WSP 101 — Homelessness: Why Are People Still on The Street — Aly’s Homework

1. When you hear the phrase homeless person, what do you automatically see in your head, how do you profile an average homeless person?

• When I hear the phrase homeless person, I automatically see someone sitting on the side of the street, with scruffy hair appearing to have not had a shower recently. They may be sitting on a blanket, with a cardboard sign in hand, asking for any change we may have on us as we walk by.

2. Do you think homelessness is a problem that can be fixed, why or why not?

• I think that if the time and money was put into it, homelessness is a problem that can be fixed. It won’t necessarily be easy as it would be a big task, but nothing is impossible.

3. How/why do you think these people end up on the street?

• There is a wide multitude of reasons that I believe people may end up on the street. This could be anything from simply having an unfortunate string of bad luck, losing jobs, being away overseas and not being able to find a job once back, and abusive relationships.

Statitics Reaction:

I was surprised to find out that 42%-77% do not receive the public benefits that they are entitled to, and also saddened to read that 20% are physically disabled and that 41% had been employed within the last year.

Video Reflection:

I really admired how in the clip, towards the end of the 5 minutes, the man who had just lost everything and his wife who was 10 weeks pregnant, made the comment that he is not homeless… he is houseless because he lost his house, and home is a state of mind. I’ve grown up and lived in LA County all of my life… Seeing homeless, rather houseless people, here and there has been something that I’ve been aware of since I was little. I actually had an opportunity to go to Union Rescue Mission on Skid Row(which is where there is a very high population of homeless individuals and families, along with many missions offering help as best they can including safe, dry places to sleep and food) in Downtown La over Christmas Break my Senior Year of High School. I would have spent the weekend at the mission, camping on the rooftop, and helping to serve food, and bless others however best I could. I unfortunately got sick the day before they left, and was unable to go, but watching this documentary has definitely reminded me of that opportunity, and I hope to attend one of my church’s upcoming trips to serve the homeless population in the city I call home.

Key Points:

The article shares of various ideas such as building more homeless shelters or as a long term-solution, building affordable housing as a way to help aid in getting homeless people off of the streets. I’d like to think that we can have feasible ways of helping the homeless off the streets. Initially I thought that building more homeless shelters would be a great way to start the process, but they are expensive to operate as we learned. However, I learned that building affordable housing units would be less expensive, plus since it is a more permeant option, it also encourages and motivates people to stay sober(if that is something that they are struggling with) and get and maintain a job. I also believe that if we all do our part, whether it be big or small, then we could have the potential to make a great impact as well! :)