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Recommended: Homeless people
When I think of the word shelter, I think of a place of protection. I picture a roof over my head to protect me from a storm. I picture a room with a warm fire to protect me from the stinging cold. I picture a bird covering her babies with her wings. But as I thought about what to write, the story that entered my mind was not a physical shelter, but God's protective shelter of His spirit. When I was in my twenties, we lived in an apartment above a Methodist church In downtown Huntington, West Virginia. There were many, many homeless people in that city. I walked to and from work each day. Some of the homeless were very sweet and friendly and I spoke with them daily. Others had minds and spirits that were scary and angry. A result of drugs,
Most individuals would suggest creating a homeless shelter, but that solution is unrealistic due to budgets, and the lack of funds from the community and Calvary Chapel. The cost of these solutions is reasonable and within reach. The solution will provide jobs and offer a sense of self-esteem most homeless have lost. The homeless as well as the community will thrive from this program and lives will be changed. Individuals, who were stuck on the street cold and alone, will be given the opportunity to go out and make a change in their lives. Although, many might suggest that many homeless are ex drug addicts or alcoholics, there are many who do not have the financial stability to survive and live a life of normality but will do what it takes to change their situation. Hess suggests that, “What many people need is an opportunity to get back on their feet and develop their own income” (Feuer, 2012, para.15). My solution offers this opportunity and by implementing it, homeless will have the power to change their
Spirituality affirms the essential self-worth, dignity and core health of a person’s well being; therefore, homeless shelters should incorporate spirituality, in order to benefit a person in the long term compared to the satisfaction of an immediate need. “Our national epidemic of intolerance for poor and homeless people is the consequence of America’s lack of spirituality, coupled with America’s love of materialism and society’s expense (3, martin).”
People in America tend to think that a shelter is best for the homeless, but most of these people do not go to shelters for a reason. For example, in paragraph 7, on page 191, Anna says, “certainly some prefer to do so because they are emotionally ill, because they have been locked in before and they are damned if they will be locked in again.” These homeless people can have emotional or physical problems preventing them from going. Also, people will criticize the homeless and not look at these people as humans. People do not see the homeless as regular humans, instead they just criticize them. Even if they do not know the situation. I also look at these people differently. I feel sorrow for them and think they should find a shelter to live in like most Americans. This is the stereotype of the homeless people. We all think that they aren’t normal and should find a shelter to get help. Finally, Americans always look over the fact that they need help, but we shouldn’t go to drastic measures to help them. I will pass hundreds of homeless people, and helping them will never even cross my mind. Sometimes I won’t even notice them when I walk past where they are sleeping. A lot of people are too selfish to help a person in need. Even if that person is begging for help, most people still won’t help them. People should just put the
The impoverished and the homeless live in another world compared to those of us that are fortunate enough to have stable living conditions. Families are struggling to survive with the little government assistance they receive. The quality and space in a shelter or even government provided living is atrocious and, to be frank, borderline unlivable. Quindlen describes a family of six cramped into a single bedroom, an inexcusable and terrible way to live and yet better than nothing at all (332). Children of families that have to live in situations like this grow up not knowing stability or security.
Have you ever thought about the possibilities of becoming homeless? I think about that almost every day; I try to comprehend and picture in my head the life as someone that lives on or off the streets of New York. New York isn’t one of the cleanest places in the United States, but it sure has one of the highest percentage rates in the U.S. for homeless people. In the 21st century, people raised in the U.S. are not taught about the struggles of homelessness and what they have to go through to survive; most people don’t plan on becoming homeless and became homeless due to the fluctuation in the market and various other problems. Also not only the homeless, but people in depth (people struggling to pay bills or drug addicts) and other people suffering also has to survive.
In the early hours of the morning on Thursday, January 3, 2013, James G. Fulmer was found frozen to death on the steps of a Nashville Church. James Fulmer was 50 years old, homeless, and physically handicapped (wsmv.com). His tragic story is just one of almost 1,000 homeless men and women will suffer death caused by hypothermia each year. (nationalhomeless.org). Every night in the United States, over 600,000 people encounter homelessness. Their stories are diverse and their paths to homelessness, varied. Many have found themselves on the streets due to domestic violence, job loss and mental illness (npr.org). Some were teachers, accountants, musicians, painters, and even doctors. So many of the homeless population once lead normal lives. Yet, there is a social stigma that views the homeless as lazy, unwilling to work, uneducated and even untrustworthy. In a Capitalist society that places the highest value on image and the almighty dollar, there seems to be little desire to interact with these “outcasts”.
