Proposal: Help the homeless

I plan to do a proposal on a way to lower the percentage of homeless people living

on the streets. Homelessness is rife in America, particularly in city and urban areas.
Homelessness in the United States has been an issue for an extremely long time. And
although there are many programs, charities, and institutions that aim to help
decrease homelessness across the country, we still have an umpteen amount of men,
women, and children who have no place to go at night. I believe there is a gap in the
bridge of these organizations that is causing them to not be able to work to their full
potential.

My goal is to create awareness in our communities about how bad the problem of
homelessness is and to come up with a solution to help lower the percentage of
people living on the streets.

My ultimate goal is to create a home for those who have no other option but to live
on the streets. This home would be the stepping stone they need to get on the right
track of getting their lives together and bettering themselves. This home would
provide the necessities every individual has a right to: shelter, good food, and
clothing. I would like to implement mandatory classes for those at the center to gain
a better knowledge and understanding of the many factors that will help them get
ahead in life. This includes health classes, basic English, math, and computer classes,
workshops to prepare them for a job, and the opportunity to work on certificates,
allowing them to add some substance to their resumes. This center would help them

get a job, and help them to save up a substantial amount of money for them to then
be able to take the next step and move out into their own apartments. The aim is to
get as much homeless people into accommodations of their own, lowering the
number of homeless people living on the street significantly. This center would be
that stepping stone and opportunity an individual needs for that push and
encouragement to get on the right path. All it takes is a little bit of help. This is a big
project, so the reasonable first step would be to build on what we already have in
the community rather than build from scratch.

As we know, homelessness in the United States is extremely broad, so I would start

by focusing on a smaller area, particularly Orlando. By collaborating with homeless
shelters in Orlando, my first step would be to arrange to implement those classes
previously mentioned into a continuous program. Starting off small with English
and math classes, we could provide the basic knowledge one needs to be able to get
a beginner job, for example as a receptionist, or a retail clerk. The basic classes will
then lead to the more technical classes.

The main rhetorical techniques I plan to use are pathos and logos, significantly
pathos. Touching peoples emotions really helps to bring awareness on a particular
subject. The topic at hand truly resonates with the audience when it has an
emotional appeal. If I were to use media to help create awareness and to help
promote my solution, I would create flyers, pamphlets, posters, and billboards. My

aim would be to get the attention of the general community as well as homeless
people in the community.

An analysis of homelessness in the United States

As stated by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a homeless person is
an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in a shelter,
mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any other
unstable or non-permanent situation. The last official count conducted by the National
Alliance to End Homelessness found that on any given night, approximately 633,782
people experience homelessness. In most cases, urban areas have a higher rate of
homelessness than rural areas. About 29 people in 10,000 are homeless in urban areas
compared to 14 people in 10,000 in a rural setting. This could be because of the lack of
shelters in rural areas in contrast to the many shelters in urban cities; homeless people
often leave the rural setting in search of shelters and employment.

There are different types of homelessness. Short-term homelessness refers to those who
are homeless for a very short period of time. These people have the resources to recover
fairly quickly. Long-term homelessness refers to homelessness for a longer period of
time, from about 120 days to several years. Chronic homelessness is the classic view of
what society represents homeless people as. They usually have disabilities or mental
illnesses such as addiction or schizophrenia, and have experienced long-term or repeated
homelessness. This is true in many cases.

The majority of the time, people become homeless because of poverty and lack of stable
and affordable housing. Unstable finances are a major factor and the number of homeless
people in the United States has grown dramatically since the recent recession. Insecure
employment and the lack of affordable housing can prevent individuals and families from
meeting their other basic needs, such as nutrition and health care, or not being able to
save money.

The 1970s saw a huge burst of homeless people with mental illnesses. This was due to
the deinstitutionalization of mental patients from state psychiatric hospitals. The number
of mental patients in these hospitals was extremely high. To lower the population of the
mentally ill in psychiatric hospitals, these hospitals released patients and shortened stays.

By the mid-1980s, there was also a dramatic increase in family homelessness. From the
most recent count, there are 239,403 homeless people as part of a family. Typically,
families become homeless for an unforeseen financial crisis such as the death of a family
member or a medical emergency, resulting in being unable to keep their housing.

Youth become homeless usually due to family conflict. Most youth experience short-term
homelessness; they end up returning home soon after. LGBTQ youth, which stands for
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered and Questioning youth, are much more affected by
homelessness than heterosexual youth.

Veterans often become homeless due to war-related disabilities such as physical

disability, mental anguish, and post-traumatic stress. Many veterans find readjusting to
civilian life difficult. This can cause dangerous behaviors including addiction, abuse, and
violence, which in turn can cause homelessness.

