Research Problem and Method Paper: Homelessness in the United States

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Please see response attached, which is also presented below. I also attached two supporting articles. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

The following questions can act as a tentative outline for your Research Problem and Method paper.

1. Select a social phenomenon, problem, or issue that you think warrants sociological research.

I am wondering if you have given this research project some thought and what social phenomenon you would like to research. Perhaps, you could consider homelessness or domestic violence, which are important social phenomenon that warrant sociological research. Both topics are social issues that cause people considerable grief and reflect negatively on the countries economy and socioeconomic provisions for all people.

Let's consider homelessness as an illustrative example. Specifically, the potential research questions are: What are the health concerns of the people who are by definition, homeless? Do they have health care benefits, and if they do, how often do they utilize health care services? What do they perceive to be the main obstacles to access to health care services and what improvements would be beneficial to their health status?

2. Discuss why the topic needs to be researched.

There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade. A little more than half were living in shelters, and nearly a quarter were chronically homeless, according to the report Wednesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group. A majority of the homeless were single adults, but about 41% were in families, the report said. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-10-homeless_x.htm

In 2002, for example, research showed that children and families were the largest growing segment of the homeless in America,[11][12] and this has presented new challenges, especially in services, to agencies. Back in the 1990s, a teenager from New York, Liz Murray, was homeless at fifteen years old, and overcame that and went on to study at Harvard University. Her story was made into an Emmy-winning film in 2003, "Homeless to Harvard".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness

Therefore, this topic needs to be researched in order determine the major reasons for this new trends. for example, one study reports that the major reasons and causes for homelessness as documented by many reports and studies include: [25] [26]
· Lack of affordable housing
· ...