Today in the U.S. there is a large percentage of people that are homeless. There are so many questions when one sees a homeless person, for example why doesn’t he or she get a job and get out of the streets? People that make comments like the one just made probably doesn’t really know anyone that is homeless so they do no understand what they go through. In the book “ Tell Me Who I Am,’’ Elliot Liebow tries to explain what the cost and gains are for women living in a homeless shelter.
Reports of this issue have been seen since the 1600s. There have been many events in history that have led to people being homeless. From wars to natural disasters, homelessness has been a prevailing issue that was not addressed when it first began. Society in past eras believed, as many do today, that homelessness was due to personal circumstances. The term given to this population of homeless or homelessness began in the early 1980s. Homeless, however, wasn’t the only term used to identify this population. “Vagrants, vagabonds, tramps, beggars, bums… (Ocobock,).” All of these names given to them were not only for society’s use, the terms were actually legal names to describe them. There were harsh vagrancy laws created to handle the
Surprisingly, the shelter become the most comfortable place I ever had. I met women in similar situations like me. I saw the glow in their face and the hope in their eyes to move forward in their life. I found courage in me after long time to see the world differently. Counseling and women support groups helped me to focus on my future and helped me to see outside the box. Even though, I did not have much communication with other women in the shelter, I empathized their struggles in life. I saw women coming and leaving the shelter when their goals are met, when they’re physically and mentally cured, when they gain all the strength they needed and most of all, when their past become the past. My entire notion about women shelter changed immensely. I became grateful for people like Adrianna for doing an incredible job of helping women in
Growing up with a mentally ill, schizophrenic mother, I have experienced homelessness. Time to time spent under bypasses, abandoned buildings and eating food from trash bins. My mother often left me to fend for myself at a young age when emotions are beginning to bloom. Growing up like that I did not receive the correct education. The loss of hope feeling came when I moved into my first foster home thinking to myself these aren't my parents. Going to my very first school, not having proper vocabulary nor not really knowing how to speak without stuttering, first thing I did was run, run away from the school and ran away from foster family to only be walking the same streets my mom wondered at night, (not soliciting like her). As I grew older my options were limited. I chose not to be like my mentally Ill, jobless, drug addicted mother. I will be
Tracy Miller’s article comes from The Center for Vision and Values, which is affiliated with the Grove City College. The center focuses on a learning community that teaches people about faith and freedom as American citizens. They write about the raw truth of difficult circumstances, including homelessness. Miller has different opinions then others when it comes to the government helping the homeless. This article talks about how the government is actually making the homeless population worse. He talks about the past and gives statistics about housing that the government has funded and how it has not helped. They are making it worse by allowing people to live in government-funded housing. Miller says this allows the homeless to continue their
Homelessness is increasing more every year. In fact, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over 640,000 people experience homelessness every night. (Hunger and Homelessness in North America) By definition, the homeless are groups of people that do not have a home. They can be people who are mentally ill, unemployed, veterans, or even children born into unfortunate families. Since they have nowhere to go, the homeless usually live inside abandoned buildings, in the streets, or in makeshift homes, such as a cardboard box or homemade tent. Although some work to find a decent home, many still suffer from depression or are psychically disabled and cannot work. (Overview of Homelessness in America) These people do not choose to be homeless, instead they become homeless due to a series of unfortunate events; namely losing their source of income or becoming homeless by birth. One instance of this occurred in the life of Hazel Washington. Hazel was fleeing an abusive relationship when she moved in with her relative and his girlfriend, but she was not told about their impending eviction. Because of this, her roommates took everything she owned an...
In Canada and many other countries, homelessness is an issue that is prevalent and not taken seriously by many citizens and governments. Although unfortunate, many people today ignore or don’t recognize the true hardships homeless people go through, resulting in a lack of effort to resolve this issue of homelessness. As part of the Catholic Church’s teachings, the Catholic Social Teachings (CST) educate society on how to live a life in the grace of God, tending to those who are vulnerable and working towards the common good. Since these are the main themes of CST, homelessness, an issue that relates to the most vulnerable in a society, if solved, would initiate further action
The same research indicates that a segment of the total homeless population, precisely eighty percent, will have the opportunity to enter and exit a shelter quicker and never return for a protracted period or somehow never return. The temporal or transitional homelessness is catapulted by series of life-long experiences such as job loss, natural disaster, abuse or divorce, or medical conditions. This kind of people can only over...
At a younger age, I feared the homeless, because I was told by family that they were bad people and that they were dangerous. As I got older the idea of social hierarchy was introduced and I believed that the homeless were lesser individuals and that ‘normal’ people were better than them. This created some confusion and discomfort as my ideals of equality were being questioned; however, I followed the with the ideas of my cohort. It was not until I reached high school that my views towards the homeless population became more