The homeless have always been in the margins of my sight, background characters to my leading role.  They were there, beggars and drunkards alike, cast in the shadows of the spotlight.  I had never really looked at them, but I remember them; some overdressed in layers of dirty apparel in the summer heat, some barely clothed in the wet winters. There were some lying on the sidewalk as if they were dead, there were some who walked out into the middle of the street during heavy traffic, sat down, and ate their lunch of scraps next to a dead pigeon.  The homeless were always there, but I never gave them a second thought.

One day a couple of weeks ago, I took the train to visit my mom in Carson.  When I met her in the parking lot of the train station, she asked me if I wanted to go take some water to the people living in the parking lot.  I was shocked. Did she mean to deliberately go to them and offer them one of her many gallons of water on that blistering day?

“Sure” I said, with some apprehension. I didn’t really know how to proceed with that.  She had never shown such open altruism to me before, and seeing her brave the encampment of soiled paisley bedding tents and mismatched shopping carts, I wondered how many times she had done this.

She walked with a smile, juggling four gallons of water in her arms as she offered water to those she passed. Seeing her confident stride, I did the same.

When all of our water had been given away, we walked backed to our car. As we passed a woman, she asked if my mother was a pastor.  I smiled and said no, just doing a little public service.  My mother stopped as well and asked the woman her name.  She began to cry at that, and said “Gloria”.

“Why are you crying, Gloria?” my mom asked.

“Because I’m out here, getting high all the time,” she said, her voice cracking.

And in that moment, I began to really see her.  She was a woman in her mid-thirties with such sad eyes and a broken spirit. She said she came out there almost every day to get high.  She spoke `for a while, just venting her troubles about her precarious situation, about how she wanted to do better, but couldn’t seem to find the strength.  When she had finished, she asked me to keep her in my prayers.

I thought about Gloria for a long time afterwards. I realized that the spotlight wasn’t just on me.  Everyone had their own spotlight, and deserved to be seen and heard just as much as I did.  The homeless weren’t just background characters, they were main characters—and main characters were human beings. People without homes deserve to be in the spotlight just as much as anyone.

People become homeless for many different reasons.  But just because they live on the streets doesn’t mean they aren’t worth our time, our attention, our respect.  The reasons people become homeless don’t seem as important to me as helping them adjust to their new situation and helping them get back on their feet.

I don’t know the solutions to “ending homelessness” either, but I know that journey begins with all of us showing a little compassion.

Homelessness in the U.S.

I believe that there are many homeless people due to unemployment, uneducated people, economic status and health issues. Unemployment most of the time occurs because of discrimination against race. For example, a white and black person could be interviewed at the same time and although the black person was more outgoing with more to offer, the white person would get the job due to bias of racial discrimination. Discrimination against a person of color is a factor in unemployment that should not be tolerated or practiced in any case. Frequent unemployment lead to high rates of homelessness which invades the streets with unfortunate individuals. Unemployment leads to homelessness, starvation, and last but not least it portrays a negative image of the United States government.

The U.S government should be having a priority in education. To provide full financial aid opportunities of higher education to all American born citizens will further enrich the values of America. Many students don’t want to attend college for the fear of being financially unstable while having other priorities. This fear or priorities force individuals to work full time, while having a high risk of being laid off when something in particular is not in demand. Typically a demand for people who illegally emigrate from other countries to “have a better lifestyle” is high because they earn lower than minimum wage with no citizenship rights.  It is important to pay attention to the level of education each American citizen obtains because a better education system will lead to a better country. A greater emphasis in K-12^th grade education will also help students gain motivation to pursue a four year degree, therefore having the government invest more of its money into this category will help alleviate if not diminish homelessness in the U.S.

In the U.S. there exists a group of people with mental and health issues who are homeless or close to being homeless. Economic status is a big part of this issue, as those who struggle financially and are in need of a doctor don’t have the funds to pay for medication or therapy. It is essential for a person with a disability to have good economic standing to be able to have a positive health progression. Many people who do not have the money to help their relative or themselves to get better, end up selling their possessions or anything that may help them get the money they need to pay a doctor or medication. Many families go through this situation, making it very difficult to pay home bills, buy food, or even pay for rent. Many families end up homeless when they are unqualified of receiving help from the government to pay for medical expenses. It is important for the government to address all health issues and provide everyone with a decent way of life, especially in a country like the U.S.

