Homelessness and Healthcare

The constitution in section 330, PHS Act, that is, 42 U. S. C. , 254b, defines a homeless person as one who lacks a house for his own residence, whether he belongs to a certain family or not. The constitution covers individuals living in loggings and lacking a house of their own and includes those residing by friends or persons offering them temporal accommodation. 7 percent and couple families that have children making up 23 percent. A significant 5 percent is made up of minors who have no one to take care of them. Further, 24 percent of the homeless are married while 76 percent are single, with an ethnic distribution of about 42 percent Africans Americans, a Caucasian population of 38 percent and 20 percent Hispanic origin (“Homelessness in America”, n.

d. Homelessness is caused by a matrix of factors which are sub-factors of poverty or social instability, including economic conditions determining affordability. As an indicator factor, 0. 39 of the homeless have mental instabilities meaning that they cannot work to provide for themselves and neither can they pursue education, even with a scholarship. A 0. 3 of the population lack a high school diploma, one of the basest considerations for manual and casual laborers. Only about 0. Also, the demographics indicate that poverty is relative since a majority of the homeless are found in central cities at a rate of 0. 71 of the total homeless population. The suburbs, which have reasonably priced housing spaces and contains a majority of the middle and low class, hosts about 0. 21 of the homeless while the least proportion is found in the rural setups (“Homelessness in America”, n.

d. d. In such an effort and in the American context, healthcare is offered through the health care system which encompasses the chains of hospitals, both private and public, and the physician thereof. While the hospitals provide the infrastructural requirement for the services, the human component offers the qualified professional counselling, treatment and follow-up services necessary. In America, every citizen is entitled to medical healthcare. One can either attain the service through personal means for the well-to-do or through public intervention by specialized programs for the needy. Also, inadequate awareness of the prevailing conditions and also the prevalent diseases threatening the homeless families, persons and children lead to a barrier between the health provider and the individual. They have little or no knowledge of what they need to do in order to embrace preventive health.