” I never imagined that I would be homeless.”
Although I have read this statement made over and over again, the
facts behind it remain astonishing. The facts are that there are
millions of homeless in America today. Many of these people had
no choice but to become homeless. Economic problems such as
being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing had lead
people to live on the streets. Many of the homeless are women
that have become divorced or have left home because of physical
abuse. These women have no education because they have not been
given the chance to go and get the education that it takes
nowadays to get the job, so they are forced to live on the
streets. They have no family to help them and they are left with
no other choice. People with mental illnesses also become
homeless quite often. These people are incapable of handling the
stress of living on their own. These people get kicked out of
their homes and are to ashamed to go to their families because of
their illness, so we see them on the streets struggling to stay
warm. Teenage mothers are also forced to live on the streets
because their families will not help them. The fathers are not
there and that forces them to live on the streets. So they must
resort to prostitution to pay for the food that their young ones
need to stay alive. There are many other people that become
homeless for many different reasons. Some of these people can not
help becoming homeless. Some of these people are the illegal
immigrants that come here from other places to get a better life
but end up not having enough money to make it in this hard world
that we live in. Teenage runaways have different reasons for
leaving home but all have the same reason for becoming homeless.
They simply just do not have enough money. Others are drug and
alcohol abusers and disabled people. With this list of people
there must be some way that we can help these people.
There has been many programs that have been available to
help these homeless, but only have only succeeded in the short
run and have failed in the long run. There has been homeless in
America ever since the colonial times and not much progress has
been made in the 200 plus years in helping these people. We have
adopted programs such as FDR’s New Deal in which the government
produced more jobs that took little skill, and made these jobs
available to the poor. Social Security, which is not welfare,
was adopted and is still going. It is where you pay into it
while you work and when you for some reason become unable to work
you will have this money. HUD housing has been available also to
the homeless and the poor. We also have AFDC (Aid to Families
with Dependent Children) and Welfare which gives federal money to
homeless and poor and helps them get back on their feet. But
these programs seem more to help the poor with home and not the
poor without homes. We must think of ways to help the poor
without homes – the homeless.
There are many shelters were the homeless can go to get out
of the cold and sleep on a cot instead of a bench or the hard
ground, but families sometimes find it dangerous to sleep there
in fear that the few possessions that they do own will be stolen.
We should make these places safer for the homeless, and set up
programs within these shelters that will help the homeless find
jobs and homes. We could have the vacant apartment buildings
opened and have the homeless stay there so that they have an
address to get their selves a job. We could take some of the
money that we are using to set up these little shelters, and set
up larger ones in the cities that need them the most. We could
all volunteer a little of our time to serve dinners to these
people and to help build homes for the homeless. We could give a
little of our money to those who have none. A little of our time
will go a long way.
Homelessness is a big problem in our country today, but
there are very few programs set up to help them. We all need to
work together to help those less fortunate because you would want
someone to help you if you where in that position, so we should
do our best to help them.