                I believe that the government is responsible for the homelessness in the U.S. It is evident that there are thousands of people who are homeless as one passes through the streets of downtown LA. Homelessness could be an issue that is possibly ignored because the government prefers to spend money on other things like war and worldwide issues. I believe it’s important for the U.S. government to take care of its people hence it will create a better society for American citizens and increase the values of the American people. 

Unique Individuals

         Homeless people wandering the street of the United States have different backgrounds that is why it is important to look at each case individually. Understanding what led them to become homeless will be key to find a way to help them and prevent many others from becoming one of them. Among the causes are drug abuse, abusive home environment, a traumatic experience or mental illness and making poor financial decisions. Most of them can be prevented with a better preparation of individuals to face the challenges that life might bring along. It is governments duty to look after those whom they represent by providing them with health care and a good education but individuals should also be responsible of themselves and their loved ones by asking for help when needed. Individuals should take advantage of the services provided and get informed health issues.

            Drug abuse is a big cause for individuals to lose hope for a better life and lose everything including their families. This particular group of individuals represent a bigger problem than being homeless as they can contract many diseases and spread them by sharing needles. They can also be threat to other people because of the violent behavior many of them might experience when under the influence of drugs or when they feel the need for it but can’t get it. A better education on drug abuse at an early age combined with family support could have prevented many of them from getting to that point. The only way to make these individuals an input for society is to force them into treatment and keep track of them to make sure treatment worked.

            Making poor financial decisions led many people to lose their homes, and everything they had and some of them did not find a way to get back the life they used to have. Hopeless they made the streets their homes and the bridges their refuge, keeping them safe from the rain, snow, or the heat. They have to be accounted for their own failure but government and family should also take the blame for not providing them with the guidance to make better decisions or the support to overcome failure. High school is a perfect time to inform students about the way economy works like understanding credit, loans and consumerism instead of just memorizing a few definitions and draw supply and demand graphs.

              Many of the individuals wandering the streets are affected by a mental illness or were victims of a traumatic experience. For individuals with a mental disease, family and government have to be accounted responsible for not providing the support and services needed. More mental health institutions need to be opened to provide care and treatments for those who need it. Someone with a mental issue will very likely not accept the need for help and that is why they must be persuaded and force into treatment. Family plays a key role by providing the moral support and love needed by those under treatment that is why they must get involved. More information about mental issues must be provided to make sure people showing the symptoms get treated as soon as possible.

               Solving the problem of having too many homeless people requires the cooperation from the public and families with government to provide the help needed in the best possible way. Taking a different approach according to the circumstances that led that particular induvial to become homeless is the best way to do it because will meet that person’s particular needs and recovery can be more successful. The goal should be to make of them functional individuals that contribute to society and economy and that’s why the must feel like they are part of it and that they can still have an input on it.

Together We Can

A huge number of Americans are homeless each year. A great part of those homeless people are families with children. There are many factors that contribute to the reason why there are many homeless people in the United States. Many become homeless due to losing their jobs. People start having financial problems and as they struggle to find another job, they lose their homes and are pushed to live out on the streets. Other people are homeless after having divorced. They lose everything they had and they, along with their children, are left alone without a home. Another reason for homeless people is mental diseases and physical disabilities. Many of these people with these issues try to isolate themselves from society and often times leave their families behind and go out to live on the streets. Homelessness can also be due to natural disasters. For instance, after an earthquake, a hurricane, or a fire, people lose their homes and they are pushed into living on the street. Another factor is drugs. An addiction to drugs leads people from all ages to live inside a small bubble, where they isolate themselves. These people lose their jobs as a consequence. With no job, there is no income. No income means no money to pay the bills. Then this leads to losing everything they have, including their homes. The only solution to them is to live out on the streets. 

But there should be more than one solution to help this issue that should concern all of us. As a society, we need to work together to help those who needs us. The first step to ameliorate the situation of homelessness in America is for the victims to acknowledge that they have a problem and that they can return to their normal lives. It is the government's job to keep building homeless shelters that provide a place to stay and also a meal. There should also be organizations whose goal is to aid people who have lost their homes due to natural disasters. In addition, medical aid should be provided to help those suffering from mental disease and physical disabilities. 

