June 2018
The homeless is often judged and accused of creating the homelessness they face. People needing food assistance are often looked upon as “the other” that just do not do enough to manage their life responsibilities. Though this may be true for some people faced with homelessness and food paucity, it is not normally why people find themselves there.
Photo by: Matt Collamer – unsplash.com
These perceptions need to be broken since they neither contribute to a solution nor are they fact based. There are many real reasons behind the causes of why people end up in these desolate places: mental illness, domestic violence victims, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, insufficient education, or occupational training and the list goes on of the actual causes behind the probelem of homelessness.
The most ironic fact is how many people whole heartedly believe this could never happen to them or members of their families. Many who think they could never be homeless or have to depend on someone else for shelter; never face hunger or the homelessness impact from the epidemic of domestic violence statistics.
Some real life situations ( a few of many) that attribute to homelessness:
- Most working people are one paycheck away from homelessness – they do not have a savings account and live from paycheck to paycheck.
- Everyday almost 3 American women are killed in domestic violence by intimate partners, many with children who are permanently traumatized with issues that can result in homelessness.
- Teenagers facing violent family circumstances, fleeing with nowhere to go.
- Generational poverty – people who have no idea what the first step is to change generations of poverty handed down to them.
We can be a society that judge, create no solutions, stick to our prejudices and contribute nothing to the improvement of these ills that often lead to homelessness or we can judge not, jump in and play a role, regardless of how small it may be… because there is no small act of action.