The majority of homeless people in the U.S. are male, counting for 62.7 percent.
Analyzing race, white and non-Hispanic people and black or African American people
are almost neck and neck at 39.5 percent and 38.1 percent, respectively. Most homeless
people are aged between 31 and 50 at 35.8 percent, with the next highest being 18-30
year olds with 23.8 percent of them being homeless. This data comes from the 2011
Annual Homeless Assessment Report, published in December 2012.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness states that to date there have been 243
completed plans to end homelessness across the country. In 2000, The Alliance
implemented a Ten Year Plan to end homelessness. They outline four key elements:

1)

Plan for outcomes: Collect data to plan strategies that identify with sub-groups of
homeless people.

2)

Close the front door: Make programs to help recover and prevent extreme poverty
in the community.

3)

Open the back door: Communities should supply affordable housing.

4)

Build the infrastructure: End homelessness by implementing and combining

affordable housing, adequate pay, and access to services needed.

Strategies included permanent housing, systems prevention, outreach, emergency

prevention, and rapid re-housing. The plan is a step in the right direction, but of course,
chronic homelessness is still a significant problem in the United States. The Alliance
noted some critical fundamentals needed for a successful plan implementation. They
include identifying a person/body responsible for implementation, setting numeric
outcomes, identifying a funding source, and setting a clear implementation timeline.
Although these fundamentals are extremely helpful in completing the plan, 10 years have
passed and there is still a homelessness problem in our communities.

HOPE, the Housing Outreach Prevention Education organization is offering financial

freedom classes educating Seminole County residents. The classes address budgeting,
money management, and debt and mortgage information. This is a good idea, however,
this seems to be a way to prevent homelessness rather than specifically helping those
who are homeless presently. These classes arent directed to the right audience.

Non-profit organizations such as Goodwill provide skill development and work

opportunities to people with barriers to employment. This is a great plan to get people
back on their feet and help them recover from homelessness caused by financial crisis.
Although minimum wage pay is not enough to afford substantial housing, the
employment can be stable and help individuals to afford basic needs. This is especially
good for those who do not have the qualifications to pursue better jobs or careers.

Some cities have street newspapers that provide employment opportunities to homeless
people. These include the Street News in New York City, the Hobo News in
Cincinnati, The Big Issue in London, England, and many more papers and magazines
published in 30 different countries. These newspapers and magazines help homeless
individuals make a little money and also gives them a voice in their community. Most of
the articles are written and produced by homeless people. The little money they do make
can save them from begging or stealing, but it still does not provide them with enough to
afford housing. Also, the papers are not very popular and are often thrown out by
consumers, which can be degrading to the homeless people who take the effort and
humility to produce and sell the papers.

There are hundreds of shelters all across the United States that cater to certain sub-groups
of homeless people, that includes shelters specifically provided for women, families,
youth, or veterans. There are 11 homeless shelters in the Orlando area and almost 50 food
banks and a lot of these organizations are Christian based organizations. Most of the
shelters provide shelter for one night and on a first come first serve basis. A lot of
homeless people in big cities, specifically women and families, are frightened to go into
shelters because of violence and theft. The shelters need to implement strict rules and
security otherwise they will not attract individuals such as women and youth, short-term
homeless people who are not used to the rough streets, or families.

There have been many programs, plans, and services implemented across the United
States to help lower and end homelessness. These services have definitely helped some

homeless people in their journeys to recovering, but they have not been able to end
homelessness altogether, or even get close to it. There must be bigger, long-term changes
that need to be executed in hopes of not just putting a stop to the rising number of
homeless people, but actually lowering the number significantly.

Plan of action: Help the homeless

I have been researching and analyzing information surrounding homelessness in Orlando.

I have thought hard about how I want to plan out my action of trying to lower the rate of
homeless people by helping them to get jobs to sustain their living. My main solution is
to incorporate educational classes at homeless shelters throughout the city of Orlando. I
want homeless people to be able to learn from English classes and math classes taught at
the shelter to aid them in getting starter jobs such as secretary work or customer service
work. I would also like to provide them with the opportunity to get professional
certificates in courses ranging from computers, accounting, mechanics, cosmetology and
more. This kind of education will help homeless people to get a job, keep a job, and
therefore be able to afford their own accommodation.

To start off, I want to incorporate these classes into one shelter in downtown Orlando,
and from here my plan will continue to grow as these classes start to become a staple in
every shelter across the city, and later, across the state and country.

