Reasons for homelessness in New York City Essay

Reasons for homelessness in New York City - Essay Example Social and economic factors that have been associated with homelessness include poverty, reduction in the number of available low-income housing units, real dollar decreases in public assistance to low-income families, and reductions in demand for unskilled labor. 'Homelessness' is usually defined not exactly clearly, and the determining criterion is usually the absence of 'safe' or 'permanent' dwelling, but even this is ambiguous. "Many people live in intermediate or marginally secure accommodation, such as hostels or hotels" (Homelessness factfile, 2003,par.2), and in the homes of their friends and relatives as guests or lodgers. When all of them are satisfied with the state of affairs, the dwelling is reliable. If there happen any disagreements, the 'guest' might be forced to leave the accomodation. Identifying whether an individual in dwelling is housed or homeless is related to the permanence of the state of affeirs and on the control and rights this individual had over this dwelling. In general, it is accepted that those who sleep in the streets or stay in hostels or 'bad and breakfast' hotels are homeless, but this is a final point of agreement. Furthermore, other categories of people who have no stable housing (for instance, asylum se ekers, imprisoned people, those who have to stay at the hospital, those, who live in overcrowded household, women, who have fled domestic violence) are extremelydifficult to define the housing status. A single definition is hardly possible, so it was accepted that homeless people would be divided into two groups: 1. Statutory homeless people. Local administrations are obliged to examine applicants for housing according to homelessness legislation and to determine whether they are homeless deliberately or unintentionally; and whether they fit the standard for 'priority housing need'. The authorities are obliged to divide them into following groups: 'statutory' and 'nonstatutory' homeless citizens. All involuntarily homeless citizens who have dependent children or dependent relatives with serious ailments are to be given priority status for housing, as they are viewed as an extremely vulnerable group. 2. Non-statutory homeless people, who are 'not recognised by local authorities as homeless and in priority need of housing. Some have not applied to be rehoused, while others have had their application refused. Most are single and without dependent children, and so have come to be known as 'single homeless people' (Homelessness factfile, 2003,par.2). The 2003 survey undertaken in New York City was planned to find out reasons for homelessness most important to respondents at the time of the study. The questionnaire did not purposely ask about larger social problems, even though some respondents considered it necessary to refer to those in the verbatim explanations. The survey did identify a wide range of possible causes, including a lot of sensitive individual matters; on the empirically based hypothesis that individual usually react to direct questions with direct and sincere responses. As a result, the answers demonstrated a picture of the multifaceted and numerous layers of personal problems and experiences that may call for supporting services. These results should improve, not substitute, nationwide research (New York City Report, 2004, par.3) and decision-making on

Music of world culture Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Music of world culture - Term Paper Example Moreover, they were sung by neighbors and the communities, when there were major events (Dzuris 331). In explaining folk music, I have not found an accepted definition, but this does not mean that it does not have a definition, but it ranges with the understanding of the subject. Folk music can be described as the music for and of the people, a nation, a community, or a subculture that carries messages with specific meaning regarding the people’s life and experiences (Dunaway and Beer 7-10). Music in the Western World In reference to the North America, folk music has been there before the arrival of the immigrant from Europe and later from Africa. The European immigrant brought with them ballads and other acoustic instruments. Folk music has been practiced for centuries, was, and is still referred to as the music of the masses. In the 17th century, most of the people in Europe were peasants, and folk songs transferred stories of event through oral narration. By this time, fo lk music was rarely performed musically. There composition was of simple form and represented the identity of the poorer in the communities (Dunaway and Beer 7- 17). In the period when Christianity movement started in Europe, folk music was at the centre stage of the expansion of the religion. It was highly associated with heathenism due its singing styles. Thereafter, folk music became more popular in society in sensitizing the masses in the start of the romantic period. People like Haydn, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky identified themselves with folk music. During this time, there were no cities and people lived in villages and urban communities. And with these settings, folk songs were recognized as a treasure and people identified themselves with the different styles of folk music. Each political beliefs, ethnicity, race, and religion had identified itself with specific style of folk song. Therefore, folk music played an important role in passing on the culture and the history of a particular community or country from one generation another. By the end of 19th century, folk songs had become unpopular in Western Europe and later in Eastern Europe and North America, during this time only the older individuals knew and sung folk songs. Still in the century, cities were established and people were moving from the rural areas to urban cities and this resulted to diminishing of the folk traditional music. Nevertheless, urban folklorists stimulated by a person known as Thomas Percy a British, Johann Gottfried, a German and an American by the name Francis James collected and later published volumes where they emphases on the different age of the folk songs and their meaning in the society. However, there work did not save the diminishing trend of folk songs and the music had little attention by this time. In 1899, Cecil Sharp an English scholar toured various communities in Britain collecting folk songs. He later established a society to preserve the songs, dances and other traditions of communities at that time (Dunaway and Beer 17-23). In the late 19th century, the documentation of folk songs started and more of the songs were recorded on a wax cylinder, and folk songs and other traditions were consolidated and shared far and wide as opposed to being confined within the borders of a community. Later in the same period, some new tradition begun to emerge in the urban districts where the