What is the issue?

The issue that I would like to talk about is homelessness. About 85,000 people in Polk County are homeless on any given day. This is a very important issue to me because I do not think that it is fair that there are that many homeless people in my county. Everyone should help everyone out and it seems like the homeless people are getting the short end of the stick.

What externalities does the issue raise?

Some of the externalities is that these people will probably always be homeless because it will be very hard for them to get a job. Also many people are homeless so they think that if they do something bad then they can go to jail where they would at least have a bed, food, and medical care for free. So if people just help out homeless people in the first place then we would be saving our money and not have to pay for them to basically live a pretty decent life in jail.

How is the issue connected to poverty?

Homelessness is connected to poverty because states with a higher poverty level, most of the time have a high number of homeless people. Homelessness deals with poverty because not many people want to help out the homeless. People think that the homeless can just go out and find jobs, which is not always true, and if the homeless can not find jobs then they are forced to barrow money that they cannot return. This makes the banks lose money and in then end the city lose money. Another example is that a hospital cannot turn away anyone with a medical condition, and since the homeless can not pay for the medical care, the medical officials get paid with the taxes that we pay. This makes the average citizen have to pay more taxes and lose a lot of money.

What helpful action can your viewers take?

Some of the ways that people can help homelessness in their city is to donate as much stuff as you can. These people need things just like we do, but they do not have the financial profits to acquire the necessary things that they need to live off of. So donations really help them out a lot. Some of the things that you can donate are clothes, food, or cash. Another thing that you can do to help the homeless is to volunteer at shelters. When someone helps out at a shelter then the shelter does not have to employ as many people to work there, and the money that the government would be spending to pay the people would go into more things for our city.