It is not only the government's job to help but it is also our job, as citizens of the United States, to help as well. For example, I'm part of the Union Station Homeless Shelter Organization and we provide food for the homeless. Every year for Christmas and Thanksgiving, we volunteer and make sure that each individual has a warm, nice meal to enjoy. People can also gather up a group of volunteers and cook their own food and go visit homeless shelters. If we work together, we CAN make a difference in the world. 

The Product of Ego in Society: Homelessness

Homeless people are everywhere, in every nation and in every corner of the globe. Whether it is a third world country or a first world country, homeless people exist. Whether people like it or not, there is no way to simply “get rid” of homeless people. I believe that homelessness will always exist by the way our society is set up and how we are as humans. It is only in a utopian society where homelessness would be extinct. As human beings, we were made not to be perfect, we have flaws, we make mistakes, and we want too much and give too little. It is with these traits where homelessness simply will always exist.

             The hard truth that most people do not understand is the paradox of homelessness. In civilizations, the rule of economy has always come with an exchange of goods and services. People would in a way trade goods or services for something in return. As history has gone, usually a type of currency would establish for the exchange. For example, if I would want to buy some food, I would pay for it using money, or if I worked for a whole day I would be paid for my time. In a perfect world everyone would be receiving money and spending money. Everyone would have money and everyone would be happy. Sadly, that is what a utopian society looks like and life does not work like that. Although there have been ways to make a civilization similar to a utopian society, one such example is communism. Taking away all the negative attitude towards the idea, the overall concept is the closest to a utopian society as we will get. The down side to the concept is majorly focused on our characteristics as being human. Humans are not perfect and when presented with a certain amount of power or money, it is difficult to turn away. With most people developing greed towards money is another point to why homelessness cannot be removed from societies. If there is an unequal distribution of money then it can be assumed that people do not get money or even have money. In a society where money is the key to survival, if a person doesn’t have money what happens? One answer would be that they fall back onto homelessness. In a simple stance, homelessness can be described as simply not having money due to many many reasons. Most people that are homeless have never thought that they would become homeless, it just happened.

            Life as a whole is generally unfair and not easy. Some people get hit with obstacles more than others and some cannot recover from those hits. What most people fail to realize about homeless people is that they were once like you. They had a job, hopes, dreams, a house and a life, unforeseen circumstances just moved them from that path. Of course there are some organizations that help with the growing population of homeless people but what use is there to help them if they will not get a job? That may come off as a bit negative but think about it for a second. Homeless people do not have a job, but jobs today don’t hire a person that is homeless to be the face of their company. It’s a never ending cycle that plays a role to the economy. As jobs will begin to become scarce more and more people would fall into the classification as homeless, and if jobs focus on their egos then a halt in manufacturing would occur. The point behind all this is if companies focus more on giving out jobs rather than on ego, lots of people would not be homeless as they would have a job.

            Consequently it is not a specific persons fault to why there is homelessness; it is our fault as humans not to care for each other. In life we look down unto those that beg for money or food, and we do not identify them as one of us. There is a quote I heard from somewhere that states, The moment we stop helping each other, that is when we lose our humanity.” If humans put aside their egos and thing not materialistically just to help others, positive outcomes will lead to a brighter future. 

Deinstitutionalization and Homelessness

The deinstitutionalization of the Reagan era is notorious for its failure to one of society’s most vulnerable people: the mentally ill. Psychiatrists and doctors saw some patients who were misdiagnosed receive lobotomies; around fifty-thousand lobotomies were performed by the end of the 1950s. Politicians abused this fact to oversell community health clinics and promise more funding than intended, in order to save money on state mental institutions. Drugs were used as an elixir, a crutch to ease the transition from in-house treatment to community treatment. The accelerated deinstitutionalization coupled with Congress’s lack of long-term financial support led to the homelessness problem we find in our communities today.

Richard D. Lyons of the New York Times wrote on the 1986 reflections of various politicians, civil libertarian lawyers, and psychiatrists on the transition from treating patients in-house. Some pointed to a dependency that state programs developed on tranquilizers to treat patients. Drugs like Thorazine were advertised as a means to end violent episodes, but doctors misrepresented them as a means of complete treatment. Critics and proponents of deinstitutionalization alike understood the enthusiasm for the tranquilizers. Prior to medication, disorders like schizophrenia and manic depression went un- or mistreated. It was at this point that the families and friends of the discharged patients (those lucky enough to have a home to go to) had the hope of communal help and sovereign remedies.

