Summary Of The Denver Rescue Mission

Oh, the People You’ll Help! Take a moment to imagine, living on the streets, your hair is unkempt, hands are dirty, a holey Walmart plastic bag is the only thing holding your meager personal belongings. You are starving with no clue where your next meal is coming from. This is a reality for over 43.6 million Americans living in poverty and are homeless (McClatchy). These Americans struggle emotionally and physically living on the streets, especially with the stress of not knowing when and where they will get their next meal. Dr. Seuss believes, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” The Denver Rescue Mission is the epitome of what Dr. Seuss was referring to, they are the someone who cares

While average household incomes remained basically unchanged since 2008, the country's poverty rate rose to 14.3 percent, up a little more than a percentage point over the previous year. The recession threw millions of Americans out of work last year, leaving one in seven living in poverty” (McClatchy). When the economy is in a recession, people lose their jobs and when it’s prosperous the housing is too expensive. Often wages are not high enough, “There is no town, city, or state anywhere in America where an individual or family working full-time and earning the minimum wage can afford a one- or two- bedroom apartment at the fair market rental rate established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development” (Lee and Grief). Many Americans will never achieve living under their own roof due to wages and the expensive housing market, thus resulting in being homeless. This problem extends not only from the Pacific to the Atlantic but across the world. In America, “35.5 million people have not the right resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle”(Lee and Grief). These resources include money, food, and shelter. There is not one group affected by this issue and it can happen to anyone. Researchers have found, “At least 3.5 million persons are

There are food banks, shelters, soup kitchens, and food pantries. These help make serious hunger rare among the homeless (Lee and Grief). Researchers think we need to start at the source of the problem to solve it. They want wages to increase, housing and food costs to decrease to ultimately terminate the hungry homeless population. Multiple sources agree that minimum wage needs to increase and housing needs to decrease, “Minimum wage and benefit levels should be sufficient to ensure that all households have a living income, not merely a survival income” (“Food Poverty”). The author, Gerry Roll agrees,“Affordable housing, access to healthcare, and meaningful work for decent wages will solve the problem of homelessness in America” (Roll). Once housing costs decrease and minimum wage increases, the next step is to make food affordable. Lowering the cost of healthy food and food in general will make it more accessible, “If food is affordable, a homeless person will be less likely to resort to stigmatized sources or to worry about where the next meal is coming from”(Lee and Grief). In order to get all of the necessary increases and decreases with money, the government needs to help. They need provide more because what they are providing now is not enough. The problem is continuing to increase, but the effort to end it is