United States. The biggest cause of homelessness in South Africa was the adverse effects that were brought along the apartheid era.The number of people that were life sentence in shacks was put to be amidst 5 million and 7. 7 million (Nduru, 2010). South Africa is a multi racial nation with both the black community and the white community coexisten t together. The black community comprising of ethnicities such as Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and others comprise about 80% of the population while the whites and red heads comprise around 19% of the population according to the Africa community survey of 2007. It has been established that most of the population living in shanty towns is the black community.In fact, around 80% of South Africas population lives below the poverty line and a very huge gap do exist between the rich and the pathetic (Sherwood , 2003). Conclusion We have observed that the causes and the number of people being touch by homelessness do differ in great detail between the two countries. The United States though a very big untaught with a huge population accounts for lesser number of people without equal shelter. Also, the United States distribution of homeless people across the ethnicities is a dance orchestra fairer than South Africas where the biggest of proportions lies among the black community.