long-term hospitalization, the others are self-sufficient. As for drug abuse, research suggests that one in four are substance abusers but many of these are included in the 25%.Most homeless people are not drunks or drug abusers or mental patients. They are not the perpetual social problem that many believe them to be. So who are they?They are mothers and children. They are grandfathers and fathers. Brothers or your once next door neighbors. They are human beings, which weren’t as lucky as we are. A category of homeless people that keeps growing as the years pass, are homeless women. Not long ago, it wasn’t very common to see a lady on the streets roaming around laden with all sorts of bags (there are now called “the bag ladies”) or maybe pushing carts occupied with their worldly possession’s, but nowadays it is so common that we pass them without even bating an eyelid. There is solid evidence that the number of homeless women has increased and that they may now constitute between 15%-25% of the homeless population. Many of these women have left children with family, friends or even foster care homes, in an desperate attempt to put their lives back on track and eventually take care of their children again. Some of them are victims of spousal abuse or are chronically mentally ill. Homelessness is a different experience for women than from men in part because severe psychopathology is more widespread and more intense among women (Richard D. Bingham et al. 56). Why should homeless women demonstrate more severe illness than homeless men? It may be that only the most severely disabled women become homeless in the first place. Because women are more susceptible to sexual assault, theft and pregnancy, their simple chances of survival are diminished. Women don’t have equal chances on the street, as men have. The minute she’s out one her own she is a very easy target even without being homeless, so being...
