Instructions
Complete the requirements in each step in a Word document.
Step 1: Describe the Problem, Audience, and Genre
- Problem and Its Presence: Describe the problem in the local community, and explain why it is a serious problem that needs solving.
- Target Audience: Describe your intended audience – their values, beliefs, expectations, and why it is the right individual or group to address. Your audience should be a decision-maker or decision-making body in your specific community, who has the finances or authority to implement your solution and make that change happen.
- Genre: Indicate whether you will compose your proposal in the form of a letter or a memo. Which of the two genres/forms is more suitable for your rhetorical purpose and the specific audience you are targeting? Why?
Step 2: Explain Your Proposed Solution and Counterarguments
- The Best Solution: State the proposed solution, explain why it is logical and feasible, and provide details for how it will be executed according to your audience’s position and/or ability to act. You should avoid proposing multiple solutions, although your solution can involve multiple steps or parts if they are closely related and can be addressed by the same decision-maker.
- Justification for the Best Solution: Provide 2-3 convincing reasons why your audience should accept your proposed solution and act on it. Explain what evidence you might use to support each reason. Don’t forget evidence; all personal opinions and claims should be backed up with convincing, audience-specific evidence and research.
- Alternative Solutions and Drawbacks: List 2 alternative solutions that have been used or suggested previously to address the problem. Then, describe the drawbacks of each one with evidence. Don’t forget evidence; all personal opinions and claims should be backed up with convincing, audience-specific evidence and research.
- Counter-Arguments and Rebuttal: List 2 possible objections or concerns your audience may bring up to challenge the effectiveness and execution of the best solution. Then, describe your response to each counter-argument and what evidence you might use to support your rebuttal. Don’t forget evidence; all personal opinions and claims should be supported with convincing, audience-specific evidence and research.
- Concluding Call to Action: Explain what rhetorical strategies you might use to offer a convincing call to the specific decision-maker to implement the solution you proposed.
Step 3: PSA or Advocacy Ad
Indicate whether you will compose a PSA or an Advocacy Ad and who the audience will be for it. How will it complement your proposal?
Project 2 Argument Plan
Introduction
Homelessness is an issue that has been plaguing the country since the 20th century. This issue mainly cropped up because of a series of elitist policies formulated by the Government of those times. New York has been heavily affected by the problem with nearly 60,000 people struggling with it daily moving from shelter to shelter. The most vulnerable out of this group are individuals suffering from mental illness and old age. There needs to be a permanent solution to this problem. This problem should also not negatively impact the government. In this assignment, such a solution will be provided and analyzed from all aspects.
Body
Homelessness is a huge issue all over America. There is a huge part of the American population that lives on the street and does not have feasible economic means to survive. This is a huge problem as it also endangers other groups of the population. In not caring for the people suffering from homelessness authorities are pushing them towards committing a crime. For New York as a community to become more protected, this problem of homelessness must beescalation eradicated. Every person living in Arizona has the right to have their basic rights fulfilled in every way possible. New York has a huge problem when it comes to homelessness with encampments running out of resources to support people struggling with these problems (Shinn & Cohen, 2019, p.10). Aspects like inflation and rising rents have played a huge part in the escalating of this problem. Since the various projects in the community are unable to support people suffering from homelessness, they are being left to their own devices which is not good for anybody in the community. Some people are functionallybe do themtoSingle-room also extremely old to be an economic participant. They cannot go ahead and look for jobs and do them in a functional manner in order to support themselves.
Modern homelessness in New York can be traced back to the policies adopted by the government in the 1950s. There was a huge reduction in single-room housing units in New York. Single room housing units along with Residential hotels were an affordable option for housing for people in New York. The 1970s witnessed Single room housing units become a very lucrative option for people suffering from poverty. People discharged from mental institutions also chose to live in such units. The arrival of housing codes made it extremely difficult for more of these housing units to be constructed. Slowly and steadily the number of single-housing units fell drastically in numbers. Property tax destroyed the prospect of Single housing units. Since then homelessness has become a huge cause of concern and none of the reforms provided by the State governing body has proven to be fruitful. These reforms have not been able to adequately counter the generational damage that was done by the previous policies.
The solution proposed in this assignment is addressed to the New York State Legislature. The state legislature is a body made of elected representatives from the state of New York. They are essentially responsible for formulating policies that impact the effect of homelessness on individuals. Hence, these solutions are directed as suggestions to all the representatives elected from the state. As representatives of their particular districts, it is the responsibility of the representatives to tackle the problem of homelessness, for both the homeless as well as other civilians. It is because homelessness is a huge cause of crime.
This proposal will be provided in letter form as this is a problem that requires an exhaustive and detailed discussion and solution. Therefore, a letter form is essential for such proposals. A letter form of proposal enables a person to properly describe the problem and also offer solutions for it. This is an issue that has a lot of emotional viability and also requires logical functionality. Hence, letter form is applicable to fulfill both the rhetorical requirements, Logos, and Pathos.
