W2 SSC Assignment 11.6.23

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Apr 3, 2024

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Page 1 of 5 Social Status and Homelessness in African Americans Grace Carrig The University of Arizona Global Campus SSC 101: Introduction of Social Science Professor Billie Tate November 6, 2023

Page 2 of 5 Social Status and Homelessness in African Americans In the 1950s and 1960s, the federal government began to gather data on poverty and hardship and despite periods of development, well-established patterns of racial inequity may be traced throughout. This pattern is mirrored in the world of homelessness today (Moses, 2019). A lot of different races and ethnicities live in America, and although most come to America looking for better opportunities, they are also faced with a whole different set of issues, mainly racial. In some regions, a racial/ethnic group has such a significant presence that its members make up the majority of those suffering homelessness, and black people represent the majority in 12 states and make up around one- quarter of the Continuum of Cares (CoC) (Moses, 2019). While there are other groups that experience homelessness, homelessness in African Americans should be talked about more because there are many factors that can lead to homelessness, there are multiple social and cultural issues that impact homelessness in African Americans, and there is a master status that is a result from assigned statuses and are viewed differently in American standards and values. There are two broad types of homeless people. Drifters who are people who do not see homelessness as a stark contrast to their previously housed lives. Street homelessness is a continuation of their lower-class backgrounds' challenges. Droppers are those who have "fallen" on hard times and want to return to middle-class life. Differentiating between these two categories allows for the defamiliarization of prevalent understandings of, and current generic responses to, homelessness, and highlights the need for services to be refocused to better fit the needs of drifters (Hodgetts et al., 2012). Furthermore, there is a need for better services for those who fall into the drifter’s group of homelessness as they are born and raised in poverty as they develop certain skills to adapt easily into street life.

Page 3 of 5 Homelessness is a common social and cultural problem. Social problems are any social condition or popular behavior that has negative implications for a substantial percentage of society and is recognized as something that needs to be addressed, and they are frequently complicated and have significant historical roots (Laubacher et al., 2023). Social problems are issues that affect many people within a society and are ones many people aim to solve. Although there are main social problems such as homelessness, there are other social problems that aid to homelessness as there is not always one factor to rely on. Rather than viewing homelessness in America as a type of moral failure for the person experiencing it, the sociological imagination suggests that wider social issues such as race, poverty, cost of living, and bank lending practices be considered (Laubacher et al., 2023). Having the ability to connect one’s personal challenges to larger social issues and recognizing that personal problems and biases are often rooted in in society is important when looking at social problems. Culture is an important aspect of society, and it is passed down from generation to generation, and it’s easy to allow cultural and confirmation bias to influence how we view other cultures due to other experiences and norms (Laubacher et al., 2023). Judging other cultures just because they are new or different than ours allows social problems to occur. Culture can be described as the way individuals and groups live within a society; culture gives meaning and significance to social institutions, as well as what is valued within society (Laubacher et al. 2023). Culture gives people an identity they can share with those in the same culture. It was stated by Hodgetts et al., (2012), “Whites constitute a large share of people experiencing homelessness in the United States, but Blacks are consistently found to be over- represented relative to their share among the overall population and the poor (Burt et al. 2001, AHAR 2007-2018, O’Flaherty 2019)” (Pg. 5 para. 3). Black people seem to be continually over-represented in comparison to their share in the total population and the lower class. According to a 2017 annual count, Blacks made up around three times the sheltered homeless population as the total U.S. population (Meyer et al., 2021). Black people are three times more likely to make up the population in sheltered

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Page 4 of 5 homes than other races. The process of getting out of homelessness frequently entails adjusting to new living arrangements in an unfamiliar environment (Hodgetts et al., 2012). Rejection and distancing processes become key. Status refers to any collection or portion of socially defined positions within a group or larger society and the social sciences examine three types of status: ascribed, achieved, and master. Ascribed status is granted to a person just for being who they are, achieved status is earned, and master status dominates their life and is critical to the formation of their personal identity. (Laubacher et al., 2023). The phrase master status is used by sociologists and anthropologists as an analytical instrument to characterize the connections between groups of unequal status. Minorities are groups that have been assigned master status based on various cultural or physical features deemed undesirable by dominant social groups (Laubacher et al., 2023). Minorities are frequently separated from other social groups with higher ascribed status, and as a result, they experience discrimination and disparate treatment. Certain trends result in a noticeable difference in the racial composition of the homeless and established populations. Homelessness is a complicated topic that can be viewed as both an attributed and an acquired status. While some may regard homelessness to be an earned status, the result of a weak work ethic or bad lifestyle choices, it can also be considered an ascribed status in many circumstances 2. While there are other groups that experience homelessness and are considered minorities, homelessness in African Americans should be talked about more due to the high rate of homelessness compared to the rate of African Americans population. There are many factors that can lead to homelessness such as societal and cultural problems and biases towards African Americans. There are master statuses that is a result from assigned statuses and are viewed differently in American standards and values. Statuses are a concept that is a key component of all social structures.

Page 5 of 5 References: Hodgetts, D., Stolte, O., Nikora, L. W., & Groot, S. (2012). Drifting along or dropping into homelessness: A class analysis of responses to homelessness Links to an external site. . Antipode, 44 (4), 1209- 1226. Laubacher, M., Navarre-Jackson, L. C., Williams, A. N., Dillard, D., Pate, J., & Choi, K. P. (2023). An introduction to social science: Individuals, society, and culture . Constellation. Moses, J. (2019). Demographic data project: Race, ethnicity, and homelessness Links to an external site. . Homelessness Research Institute. https://endhomelessness.org/wp- content/uploads/2019/07/3rd-Demo-Brief-Race.pdf Meyer, B.D., Wyse, A., Grunwaldt, A., Medalia, C., & Wu, D. (2021 ) Learning about homelessness Links to an external site. using linked survey and administrative data. Working Paper no. 2021-65. Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at UChicago . https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp- content/uploads/2021/06/BFI_WP_2021-65.pdf

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