It drives you to feel good! They appreciate it and it provides them with hope. They cannot shift their lives without you. Desirable things take place for you when you do good for others.
Homelessness affects all of us: whether we experience it ourselves. It is a public health problem. Without their own housing and the social status to use restrooms in businesses or other public places, people who are homeless often must relieve themselves outside.
They lack access to health care and often have chronic illnesses, made worse by tough living conditions: sleeping outside in all weather, eating cheap starchy foods, and being in close quarters at social service agencies with other unhealthy people.
Homelessness is an economic problem. People without housing are high consumers of public resources and generate an expense, rather than income, for the community.
Homelessness is considered bad for business and can be a deterrent to downtown visitors.
Based on a study conducted a few years ago, it can cost our community as much as $23,000 for one person to be chronically homeless for one year (shelter stays, jail time, emergency room visits, etc.). Homelessness is a human tragedy.
Our own community members survive in tents and under bridges, exposed to inclement weather and brutality, deprived of dignity and our unified respect.
When we think about what leads to homelessness, we assume addictions, mental illness, domestic violence, job loss, and disabilities. And those are all accurate demographic attributes of the displaced society.
These are all normal life crises. In our own communities and in our own families, we all know people who are alcoholics. Who are on medication for mental health problems, like depression or bipolar disorder?
We may know people who’ve experienced domestic violence or other traumas.
In the tough economy of the past few years, we’ve all known people who’ve lost their jobs. The difference between people who experience those challenges and become homeless and people who experience them and don’t lose their housing is simple: it supports them.
Myth: People need to earn their way back into housing, and we need to hold them accountable. In America, we believe in pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. But what if you don’t have boots? When we talk about holding people accountable, we assume that they’ve had the same chances we’ve had, but done less with them.
While homeless people often have lengthy arrest records, they’re most often arrested for non-violent crimes associated with not having a home, like public urination, or trespassing charges for camping on someone else’s land. Most people stay in the community where they first became homeless. According to national data, only 25% of the homeless population is transient.
Sometimes people would rather camp than stay in shelters, where they have to follow tough rules to reconcile with their mental illnesses or substance abuse. And sometimes people get entrenched in homelessness when they’ve been there long enough, and the prospect of moving out of it is scary, so it seems easier to stay homeless. None of this means that people are choosing it; instead, it means they need relationships and help to navigate their way out of homelessness and back into a quality of life.
I have met this guy name Marvin when I was out and about. I offered him a couple of dollars. I stayed and talked to him being that appeared what he wanted to do more than receiving monetary help. He says what you mentioned in your blog. He stays in the area where he became homeless and every time, he moves away from the area it seems foreign to him.
I’ve lived in doorways, I’ve lived everywhere to be honest. The rain’s bad. People are bad. They don’t see you as what you are, or what you could be, or what you have been – they just see you as a dosser.
Help dispel the stereotypes about the homeless. Learn about the different reasons for homelessness, and remember, every situation is unique. One of the first steps in helping people is to see them as individuals and to find out what they need. Notice them; talk to them. Most are starved for attention.