Helping the Homeless

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In order to better understand how to handle the homeless population without resorting to incarceration, we must first understand the meaning of a home. A home is not only a roof over our heads. A home is a place you share with your family, build memories in, it provides you with security, privacy, but most importantly it provides support.
What does being homeless mean? According to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a homeless individual is defined as “an individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a family), including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility (e.g.: shelter) that provides temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing. A homeless person is an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any other unstable or non-permanent situation.”
Being homeless in the United States in an exceedingly multifaceted societal problem, which influences the quality of life within our communities. Most of the homeless individuals are on the street because of a mental illness, drug abuse, and sometimes both. Most homeless people are forced to live on the street because they lack family support. Homelessness is an increasing problem within our communities that most of us rather not deal with. Why? Most societies look down on homeless individuals because of their living conditions. Although, these individuals are homeless, they are still human beings who demand attentiveness. Yes, several individuals preferred to live the way they do, but at times we judge wit...

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...ole in anyone’s life. Just because someone made a mistake doesn’t mean they are less than us. In this case, the homeless individuals made mistakes lengthways and have never been given a chance to amend those faults. Providing them with the necessary tools will help them prosper and demonstrate to society that they can change. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” (Barack Obama). Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”

Works Cited

National Health Care for the Homeless Council. (2011). Home.[online] Retrieved from: http://nhchc.org [Accessed: 25 Feb 2014].

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