Poverty/Homelessness in Mississippi (Jackson, Vicksburg: how much, homes, find a job)

[ASU]

I am a senior at Alcorn State University doing a research project on poverty and homelessness in Mississippi, specifically in the Vicksburg area. I am not from around here, so I am wondering what people think of the poverty in their area, the amount of homeless people, whether you think there are adequate resources (ie shelters, food banks) to help the homeless and those in need, ect. Thank you for your help!

[jacksonian]

I'm not familiar with Vicksburg's poverty and homeless situation, but Jackson has several shelters and food banks. For a temporary band-aid, I think they work well, but amenities such as these do nothing to motivate. There needs to be programs devoted to the betterment of all individuals who are in need of direction. There are college students that go off to do internships for no pay; they just gain the experience that is essential to their field. Why can there not be programs like that for the unemployed?

[ViolentDisasters]

Because of its history as the US's gay mecca, SF is also home to a large number of homeless LGBT youth and elders. In the case of the former, most of these kids/young adults were kicked out by their families or ran away from abusive situations and came to San Francisco because its more accepting and theres more resources in place for them than anywhere else (although its still lacking).

In the case of the latter, many LGBT elders find themselves without family or children to take care of them as they age, and end up in San Francisco where they're still in the same predicament, but with a community to support them.

Homeless transgender people of all ages come to SF, because its one of the few places that has some shelters where you're not segregated based on your assigned gender, theres easier access to hormones, and because its easier than most other places for a trans person to find a job.

[Phil75230]

While not all homeless people are mentally ill, from what I've seen here in Dallas, there seems to be a lack of mental health services for them (and I would guess with the rest of the USA in general, even if to varying degrees by locale). Moreso, undoubtedly there are cases of people losing their homes not being mentally ill at first but their homeless situation pushed them into mental illness.

I can't know how much research you've done into this aspect, but this seems to be a crucial factor in homelessness (whether pre- or post- home loss state).