The shelter I will use as the premier institution for my program will be the Coalition for
the Homeless of Central Florida. The steps that I will take to execute my plan of action
will include outdoor advertisements such as billboard advertisements, bus
advertisements, and bus stop advertisements. I also want to include some guerilla
marketing techniques such as wall art and floor art, and lastly, my aim is to result in word
of mouth advertising for my program.

I will be using multimodal rhetoric to let the public know about my program and to
persuade homeless people to take action and join us at the Coalition for the homeless of
Central Florida. I will be using different types of advertising to do this.

Outdoor advertising is a great way to shout a message to an extremely large audience.

Billboards are the traditional type of outdoor advertising and after television; it is ranked
at number two in the most popular way to advertise. Research shows that billboards reach
93 percent of Americans (Business Knowledge Source). I plan to have several billboard
ads located near West Central Florida Boulevard, where the Coalition for the Homeless
of Central Florida is situated. My aim is to create awareness in the community about this
new program. However, billboards will not be my leading technique.

As mentioned, billboards are a great way to get a message across to a large amount of
people, but it is harder for pedestrians to notice a billboard than it is for drivers. The
majority of homeless individuals will not have a vehicle, they will more likely walk, and
a select amount might ride the bus. Billboards can help get the message across to the

general public, but they will not be my principle technique because my main goal is to
target homeless people.

My key types of advertising I will use are bus stop ads and advertisements on the sides of
buses. These ads are more engaging because they are at eye-level to pedestrians. They
will speak directly to the homeless, informing them of this new program and how it can
change their lives. Thousands of people ride the bus every day in Orlando and those who
walk, bike, or drive in downtown Orlando also come in contact with buses.
Advertisements on the sides of buses are a great way to get heads turning and people
thinking, and bus stop ads can engage stationary passengers waiting for a bus or people
walking. A lot of homeless people hang around bus stops and make their beds near bus
stops in hopes of getting some spare change from passerbys.

An additional method I plan to use as a plan of action is guerilla marketing. Guerrilla

marketing is an advertising strategy that focuses on low-cost unconventional marketing
tactics that yield maximum results (Creativeguerillamarketing.com).
Creativeguerillamarketing.com tells us that guerrilla marketing is about taking the
consumer by surprise, mak[ing] an indelible impression and creat[ing] copious amounts
of social buzz. This is my objective. Guerrilla marketing would be ideal for my plan of
action because I could reach a large audience without breaking the bank.

I want to use the stealth marketing technique and create floor art and wall art to promote
my program at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. Stealth marketing is a

subset of guerilla marketing. It is essentially undercover marketing; consumers dont

realize they are being advertised to. With a single word I want to build curiosity and
interest. With a single picture I want to generate attention and create a buzz about this
program. I plan to print the word home on the ground and on the walls of buildings in
downtown Orlando and on West Central Florida Boulevard. I will also print flyers to
hand out and to place in thrift stores. I will use a simple picture of the outline of a house
in this way also. This technique will get people around town talking. Although I will be
using a single word and a single picture, I think there will be an emotional appeal,
especially with my target audience. Homeless people will be affected by this use of
pathos because theyll think of home, where home used to be in the past, what their living
situation is like in the present, and what their life could, and should be like in the future if
they participate in the programs that will be available to them.

Targeting homeless people is the ultimate goal. After I take these steps toward my plan of
action, and homeless people have benefited from my program and have later gone on to
live happy, sustainable lives, I would hope they use their experience to inform others that
are in the same situation they were in about this program. Word of mouth
recommendations are the most accountable advertising there is and according to
entrepreneur.com, it's one of the most credible forms of advertising. People trust their
friends, or those that are like them (Bloomberg Businessweek). This is where rhetorical
velocity comes in. I want people to tell other people about this program and I want the
news to spread fast. This will help me to get the word out in different cities and then

hopefully in surrounding states, allowing me to more easily implement this program in

other locations.

As mentioned throughout my plan of action, I will be using rhetorical concepts such at

pathos and multimodal rhetoric. I hope to experience rhetorical velocity from my stealth
marketing campaign. My plan of action will result in more homeless people off the
streets and in shelters, and later in homes of their own.

Works cited

OConnor, Shawn P. Word of mouth is the best ad. Businessweek.com. The Debate
Room. Web. Nov. 15, 2013.
http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2011/12/word_of_mouth_is_the_bes
t_ad.html

Using billboards for marketing. Businessknowledgesource.com. Marketing and sales

info. Web. Nov. 17, 2013.
http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/marketing/using_billboards_for_marketing_0
26351.html

What is Guerilla Marketing? Creativeguerillamarketing.com. Web. Nov. 14, 2013.

http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/what-is-guerrilla-marketing/

Word-of-Mouth Advertising Web. Nov. 15, 2013.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/word-of-mouth-advertising