Essay About Homeless People

Growing up in the inner city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I’ve experienced my fair share of homeless people on the streets. It is of no surprise to me that this is a common trend in most major cities across the country. Moving to San Diego I didn’t expect that the streets would be completely free from homelessness but the magnitude of this glaringly evident issue was more than I could ever imagine. I was faced with an overwhelming reality of a city filled with shopping carts full of few belongings, pillows and blankets on the sidewalks, and more signs, held by the hands of utterly helpless people asking for just a little help, than I had ever seen before. Walking by fifteen people all in a row, sleeping like it was no big deal that their comfy bed to go home to every night was a concrete slab on 5th Avenue, made me wonder how these people got to this point and why there was no one there to help. Finding the source of glue keeping the homeless population stuck in their situation not only comes from a desensitized community, over-exposed to people living on the street, but also a lack of resources and willingness to help decrease homelessness and work toward preventing it all together.

The homeless can be seen everywhere. The man pacing back and forth holding a sign that reads Anything Helps, God Bless, or the woman sitting outside the store with a 7/11 Slurpee cup hoping to collect enough change to buy a sandwich and a bottle of water. Society as a whole is faced with the sometimes hard decision of putting something in that cup or pretending to not see it and go on about their day. Deciding to toss some spare change into that cup isn’t as easily accomplished by people who believe hand-outs aren’t helping these people but rathe...

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... Considering the great number of homeless people in this country and more specifically in this county, there aren’t enough people who care to balance it out. The annual estimates show reports that the amount of homeless people is decreasing but at an extremely slow rate. The more society is forced to witness people sleeping on the streets and to make the decision to pass them by or spare 50 cents the greater the hostility toward them will grow. It begs the question of where all of the funding goes and why the reduction in the number of people on the streets isn’t higher. There needs to be more done than simply walking the street, counting the number of people seen, especially if a reduction is noted but can’t be explained. Unless more people get involved with this issue the status quo will remain the same, leaving millions to continue sleeping on the street.