Homelessness in My Community

I am from High Point, North Carolina and earlier today I came across an article published about a week ago that covered new plans for Guilford County to help those who are dealing with homelessness. Now while it doesn’t address any sort of systematic causes for homelessness, which was a bit of a disappointment, it did cover other issues such as drug addiction and mental health.

While sometimes drugs can be used as a way to blame homeless people for their situation, the article seems to show that they are taking a healthy and more respectful approach. In High Point specifically, it is important as High Point used to be an epicenter for the opioid abuse epidemic. Thankfully, the people who are proposing these measures addressed that just sending them to a two week detox program will not help and they need more long term help to get off of drugs.

I am also pleased to see that they are focusing on mental health of homeless people. While they don’t go into much detail about how they plan to address the mental health problem, they do mention it so we know it is something they have noticed.

The article also mentions that more than 1,400 people live in shelters, and that number doesn’t include those who stay on the street overnight. Seeing these numbers makes me realize how little I knew about the homeless situation where I live and I am glad that steps are being taken to help.