'There's No Place Like Home' is a phrase that sounds sort of cliche. Yet there is no place like home. It's where you relax after a long day, cook dinner, entertain guests and rest your head at night. These are things that most people take for granted. There are also some people that crave to have all of that again. This would be a group of people called The Homeless.
The homeless aren't only on the streets. They live in shelters, extended stay motels and closed hotels converted to house the homeless that are transitioning into being a productive part of society. Homelessness comes about in two different ways. It happens either by the choices a person has made or by circumstances beyond a person's control. More so than not in today's society, a majority of the homelessness is contributed to circumstance beyond their control.
The biggest problem that the homeless community faces is the lack of resources to help them become a productive part of society. When you don't have an address, it's a little difficult to get help from any gov't agency. This is when it ends up falling on non-profit organizations to pick up the ball that the gov't dropped. There's nothing like the feeling of knowing that you have paid taxes for so long, then when you need help from the gov't agencies that your taxes have supported, you're not able to get that help because you don't have a home address. So, to get help people lie to the gov't and use a friend or family members address if possible. Most of the homeless don't have that option. Those that are able to stay at a hotel long term have an advantage of being able to receive mail.
Because of the lack of resources, this tends to cause people to lose hope of ever getting back to where they once were. When a person loses hope they tend to become irrational in their thoughts and actions. They will do things that are out of their character like stealing, drugs and even suicide. These actions are also attributed to the lack of nutrients due to not eating a healthy diet.
What society doesn't hear about is that there are many non-profit programs out there helping people maintain and rebuild their lives. The MSM only tells society about the negative when it comes to the homeless. This is part of why homeless people get a bad reputation in the eyes of society. As I stated before, when it comes to non-profit organizations, their resources are limited due to the amount of funding that they receive through donations and grants.
Now I won't deny the fact that there are those that just choose not to help themselves due to drugs and would rather play the system. For the most part, it comes down to circumstance beyond one's control that has led them to be in a situation where there is a lack of resources to help them back up in a time of need. It's very sad that the U.S. has such a homeless crisis happening at all. The very nation that is the land of opportunity has a homeless crisis that should have never happened.
Note: This blog post has been written based on the personal experience of being homeless and the interaction with other homeless people. If you would care to give to a fund to help out, please click on the following link.
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