Step 1: Compose Project 1 for Instructor and Peer Feedback
Complete a feedback draft of your written analysis for Project 1
Step 2: Evaluate Your Own Project 1 Feedback Draft
After you complete your draft, write a 1-paragraph self-assessment, in which you assess the strengths of your draft according to the rubric. Pose questions to your instructor and peers about the draft. Explain what you think you did well and what you might improve on. This assessment will help your readers direct their feedback and engage the concerns you identify. It can also help you set goals for how you will further develop this project.
Step 3: Submit Draft for Feedback
After you complete a full draft, submit your work for instructor feedback. Then, continue to learn about how to participate in peer review.
Project 1 Feedback Draft
Homelessness in New York City
Self-assessment
The strengths of my draft according to the rubric are that it is organized and follows a specific format. I believe that my draft focuses on an important issue and identify stakeholders. I have modified my topic of study based on my previous feedback, where I was supposed to narrow down the topic of research. The primary research survey questions are also very specific. The secondary research section also clearly identifies the annotation. The annotations for the secondary research also focus on the main issues that will help in the conduction of the research successfully. Though I have confidence in the mentioned sections, I would like my instructor and peers to enlighten me on any other areas or points where I can improve. I would like my instructor to guide me on my survey questions so that the answers can help me gather the data to focus on the particular objective. I would also like my peers to suggest to me how to improve and make the study more interactive and engaging. What I believe that I have done well in my research is the organizing of the research. I believe that I have done well in making the research knowledgeable.
Background of Homelessness in New York City
There are now more homeless persons in New York than ever before. With a population of almost 8.3 million, this city has 80,000 men, women, and children who are homeless, or one in every 106 individuals. Approximately 4,000 individuals sleep in public places like streets and subway stations every night. However, the bulk of homeless people in New York spend the night in the city’s shelter system, where they are invisible. For every person who spends the night on the street or a train, there are an extra 20 people who sleep in shelters. There may be a smaller but persistent presence of homeless persons in surrounding urban cities like Newark.
Homelessness is on the rise as a result of the widening gap between rising housing costs and stagnating income. There is currently one of the worst housing shortages in American history. The impoverished are the ones who are most negatively impacted, as could be expected.
The 1970s saw an abundance of inexpensive housing in urban areas. That meant that a family or person would be able to locate a new place to live swiftly in the event of a catastrophe and the loss of their home. But by the middle of the 1980s, finding an inexpensive home had become considerably more difficult. Since then, although salaries, especially for those with lower incomes, have climbed slowly or remained flat, rents have gone up much more.
Give the homeless people somewhere to dwell, and the problem of homelessness will be solved. People who are homeless are given a platform to talk about other challenges, such as joblessness, health issues, and drug addiction problems that may have led to their homelessness.
Types of Homelessness
Two types of housing initiatives specifically designed to address homelessness have been demonstrated to be successful in reducing or eliminating homelessness. What they are are these:
Long-term rental aid and supporting services are both provided via permanent supportive housing, which includes both. This program is designed for individuals and families who have endured prolonged or repeated homelessness as well as those who have disabilities, mental health conditions, chronic diseases, or drug abuse problems.
A program called rapid re-housing offers homeless persons short-term apartments as well as other supports. The objectives are to assist individuals in staying in their homes, finding housing swiftly, and becoming more self-sufficient.
Programs to curb homelessness
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s public homes and voucher programs, which provide low-income people with inexpensive access to safe, permanent housing, have a major impact on the decline in homelessness. The most well-known kind of government housing assistance is now the Housing Choice Voucher Program. It has been demonstrated that the program, which provides low-income families with vouchers to assist them in paying for homes on the private market, greatly lowers homelessness. Low-income households, the elderly, and those with disabilities who are eligible for government help can live in housing that is federally subsidized.
Even though it has been shown that housing vouchers and public housing are effective in lowering the number of homeless people, only one in every four families that are eligible for such help receives it because of a lack of money. Simply put, many areas of the country suffer from a serious scarcity of affordable housing (Department for Homeless Services, 2021). Many homeless Americans will likely continue to cycle in and out of homelessness if this housing supply is not supplied.
Right now, expanding the number of affordable homes must come first. To do this, HUD must improve its capacity to offer low-income individuals homes and services (Coalition for the Homeless, 2021).
In 2017, the De Blasio administration and the City Council greatly increased the availability of free legal help to low-income New York City renters who were facing eviction.
Evictions have fallen by 29% in the affected zip codes after the research was conducted.
The City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, the mayor’s rental assistance program, allows certain families living in shelters and families to pay just 30% of their income toward rent (Marsh, 2020). Homelessness as a whole is “intractable” and “unsolvable.” The city provides a range of services, including case management, landlord/tenant mediation, and financial emergency support.
One in five individuals and one in ten families with children may require the services of a DHS shelter once again in 2019 during 12 months of domesticidentifies violence. The City Council investigation concluded that single persons should be included in the present aftercare programs.
Conclusion
We must reject the notion that individuals choose to be homeless and don’t search for shelter because they don’t know any better. The issue is that they do, which is why many choose to doze off on buses and sidewalks (Marsh, 2020). Our culture still maintains that persons who are homeless are not real people deserving of our respect and concern, which is a problem. If we continue to see homelessness as a sign of bad judgment, we will never be able to solve the issue or understand the misery that our homeless friends go through simply to exist.
References
Marsh, J. (2020). Half of NYC’s homeless domestic-violence victims feel unsafe in shelters. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2020/02/02/half-of-nycs-homeless-domestic-violence-victims-feel-unsafe-in-shelters/
Department for Homeless Services. (2021). DHS data dashboard – The fiscal year 2021. NYC.gov DHS. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dhs/downloads/pdf/dashboard/FYTD21-DHS-Data-Dashboard-Charts.pdf
Coalition for the Homeless. (2021). Homelessness in New York City updated October 2021. CFTH. https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NYCHomelessShelterPopulation-Charts8-2021.pdf
