This paper explores  homelessness in New York City. The Coalition for the Homeless tracks the number of people residing in New York City shelters each night.

Homelessness in New York City

Part One: Problem Assessment (Due Week 6) Identify a public policy issue or an action-forcing incident that represents an inadequacy in current government policy. · What is the problem? Identify the underlying problem, providing a context for the current situation. (For example, lack of affordable housing for the working poor is the underlying problem that results in the growing number of people ending up in shelters). · What does it look like? Provide measures of the problem that demonstrate its size, scope and impact on affected parties. Include data or statistics, preferably in the form of a table or other graphic figure.

Homelessness in New York City

Use the most recent data available, gleaned from a reliable source. (For example, how many people are homeless in New York City? The Coalition for the Homeless tracks the number of people residing in New York City shelters each night. Use a table from the Coalition’s website, or create one of your own to depict the size and scope of the problem.) · Is there an existing policy? Problems generally occur due to policy failure—an inadequate law or policy that fails to address a pressing issue.

Homelessness in New York City

Problems also arise in the absence of an effective policy. Identify the existing policy/law associated with the issue–give its exact title, as specified in the enacting legislation (for example, New York City has a right to shelter mandate that was the result of litigation—Callahan v. Carey). Be sure to include the policy’s jurisdiction (Callahan v. Carey applies throughout New York State), which should determine the context for the data above as well as your discussion of the issue. In other words, if your issue is local, you should be discussing it in the context of local government, providing local data, and so on.

Homelessness in New York City

If your policy is national, however, you might discuss it at that level or at the nexus of local, regional and national government, depending on how it is implemented. · How did the current problem arise? Explain how the government (in the jurisdiction specified above) became involved in this policy and how the issue arrived at its current state. Provide a timeline of the problem in narrative form, focusing only on details relevant to the current issue (a graphic may also be included, but it is limited in size to one-half of a single page).

Homelessness in New York City

If the agency is thirty years old but the problem only arose two years ago, the timeline narrative should focus on developments during that two year span. If the problem began thirty years ago and the failing policy was developed two years ago to address the issue, go back as far as necessary to give the reader a clear understanding of how the jurisdiction arrived at the present circumstances. In either case, focus only on major developments relevant to the current situation.

Homelessness in New York City

Do not talk about developments outside of the jurisdiction in which the policy was made unless those outside developments directly influenced the policy under discussion.  Who has felt the impact of the problem? Has the problem resulted in a disparate impact on any particular group? Identify groups affected and the nature of the civil rights or civil liberties violations, if any, alleged. This section of your paper may include excerpts from the original legislation, but that should not exceed a half of one page. https://youtu.be/i06ag1MwTLc

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