The best solution to the issue of homelessness is affordable and supportive housing. In this methodology, affordable housing is formulated on sites with supportive services. This methodology can solve the issue of homelessness, improve neighborhoods, and save a large number of tax dollars (Abrahams, 2022, p.22). The State legislative body along with the governor should invest in a well-structured plan to build 35,000 units of supportive housing over ten years. In this way, the problem would be solved steadily without putting a large amount of financial strain. Supportive housing is a great solution because it provides houses at an affordable rate and also provides essential services to people suffering from mental conditions and old age (Lim et al. 2018, p.3438). This is necessary as the most vulnerable section of people dealing with homelessness are those having mental conditions and the inability to work due to old age.
Supportive housing is a successful strategy for various reasons. One of the major reasons it should be implemented is because it is extremely cost-effective. Such plans will aid in the reduction of the use of incarceration, hospitals, shelters, and psychiatric centers. Such a reduction can save the public $10,100 per unit per year. The NY/NY III agreement which prioritizes aspects like Supportive housing proved to decrease chronic homelessness amongst adults by 47% (Doran et al. 2019, p.992). This was accompanied by a reduction in crime in those areas, as well. This had a direct effect on the real estate prices of that area as they rose considerably because of the safety it provided. Therefore this solution is both impactful and wholly beneficial.
Certain solutions that have been applied before but have failed are Federal Housing assistance and the “Housing First” approach. Federal housing assistance is failing because they have not been monitored and are not affordable for the most vulnerable section of the homeless population. People suffering from mental illness cannot afford such housing because they are comparatively not economically productive. Federal housing assistance does not provide the required supportive services. The Housing First approach has also failed because of its success in supportive Housing FirstCertain objections caTo needs to become a successful venture. In this strategy, people who have been living for a long time on the streets are transferred into subsidized housing directly with supportive services. This approach is not cost-effective as it targets only a specific part of the homeless population and not the entire group. This leads to its impact not being wholesome, failure in reducing the prices of properties, and considerable enlargement of the working population.
There are certain objections that can be brought forth to Supportive housing. The foremost of it is monitoring. Such programs require a huge amount of investment and should be monitored properly for the public interest. The problem often with such programs is that the benefits of it do not often reach to people who need them, and instead fall prey to corruption. In order to combat this, the program should be monitored by agencies that have the involvement of public interest groups and also the judiciary. This will help to provide aid to the people who require it, as proven by the reduction in the number of homeless (Peng et al. 2020, p.402). This will help in the fair monitoring of the entire program. Another issue that people dealing with homelessness face is proving to be eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid is a huge source of funding for supportive services. This issue has already been resolved by incorporating Medicaid in New York under the regulations of ACA, because of which only a particular income level is required to be eligible for Medicaid.
In the case of such an issue, the Rhetorical strategy of Logos and Pathos are required. This is an issue that is related to the livelihood of millions and to connect people to that Pathos should be involved as a Rhetorical strategy. To do that statistics regarding the number of people struggling with homelessness and how their lives have been destroyed should be provided. Logos will be applied in the details where how these strategies can be financially beneficial, will be provided. These two strategies will encourage the legislative body to take a proper call to action and implement the Supportive housing solution.
To garner support for this issue, an advocacy advertisement will be formulated. The audience for this Advocacy advertisement will be the civilians of New York. They will be the audience because it will primarily be their tax dollars that will support this initiative. Moreover, their support will also encourage the legislative assembly, comprising of the Representatives chosen by popular vote to make positive decisions towards this solution.
Conclusion
The issue of homelessness in New York can only be resolved through true collaboration between Government and the people. Supportive housing is a huge project that requires a large amount of investment, both monetary and emotional. These people have value and should be treated like civilians that the Government has the responsibility to care about. People should become more vigilant and garner more details about the manner to resolve the matter so that the community can improve in a united manner.
Reference List
Abrahams, E. (2022). Family Homelessness in NYC: How Can We Solve It? (Doctoral dissertation, Yeshiva University).
Doran, K. M., Ran, Z., Castelblanco, D., Shelley, D., & Padgett, D. K. (2019). “It Wasn’t Just One Thing”: A Qualitative Study of Newly Homeless Emergency Department Patients. Academic Emergency Medicine, 26(9), 982-993.
Lim, S., Singh, T. P., Hall, G., Walters, S., & Gould, L. H. (2018). Impact of a New York City supportive housing program on housing stability and preventable health care among homeless families. Health services research, 53(5), 3437-3454.
Peng, Y., Hahn, R. A., Finnie, R. K., Cobb, J., Williams, S. P., Fielding, J. E., … & Community Preventive Services Task Force. (2020). Permanent supportive housing with housing first to reduce homelessness and promote health among homeless populations with disability: a community guide systematic review. Journal of public health management and practice: JPHMP, 26(5), 404.
Shinn, M., & Cohen, R. (2019). Homelessness prevention: A review of the literature. Center for Evidence-Based Solutions to Homelessness. http://www.evidenceonhomelessness.com/wp
