Homeless in America

" I never imagined that I would be homeless." Although I have
read this statement made over and over again, the facts behind it remain
astonishing. The facts are that there are millions of homeless in America
today. Many of these people had no choice but to become homeless.
Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of
housing had lead people to live on the streets. Many of the homeless are
women that have become divorced or have left home because of physical
abuse. These women have no education because they have not been given the
chance to go and get the education that it takes nowadays to get the job,
so they are forced to live on the streets. They have no family to help
them and they are left with no other choice. People with mental illnesses
also become homeless quite often. These people are incapable of handling
the stress of living on their own. These people get kicked out of their
homes and are to ashamed to go to their families because of their illness,
so we see them on the streets struggling to stay warm. Teenage mothers
are also forced to live on the streets because their families will not
help them. The fathers are not there and that forces them to live on the
streets. So they must resort to prostitution to pay for the food that
their young ones need to stay alive. There are many other people that
become homeless for many different reasons. Some of these people can not
help becoming homeless. Some of these people are the illegal immigrants
that come here from other places to get a better life but end up not
having enough money to make it in this hard world that we live in.
Teenage runaways have different reasons for leaving home but all have the
same reason for becoming homeless. They simply just do not have enough
money. Others are drug and alcohol abusers and disabled people. With this
list of people there must be some way that we can help these people.

There has been many programs that have been available to help
these homeless, but only have only succeeded in the short run and have
failed in the long run. There has been homeless in America ever since the
colonial times and not much progress has been made in the 200 plus years
in helping these people. We have adopted programs such as FDR's New Deal
in which the government produced more jobs that took little skill, and
made these jobs available to the poor. Social Security, which is not
welfare, was adopted and is still going. It is where you pay into it
while you work and when you for some reason become unable to work you will
have this money. HUD housing has been available also to the homeless and
the poor. We also have AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and
Welfare which gives federal money to homeless and poor and helps them get
back on their feet. But these programs seem more to help the poor with
home and not the poor without homes. We must think of ways to help the
poor without homes - the homeless.

There are many shelters were the homeless can go to get out of the
cold and sleep on a cot instead of a bench or the hard ground, but
families sometimes find it dangerous to sleep there in fear that the few
possessions that they do own will be stolen. We should make these places
safer for the homeless, and set up programs within these shelters that
will help the homeless find jobs and homes. We could have the vacant
apartment buildings opened and have the homeless stay there so that they
have an address to get their selves a job. We could take some of the
money that we are using to set up these little shelters, and set up larger
ones in the cities that need them the most. We could all volunteer a
little of our time to serve dinners to these people and to help build
homes for the homeless. We could give a little of our money to those who
have none. A little of our time will go a long way.

Homelessness is a big problem in our country today, but there are
very few programs set up to help them. We all need to work together to
help those less fortunate because you would want someone to help you if
you where in that position, so we should do our best to help them.