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Homeless Experience The day came, when we were leaving to drive all of the way to California for a mission trip. I was excited to get a new experience serving the homeless, but was a little nervous. The first couple of days we served food to the homeless at a homeless shelter. It was very humbling to see how grateful they were for the meal they were provided. In the evening we got the opportunity to hand out sack lunches on the street. I gave my lunch to a young homeless lady. The attitude of the lady surprised me so much, I was able to have a spiritual conversation with her for over an hour. It was truly amazing to see that someone who has nothing in life is so humble and can still believe in God. The next evening, after serving …show more content…
This was the last thing I wanted to do. After only begging for half an hour, we were approached by a cop and told to get off the streets because someone had complained that we were pan handling. At this moment I had lost all hope in getting food or water. We were tired from not getting any sleep the night before, and starving from not eating all day. With no ideas left, we decided to walk all the way back to the park with the little energy we had left. It was a breaking point for me when I saw so many people walk by with a judgmental look and no compassion for my tired and exhausted face. All I thought was that everyone who passed me could hand me a quarter which could quickly add up to something I could eat. It's amazing how selfish and rude we can be to those who have nothing. This was definitely not the mission trip I was expecting. Instead of serving the homeless…. we became the homeless. This was an experience that changed my perspective on life. I was only homeless for a day, yet complained as if it was forever. This experience truly humbled me when I realized that there are so many people who live like this every single day of their life, not knowing where their next meal will come from. I'm so blessed that I was able to experience the homeless life for a day. This experience made me appreciate my life, and has made me stay humble, and continue serving
On Thursday October 31st, I attended a public service class where the professor had invited two spokesmen from the ‘National Coalition for the Homeless’ to share their personal stories and what the public can do to help.
In the article “I Need a Dollar: Should you give to the New York 's Homeless?”, published on Gawker.com on July 28, 2014, Paul Cantor argues the issue of whether or not you should give money to a panhandler. Like Cantor, I have been approached several times by people asking for money. Often times I wondered, "how did you end up in this situation?” More often than not I find myself leaning towards the negative connotation; that it is their fault they’re in these circumstances. However, I generally feel that I can spare a buck or two. Cantor suggests "maybe nine out of every ten panhandlers are lying." Even if every dollar you hand out goes to something it shouldn 't, what is it really hurting? I agree with Cantor. Americans spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year on coffee
The homeless population is growing in America. There are more and more Americans living in boxes, sleeping on park benches and panhandling on the streets each day. These people tend to make us, the non-homeless, feel uncomfortable and unsafe. They are also placing increasing stress on the nation's economy. In short, the homeless are a burden on the rest of society. There needs to be action taken against them. "I shall now humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection (Swift.)" I propose that all of the homeless be relocated to foreign third world countries. They can then be hired in American factories producing shoes, automobiles and other various goods at less than one dollar per hour.
Many people debate on weather homeless people should receive guidance or just be abandoned. Do homeless people deserve our service and to be supported, or are they just lazy individuals trying to take advantage of people? Homelessness is a growing dispute in cities. It has became an extensive problem for the community. Homelessness can not and should not be ignored. The number of homeless people in the United States is quickly growing. It seems like no one cares to help them. Even our heroes like police officers show no sympathy towards the homeless. “Homeless people appeared on the streets of Bucharest in 1990. Since then, their number and the problems created by this phenomenon have steadily increased in all major
Begging in America has evolved into something to be abhorred and looked at with shame in the American culture. Research says that begging “… is associated with phenomena such as homelessness, unemployment, refugees… It is also stigmatized as involving crime … and a source of national shame.” (Arnold). When we see panhandlers on the streets we automatically assume that these men and women are deficient and have nothing better to do than to ask others for money. A majority of America will place people who beg as inferior to humans, as if we lived by an explicitly defined social class system, and not recognize them as an individual ─ America gives them little to no worth in society. Thus, panhandlers are given no rights by the citizenry.
Being homeless is a very big problem for Americans today. Each day we see it, but what about the causes? The definition of a person who is homeless lives in public with no shelter. Homeless people must do things out in public that other people have the resources to do in the privacy of their home. Many things factor in when it comes to understanding being homeless. One problem that homeless people face is medication and sleep problems. Another situation is finding a job or income to support a shelter. Lastly, people who are homeless have types of diseases that they must face along with the troubles of no place to call home.
