The issue of homelessness is a large social issue, but a good place to begin is to define it. Homelessness is different from poverty, although they can often come hand-in-hand. Poverty is a state when someone is under the poverty line financially, and receives government assistance. It is possible for someone to be homeless without being in poverty if they have income above the poverty line, but due to external factors cannot afford a house. According to Mary Ellen Hombs, homelessness used to be defined as when “A family or individual … loses their housing, and seeks shelter” (Hombs 42). However, a few years ago the government recognized that there are other forms of homelessness, forms which are less apparent. Even people who live with friends to survive are now officially homeless, although it can be much harder to measure and identify these individuals. While it would be easier to deal with homelessness if we had accurate data, some people try to conceal their state of living by methods like sleeping in their cars, tents, or even abandoned buildings. While the problem is impossible to measure specifically, we only have partially accurate data to analyze. 

Contrary to popular belief, the problem of homelessness right here in San Jose has not been getting better over the years. A survey by the San Jose government  showed that between 2015 and 2017 the local homeless population actually increased from 4,063 to 4,350 (San Jose, CA - Official Website - Homeless Reports)! This alone, however, is not enough to show the long term increase of homelessness, due to expected minor fluctuations over the years.  To prove that  we, as a community, have not been doing enough to lower the number of homeless individuals, we must look further back. In 2011, for example (the earliest survey of San Jose available), there was a total of 4,034 individuals who were homeless. With this data, we can see that over eight years, we only managed to keep the homelessness level stable, and clearly failed to reduce it significantly.
With an issue this widespread across the community, it affects many of us. Unfortunately, I have first-handedly experienced this issue myself. I have a friend in school whom I talked to daily, and he once told me about how his cousin, Alex, couldn’t get a real job and came to live with him. Alex stayed with my friend’s family for approximately two months, and the whole time there was underlying tension about when he would leave. The living situation seemed like it was working for Alex, but how long could a single family tolerate him? Such a risky method of living is not uncommon for homeless people attempting to re-enter working class society. For example, if he stayed with them for two or three months and then got a job and became independent, the situation works out for everyone. Fortunately for Alex, this was the case, and he received an internship in San Francisco. However, if he couldn’t get an internship, how long would he have been able to stay? The odds are he would be kicked out before a full year had passed, and he would once again have to try to find a host family. This kind of relationship with people close to him could put strain on otherwise fine relationships, especially when a host family kicks him out. Another problem with this method of living is the long term situation. Sure, every six months he could find a new family to live with, but what about ten years from now? Once all of his social connections are exhausted, if he still isn’t able to get a job it’s likely he would end up in a more stereotypical situation of homelessness. This story was shocking to me, because it showed me how close and real the issue was. The issue of homelessness is important to me because it is prevalent in our community, and effects large amounts of people. When someone like Alex, who is near my social circle, is homeless it shows the issue really isn’t far from most people in San Jose.

On a more personal note, I see the homeless problem around San Jose, often with people on the streets begging for money, with cardboard signs conveying their needs. Away from all of the statistics and data on homelessness, we need to remember that it is a real problem that affects real people. Being homeless must those affect people's self concept. Charles Cooley coined the term ‘looking glass self’ to clarify the effects of interactions with others on the self concept. It cannot be good for a person's self concept when a large part of their interactions with others consists of asking people for money on the streets, or going to homeless shelters, or even just trying to meet new people and eventually having to reveal him/herself as homeless. If someone continuously identifies as homeless, it can become a norm for them and, at worst, can negatively impact their self concept.
     

This issue is critical in San Jose, and has varying degrees of impact on people across the city. To begin with the obvious, homelessness affects those in poverty as well as those who have relatives in poverty as a never ending danger. However, if you look past that first level, it can become apparent that homelessness affects us all. If an upper middle class man is going to the grocery store, for example, and a homeless person is outside begging for money it makes both men feel awkward (albeit for different reasons) and generally lower the shopping experience for everyone entering and leaving the store. Not only that, but it puts the store owner in an awkward position to either force the homeless person to move or to accept a lower customer satisfaction rating of their store. If homeless people had some security, at least to the level on which they didn’t have to beg for money on the streets and in public places, it could improve the community not just for the homeless but also for those around them.

While we have made progress so far in understanding homelessness and its impacts, utilizing applied sociology can shed some new light on the problem. From a functionalist perspective, homelessness serves a large societal purpose. If you don’t work hard, you will end up homeless, so everyone should work hard and society will either reward individuals with the positive sanction, avoiding homelessness, or the negative one, becoming homeless. Social mobility is what motivates people! “Potential for improving one's life- or falling down the class ladder- is a major force that drives people to go far in school and to work hard.”(Henslin 172)  From a symbolic interactionist perspective, how a homeless person interacts with others can be extremely influential on how they behave in the future. The state of homelessness has negative associations connected with it, and people will attempt to live normally and hide their status as long as they can, the whole time attempting to move back up the social ladder and get back on their feet. The concept of social mobility comes into play once again here, because if people feel like homelessness is a negative status they will be motivated to work hard to keep their higher social status. For the last major sociological perspective, class conflict serves to complete our picture of homelessness when we consider how low paying workers are exploited. Low wage workers often have to work much harder than people in higher up jobs, because if the bourgeois running the company fire them, the proletariat worker may have to face homelessness!

While homelessness can easily be viewed in  a multitude of ways, the solutions are much less apparent. One possible solution identified in the book ‘Modern Homelessness’ is federal government spending on homelessness. Around 2010 the federal spending was at $5 billion a year (Hombs 60). While this may have helped nationally, in San Jose alone the homelessness problem has not gotten better. At this stage, if we keep relying on the federal government to fix things it will be many years before their aid reaches San Jose in a significant way. I believe San Jose itself must make reforms. If nationwide efforts of such a large scale fail to completely work, the San Jose community must do something much more targeted to fix the problem in our backyard! Another solution I believe could work is a conscious effort to make affordable housing more prevalent, and even allow third parties to assist in providing this housing. According to the San Jose Mercury News “in the next couple of weeks, elected leaders will consider allowing churches to house homeless people permanently” (Giwargis 1). Allowing churches and other organizations to assist with giving people housing may take some of the pressure off of the government, and help us begin to see progress quickly in providing people temporary homes.

Overall, homelessness is an issue right here in San Jose that impacts everyone, directly or indirectly. While we can look at the issue from a variety of perspectives, we must remember that the end goal is to fix the issue for good! What we have been doing so far hasn't been having a huge positive impact, and the community as a whole needs to take some time to think about how we can begin to solve the issue of homelessness together, not only for us but for all the generations after us, and the good of everyone in the city.

1) Giwargis, Ramona. "Affordable Housing Projects to Fight Homelessness Advance in San Jose." San Jose Mercury News (CA) 17 June 2017. Print.

2)  Henslin, James M. Essentials of sociology: a down-to-earth approach. Seventh ed. Boston: Pearson, 2006. Print.

3) Hombs, Mary Ellen. Modern Homelessness: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Print.