It’s come to that time of the year when we all come together. We tend to gather at each other’s homes and celebrate all that we have. But where do people who have no home go?
Where do they go to get away from the cold air nipping at their noses? Where do they go to be close with the people they love? Do they have somewhere to enjoy a meal? Do they have somewhere to go to feel safe?
You may ask why does this matter or what can we do? This matters because they are people like us and any different choice in life and it could have been us. We can help by learning about their situation and going from there.
People look down on the people on the sidewalk and think that they are better than them. Yet they do not know how they got there or what they did to get there.
The top cause for homelessness is unaffordable housing. Think about that. One missed payment and you are on the street or one bad accident and your whole life is on the street.
The next cause is unemployment. With the rising expectations for new hires for education levels, getting hired is not as easy as it used to be. Third is poverty and poverty is an entrapment circle.
Once you are stuck in the cycle of poverty there is almost no way to get out of it. Mental illness and substance abuse are the last two causes.
We can help the problem by educating ourselves about the issues at hand. Knowledge is power and they have such little power over their situation; we can help by just understanding. We must also respect them.They are just trying their best to survive under the circumstances they are experiencing.
We must use the privilege we do have to help who we can and educate ourselves about their situation. We must take a long look at the list of reasons why people are homeless. We all have some sort of power in our hands to help and we must do something to help the people we can.
