The Social Stigma of Homelessness

Early in the morning of Thursday, January 3, 2013, James G. Fulmer was found dead in the stairs of Nashville Church. It is James Fulmer. 50 years old, homeless, handicapped (wsmv.com). His tragic story is only one of about 1000 homeless men who die every year due to hypothermia. (Nationalhomeless.org). Every day in the United States, more than 600,000 people are homeless. Their stories are diverse and their way to homeless is diverse.

Many supporters of homeless people believe that the main difficulties are social stigma surrounding homeless people. Many people believe that there is a permanent lack of family, lack of proper bathroom, and limited regular care. Therefore, homeless people are "unattractive" to the public. The study states that "physically attractive people are more motivated than people who are physically unattractive in various features, reflecting their social abilities." There is a relationship between homeless and mental illness. Many people believe that people with mental illness are irresponsible and childlike, treat them with fear and exclusion, but they are using mental disorders as reasons to be excluded from the community.

Based on previous studies, this article explores the influence of social stigma on mental health experienced by homeless young people. According to the survey, homeless youth prejudices played an important role in their mental health and suicide risk level. These findings underscore the importance of social stigma recognized and experienced by these young people and the interventions to deal with how these perceptions affect their mental health. The treatment suggested by the authors focuses on helping homeless young people better understand their feelings of guilt and shame and to more aggressively understand the factors that constitute shame.

Social dishonor for homeless may explain the lack of people's attention and consciousness. One such shame is that it is not helping to support this idea as homeless people bring such a situation to themselves (Phelan, 1997, p. 324). This shame causes the idea "Why should you lend a hand if they do not try to help them?" "I am working for my money and they can work for them." People are not usually thinking about stories behind everyone. As a member of the LGBTQ community, many children are victims of homosexuality and sex change phobia. These phobias may result from religious beliefs or unfamiliarity with individuals of the LGBTQ community (Davies, 2010, page 260). Because of shame and fear of homeless LGBT Q youth, they were inhumanized and neglected. Inhumanization makes it possible to see problems and does not feel guilty when doing so