Annotated Bibliography: “Homelessness and the selfish society”. “Homelessness, Citizenship, and Identity : The Uncanniness of Late Modernity” Arnold, Kathleen R. 2004 Kathleen’s book brings up many detailed facts about how homelessness is a never-ending situation due to mental illness, poverty, social structure and political parties. She discusses how many of society groups illegal immigrants, mentally ill, jobless and many other categories under the homeless category.
Youth become homeless for a number of reasons including: family violence and neglect, rejection due to sexual orientation or gender identity, the overwhelmed child welfare system and extreme poverty. These youth almost always have experienced unimaginable abuse and trauma, in their homes, their communities, and on the street. It is the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA)-funded services and programs that help to rectify the deep injustices that homeless youth experience on a daily basis.
We are living in an advantageous world, With technology, and enough money to be in a reliable economic situation. Yet people live on the streets everyday. Homelessness is a rising issue in all parts of the world. The disturbing reality of the number of people living on the streets has become the harsh truth and has been considered the norm. The exact amount of homeless people living within our world is hard to come by. However, the evidence supporting the issue of the homeless being problematic is plentiful and powerful. Homelessness is seen as an issue that occurs mostly in developing countries, on the contrary, homelessness occurs everywhere. Canada, being one of the most developed countries has one of the highest rate of homelessness within their nation. With the amount of money available today it should be no problem to find solutions and to provide adequate futures for the homeless.
The population of Los Angeles continues to grow each day because people perceive that the opportunities will improve their economic and social well-being. Most of them get good jobs manufacturing, business and the government giving them the ability to provide for themselves and their children. Those who are not lucky enough do not realise their goals and depend on the government and the society for basic needs. The effort of the city and the government to house the homeless cannot take the pressure of the rising number of the homeless without the support of the society. Los Angeles in the United State’s largest urban and has the highest number of homeless people making the task of housing its population next to impossible without participation
Although homelessness is widespread and almost next to the catastrophic global hunger problems, it can be brought under control and its effect reduced to a greater percentage. By simply tracking the root causes of low wages and the lack of affordable housing as well as improving other support systems like housing vouchers and health care, homelessness can be solved.
Each of us had learned something from that trip. For me, this experience has taught me what gratitude is, the impact a good attitude has, what a servant looks like, and really how the relationships we make with our life are the most important aspect of life. It was the summer after my freshman year of high school. Earlier in the year, my parents had decided that they wanted to go on a mission trip as a family and serve somewhere.
I went to the grocery store and got cases of water, bags of bread, and stuff to make the sandwiches. I had finished preparing the bags and each had granola bars, fruit, ham and cheese sandwiches, water, toothpaste, and other hygiene products. My dad and I had arrived outside the homeless shelter and were ready to pass the bags out as we saw the swarm of people. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people gathered sitting in what little shade there was. I knew we had a homeless problem, but not to this extent and the bags I had made were going to make little to no difference on the vast amount of people that had been sitting outside. I was a little disappointed at first to be completely honest because I was not prepared for that many people. If I would have known there would have been so many people I would have made more bags. We drove around the block planning on what we were going to do and saw some tents set up. My dad and I were curious as to what they were, so we got out the car and saw that these people had been giving people food and I walked up to them and asked if there was any way I could help them. These people in the tents were actually an organization called Open Arms Outreach and a few girls scouts. They gladly let us help and we brought a few cases of water and the bags I had made and helped pass them out. The organization Open Arms Outreach
I would like to start by saying how I see it and define it in my own words. It is the state where an individual doesn’t have a normal house and are not financially stable in life. It is the situation where you have to look after yourself or another person that is also homeless. You won’t be able to find the proper housing like a normal and secured place to live. All day and all night, you will be trying to sustain yourself from everyday challenges, like looking for food to eat, a place to live, and proper clothing.
My mother is always suspicious of panhandlers. She used to pull me closer whenever we'd encounter a begging homeless person on the subway and drop her eyes, focusing on the stray paper and chewing-gum medallions--blackened with soot of the city--that decorated the floor. She and my father frequently describe seeing a homeless man who begs in our neighborhood (claiming to have AIDS, and afflicted with a multitude of painful-looking sores) walking down a street near our house, dapper in a dark business suit, his face free of the blemishes that had covered his skin on other occasions.