Persuasive Essay On The Homeless

Imagine, it’s a frigid winter 's night, people rush around you on the busy sidewalks trying to find the perfect present for that special someone. You, however, are looking for something completely different. Looking for recyclable scraps that litter the street, you hobble around and try to walk off the numbness in your toes. The bustling streets start to empty out as it nears midnight, you too should go home. Therein lies the problem: you don’t have one. Homelessness is becoming a serious global problem. Cities around the world are trying anything they can think of to fix this epidemic, and the first step is to understand the full extent of the situation. The United States has a population of about 300 million people and approximately 650,000 of them are homeless on any given night

Leah Borromeo from The Guardian discusses defensive architecture in her article “These anti-homeless spikes are brutal. We need to get rid of them.” She claims “Putting spikes up like this doesn’t address the issues of inequality and poverty – it just pushes them away from your immediate vision so that you don’t have to look at them,” (Borromeo) High pitched frequencies, pavement sprinklers, and benches with separate arm rests are other examples of defensive architecture. A bench was installed as an art piece that retracted its spikes when money was given, however, the irony was missed and these are now in production in China (Andreou). These inventions discourage loitering in public spaces. Where do we expect homeless people to go if they cannot find shelter among the public? Are we going to stick to our ways of treating them like animals and make them live in the forests? Legislators need to understand Borromeo’s point of view because she is not unique in her opinion. Another more subtle anti-homeless action people, especially police officers, need to stop taking is