MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE HOMELESS IN DES MOINES, IOWA

Mental Illness in the Homeless in Des Moines, Iowa

Introduction

More than 21,000 Iowans were homeless in the year 2005, which is an increase of 2688 people since 1999. That homeless population was spread in Iowa's urban states. 6008 homeless people were living under shelters, street and other paces which are not appropriate in living standards, in Polk County, making it the largest population of homeless inhabitants in the region. Scott County reported the second largest number of homeless (2,298), followed by Linn (1,875), Clinton (1,678) and Pottawattamie (1,594) counties. Families with children make the largest composition of homeless people in Des Moines. Also, African-Americans represent one-quarter of the homeless (National Coalition for the Homeless).

The term "homeless" are designations for various populations in the continuum of poor living conditions, ranging from cardboard boxes and ending hostels. It is, therefore, not surprising that estimates of the number of homeless differ from study to study depending on the definition of "homeless" and less from the effects of scientific or political campaign. For example, estimates of the number of homeless people in England and Wales range from 2000 to present, if a homeless involve people under the open sky, to 75,000, if the inhabitants here include special hostels, and squatters (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2004). Similarly, the range estimate of the number of hospitalizations of people with no fixed abode, partly due to differences in the use of the term by different psychiatrists, even within a medical framework (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2008).

While questions of the definition of "homeless" will require special care when interpreting the data, whatever the definition, there is agreement that over the last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of homeless people in major counties of Iowa. This increase was largely due to young men, women, couples and members of ethnic minorities and run parallel with the increasingly profound changes in the social economy - the lack of affordable housing, high unemployment, and destruction of traditional family ties and the reduction of support services (Mares & Rosenheck, 2004). Of all these factors probably, the most important is the lack of basic shelter. Between mid-70s to late 80s building new council housing declined by 85%, which is accompanied by a reduction in the proposed offer private and voluntary sectors, and only in London from 1981 to 1988, resulting in loss of 243 000 units of rental. This figure has continued to grow until the early 1990s (Hwang, 2001). Compared with their peers to housing homeless young people are less likely to receive not only their own homes, but also a successful primary education. In addition, the likely that a child they have been abandoned abused and rejection by parents, 40% of them were raised in orphanages and other institutions (Buckner et al, 1993).

Consequently, although there is unfounded opinion that the number of homeless has increased by extrapolation, we can assume that some of them also increased the number of ...