I have chosen homeless people as a vulnerable group. In this essay I am going to introduce homelessness and the issues concerned with homelessness. I am going to discuss their needs and what organisations are available to homeless people.

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I have chosen homeless people as a vulnerable group. In this essay I am going to introduce homelessness and the issues concerned with homelessness. I am going to discuss their needs and what organisations are available to homeless people.

There are many different definitions given to the term “homelessness”.

Homelessness can be defined as people who have no accommodation e.g. sleeping rough or people who are in temporary accommodation such as a shelter, B & B, squat and people who are staying with friends or relatives who cannot provide accommodation for them in the longer term (Donnellan, 2004).

Focus Ireland states that homelessness is people who have no accommodation and are unable to provide accommodation for themselves e.g. people who are living in a hospital, county home, night shelter or other such institutions (Focus Ireland, 2009).

Simon community states that homelessness is about the lack of security, the lack of belonging, the lack of privacy and the lack of safety (Simon Community, 2009).

There are different types of homelessness as follows:

Visibly homeless are people who are sleeping rough or in emergency accommodation. Hidden homeless are people who are staying with friends or relatives and people who stay in institutional care and

People who are at risk of becoming homeless are people who have accommodation but are at risk of losing there home due to economic difficulties (MacNeela, P).

There is no simple explanation for why a person becomes homeless. There are four different categories which can cause people to become homeless. Structural causes include poverty, unemployment and housing issues. Institutional causes include institutional living for example foster or state care, prison and armed forces. Relationship causes include abusive relationships and family breakdown. Personal causes include mental illness, learning difficulties and drug and alcohol dependence (Donnellan, 2004).

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Homelessness has a huge effect on an individual’s physical and emotional health. Homeless men and women suffer from colds they cannot get rid of because they have no access to medicine, food and warm housing. They also are more at risk for dependency on drugs and alcohol and contracting HIV/AIDS. They suffer from vitamin deficiencies and often don’t get adequate sleep. Homeless people have no housing to protect them from physical violence and even rape. These can lead to emotional breakdowns which lead them to become institutionalised. They can begin to develop behavioural problems that could land them in ...

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