I find it so fascinating how everyone thinks that since someone is homeless, they must have done something, like drugs or alcohol, to get that way. It's not true. 49% of homeless people is women, children, and families, and only 26% are substance abusers.
I think that everyone should take a day to get to know someone who is homeless. They're people, too, and they all have stories. I was on a missions trip a few years ago, and we did just that. I spoke to someone named Sean. He is an artist who moved to Los Angeles to try to find a job drawing comics or something related to that. He had a job to begin with. He designed cards, but he never really got situated, and so he lost his job, then he couldn't pay rent, and so he was forced to live on the streets. He had next to nothing, but the one thing that he held onto was his portfolio. He kept it close to him, and he kept on drawing. He didn't give up, even though he lived in a horrible situation. Up until this point, I had thought that the stereotypes of the homeless were true.
After this experience, I watched the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. That is a great movie. It gave homelessness a different approach, and it helped people understand the struggles of homelessness.
The next time you see a homeless person, don't call them homeless.
They're just a person, just like me and you.
Stereotypes of People that are Homeless
By butterflyfish - Posted on March 2nd, 2008
Tagged: Homeless
• Broad prosperity
The Housing Market is becoming severely strained; it is a problem when most Americans owe more on the house selling it than before they purchased it. While this isn't specifically having to deal with homelessness, I feel that it contributes when a family has to sell its home, only to:
1) Find out they actually OWE money and aren't earning anything back from the sale;
2) Try to purchase a new home in an already sickened market;
3) Cannot do the above, and thuse become effectively "homeless".
Or they have to return to the rental market, which is a quick way to bankrupt yourself.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Actually, a friend and myself want to spend a few days in New York and do a documentary about being homeless while experiencing it ourselves. I hope someday we really can do this.
“It's not true. 49% of homeless people is women, children, and families, and only 26% are substance abusers.”
Do you mean 26% of the women, children, and families, or in general? I would like to know where you got your statistics because it seems like an article I may like.
“I spoke to someone named Sean.”
Are you the same person as i.am.not.the.walrus, because she wrote a blog about her conversations with a homeless boy named Sean as well?
it wasn't a boy. He was around 28.