Summary: The Issue Of Homelessness

The issue of homelessness is something very near to my heart. I personally have never had to go through the experience of being without a home but a man I was once involved with is in fact homeless. This issue is becoming something that is getting out of hand in my opinion. In January 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness in the U.S on any given day or night (Alliance-end homelessness). Just thinking about the sheer number is shocking. I never thought that just having a roof over my head was such a privilege. Growing up in a home you just assume that it is normal and you feel that it is something almost given to you. Something also shocking about that number is that 216,197 are people in families (Alliance-end homelessness).

I feel that people have certain opinions of those who are homeless based off of opinion and then change once they look into the issue. “Before I began to study homelessness In my reading class, my prior knowledge was that homeless people got homeless by a lot of stuff they should not have done, like drinking too much, being too lazy to go to work, or too lazy to find a job. So I pretty much thought negatively about the homeless. From what I learned over these past couple weeks was that not all homeless people are that way.” (Eugene Yakubov, Neoch). This is a perfect example of my point. When we are younger and we see homeless people we are either taught into thinking a way about them or just have an opinion. A lot of people assume that these people are homeless because they did something wrong and granted yes, this is the case for many but not for all. Once you look further into the issue of homelessness you find out that for many people they have little choice in the matter or better yet easy choice in the

My ex is homeless and it has nothing to do with drugs or anything of that nature. I cannot speak for years and years ago but I can speak for now. The issue for him is that from the age of 14 he had run away from an abusive mother and then had to learn to live on his own. He had lived in houses and made it work for some time but life caught up to him. He had mental issues from a broken past which made being alone an issue. He had a job but one that paid less than 10 dollars an hour. Now when you take into consideration that you cannot survive in a home off of that being homeless becomes an easier option. This is the story for many people who suffer a mental illness. About 26% of people who experience homelessness nationwide are mentally ill (Department of Housing and Urban Development). For these people it becomes almost easier to just live on the street. Granted poverty is a part of that but the mental illness certainly doesn’t help. Now the question becomes why not go to department of social services to get help? I asked my ex this once and he simply told me that it was the worst task to do and living outside was more suitable if it meant going to that place even once. I went to the place one time to see if it was as bad as he said……it was worse. It shocked me because I wouldn’t want to go there either. Aside from poverty and mental illness, domestic violence is another cause of homelessness. Up to half of