Mental illness, treated and untreated alike, can result in pushing away family, caregivers and friends, a safety net that often prevents homelessness. Today, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental disorders (DMS) has a drug for the most outlandish of disorders. One study by the SAMHSA Spending Estimates Project showed that in 1986, 7% of the $32-billion mental health budget was used for drugs, compared to the 27% of the $113-billion budget of 2005; in-patient spending plopped from 42% to 19%, respectively. According to S W Schondelmeyer in the journal Health Affairs, the cost of prescription drugs has increased by 25% since 1985. The caregivers of the mentally ill were left with the growing cost of medication with none of the promised local help. Safety nets tore, exposing the vulnerable to the streets and to their limitations as a functional member of society.

There is a trustful dependence on drugs to treat the mentally-ill in American society, a job once believed to be that of the community. Homelessness is not limited to those diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, but many homeless people suffer addictions (eg. alcoholism) and/or traumas (eg. veterans). The high cost of drugs and therapy often act as a barrier to accessible healthcare. There should be a greater emphasis for affordable housing on the part of the social worker and the community. The first step towards a solution is recognizing the limitations of drugs compounded with an effort to identify the care needed for each individual case. Congress should fulfill the promises made by decades past and finance the mental health programs necessary to work towards a solution.

A Person First, Homeless Second

I believe that there are always going to be homeless people in the United States for reasons such as poverty and unexpected disasters like hurricane Katrina. However, the current epidemic of homelessness can be attributed in part to the way our society is structured, particularly socioeconomically. In a capitalist environment, each person must tend to themselves and not rely on others. Thus, there is a tendency to flee altruism as a form of self-preservation (i.e. one will see to their own financial security and comfortability before another’s is considered). Another reason for the high homelessness rate in the U.S. is due to lack of information or misinformation regarding mental illness. Often I have heard the phrase, “he should have made better life choices; it’s his own fault,” regarding a homeless person asking for money. This outlook is fundamentally incorrect. Mental illness hijacks a person’s cognitive abilities, making their erratic life choices seem normal and shifting the blame from the victim to the disease.

Once properly educated, one can be a part of the solution to homelessness with patience, care, and friendship. I found a quote that was particularly enlightening. Steve Lopez is mid-discussion with Dr. Ragins, and is told the following:

Relationship is primary. It is possible to cause seemingly biochemical changes through human emotional involvement. You have literally changed his chemistry by being his friend (Lopez, 210).

Notice that Dr. Ragins did not mention forcible, more traditional therapy as the main factor of healing. It is a relationship that can set the mind at ease; it is a personal connection that refreshes the mind. Nathaniel is an archetype of the epidemic of homelessness caused by mental illness. Others like Nathaniel (and there are so many like him) can be significantly impacted for the better by people with a willingness to be caretakers. Neurobiologist Fabrizio Benedetti stated in an interview, “The attitudes we have and the words we say move a lot of molecules in the brain” (Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD; Podcast). Being a positive influence, an example of a good attitude and a supportive hand can work wonders towards lessening the rate of homelessness in America.

Recently, President Obama established an overarching Medicare plan known as Obamacare. In doing so, he was placing some of the responsibility of American citizen’s health on the U.S. government. I believe that the example of Obamacare should extend to mental illness as well. It is good and right to have government funded institutions and organizations put in place to be shelters and wellness centers for the homeless and mentally ill. The caveat to government institutions is that they should be run by a person with empathy comparable to that of Mr. Lopez. It is the government's duty to care for its citizens, even the ‘not-so-easy’ cases. However, the responsibility does not only fall on America’s infrastructure.

It is also the responsibility of American citizens to care for each other. Yes, this is easier said than done. But, maybe if we say it to each other enough times, some of us will actually do it. It is important that we volunteer and give, altruistically, to help those in need. It is not for us to judge, but to help. If monetary aid cannot be given, then like Benedetti mentioned, attitude and words are the next best thing. Spread the word to others that mental illness is not a choice, but a disease. A homeless person is a person first, and homeless second.