Coming off of a heated city bus and back into the cold brisk night sours my mood.
Despite the weather and the ungodly hour, downtown New Haven is still populated with twinkling lights and bustling crowds. I make my way to the next bus stop and wait for it to arrive. While waiting, I notice many older men and women, in tattered, stained clothing, walking aimlessly around like zombies. The ones holding bundles of newspapers manage to snag benches and make themselves comfortable while wrapping pages of the newspapers all over their shaking forms. I try not to gaze at any of them for too long; I feared that would have been rude. Instead, in my head, I go over the many reasons why helping them is imperative.
I’m interrupted by one who snuck their way up to me, asking for some spare change. I feel around in my pockets, and fish out a handful of cents and some gum wrappers. The man cups his hands and reaches out while I give him my small donation. He rewards me with a crooked toothy grin and I offer a weak smile in return. The smile sends him on his way, and I can hear him babbling to himself the whole time.
The city bus finally makes its appearance, and that’s when I realized I had given the man all of my money, which included my bus fare.
I ended up walking home that night.
That tiny experience had given me an ordeal to ponder over, and something to fight about. No one deserves to be left without a home because that is a necessity. It is our responsibility, as human beings, to work towards ending the heartbreaking epidemic of homelessness in America. And who’s to say we’re not to blame? We must solve it, and we must do so now.
Lots of people like to complain that homelessness in America is ruining its image.
The horrid truth is that it is, but in order to clean up the image, we must take action. The image that is left with outsiders is the image of unkempt humans, roaming the streets and causing anarchy amongst the cities and towns. While certain crimes do occur involving homeless people, we can help change and reduce that.
People who are out on the streets have much more incentive to commit vile crimes, such as robbing homes or businesses, mugging other people, loitering in private places, etc. Of course, this isn’t true for all homeless humans, but this is how people think of them. By stopping this epidemic, we are stopping some crime from occurring and are sustaining quality living in America.
So because we are not doing anything, the government is spending much more money than they necessarily need too. The costs go into shelters, jail cells for when street people get picked up by police officers and are prosecuted in court, to even hospital visits because most become fatally ill.
Although the attempt is supportive, it merely serves as place holders for what’s to come in the long run. We can’t rely on temporary fixes anymore; we need to start putting actual solutions into motion before things spiral into more devastation.
It’s clearly written in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident...among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Human beings born into this world deserve the same rights as any other, no matter what. This includes the right to stable housing and a comfortable living. America -- and almost everywhere else -- has trouble with the concept of rights instead of privilege. We are supposed to be united, with thriving communities and a flourishing nation with prosperity. It’s obvious to see that this is not the case at all, but because we are all human, it is certainly our duty to lend a hand to where it’s needed.
A popular argument against helping the homeless is that the reason why they are homeless is because they did something to themselves and that it’s solely their own fault. For some people this may be the case, but for others, it actually isn’t; it’s America’s fault. Veterans who return from war are most likely to be subjected to poverty and become homeless.
According to the Disabled Veterans National Foundation’s website, “The VA [Veteran’s Affairs] served more than 92,000 homeless veterans in 2009. With an estimated 500,000 veterans homeless at some time during the year, the VA reaches 20% of those in need, leaving 400,000 veterans without supportive services.”
Veterans are being returned with severe disabilities, creating rifts between themselves, their families and their ability to work. This causes Veterans to lose their housing completely and must go to fend for themselves out on the streets.
Not only Veterans, but also ex-prisoners who come out of prisons are having difficult times out in the real world. They can’t find decent homes because most won’t accept them or they can’t afford them because finding jobs are almost near impossible. In most places in America, convicted felons are not allowed on housing properties, which forces families to reject them in their time of need.
Lastly, America tends to turn a blind eye when it comes to people with mental illnesses. People with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, etc. are having trouble because either they don’t have families, can’t pay for medical attention, or families are turning their backs on them, and this results in higher population stats for the homeless people with mental illnesses.
Everything must cost money; even medical facilities that are in existence to help people. Maybe they shouldn’t have to cost so much?
What can we do as human beings on this earth to help stop homelessness? This can be helped by giving to causes that are created to end homelessness in America. Every little thing counts towards something, whether it’s volunteering to help build a community apartment, or donating just a dollar to a charity; anything helps.
Help whenever you can; it doesn’t matter if you believe in the concept of karma or not — just do it.
