Homelessness is a major issue in America and also has its effects on other parts of the world. Let us try to understand, through this story, what can be done to reduce homelessness.
Homelessness is a situation in which a person does not have a permanent place that he can call a home and sleep at night. These people make 'homeless shelters' as their home or some of them even sleep on the street which is really unsafe for anyone.
There are so many factors that are responsible for homelessness like poverty, illiteracy, legal issues, mental illness, domestic violence, lack of community support, etc.
There are also many adverse effects of homelessness on the homeless people like physical and mental health problems, increase in crime rate, frequent fights at the road side and so on. Even the rate of homeless families is increasing rapidly. The statistics show that on an average, about 3.5 million people become homeless per year which is a huge number.
The typical homeless family looks somewhat like this - a mother with two children not more than 5 years of age and the dead father. The mother has extremely low job skills, limited earning power ultimately resulting into low income.
She often has to suffer violence at her workplace and outside as well. These are the issues related to homelessness and government has initiated some measures to overcome it but, a lot needs to be done to get rid of it permanently or at least try to reduce its frequency.
What Can You Do to Reduce Homelessness?
The number of homeless people is so large that most of us see these people on a daily basis when we are on the way to our office, school or college. What do we do at such times? Some of us ignore them and move on while some others who are sensitive to these things stay there for sometime, offer sympathy (from a safe distance) and leave.
This happens because we think that these people are themselves responsible for their condition. But, that is untrue. Why would one want to become homeless on purpose? The factors mentioned in the introductory paragraph are the real causes of their homelessness.
So, what can we do to reduce the pain of the homeless? Following are some things you can do to help them out:
✦ If you see the person everyday, go and talk to him, know his name, about his family and speak a few words of support and motivation.
✦ Take him to the nearest homeless shelter and do the formalities for his admission.
✦ You can also work voluntarily with the homeless shelters by taking it as your part-time activity. Know the best you can do like, managing the food department or event organization because there are a lot of "behind the scenes" jobs to be carried out.
✦ If your financial condition is better, you can even offer charity to the institution.
✦ If you are comfortable to work with children, you can arrange workshops like painting, drawing, music and other kids' activities.
✦ Allow the homeless people to open up and put forward their thoughts on any topic. You can initiate the conversation by telling about yourself to make them feel comfortable to open up.
✦ It is very important to arrange schooling for the homeless children. If they are educated, jobs will be definitely available for them and they won't be homeless anymore.
These were some solutions to deal with the already homelessness people. But, if we can do something to destroy the root cause of this problem it will do wonders. There will be no start of homelessness and probably no need to reduce it.
What is the Responsibility of the Government?
✦ The government should become so powerful that it can offer job and a permanent income source for each educated and qualified individual. And even if the individual is not highly qualified, he deserves some kind of a job and it is the duty of the government to make such a provision.
✦ It is also the responsibility of the government to see whether each individual has a shelter of his own and do the needful accordingly.
✦ There is a rapid growth in chronic homelessness. It is a term used for the people who are living homeless life for more than one year. This is quite serious and also a shameful thing for all of us and the government. The government should take initiative and arrange temporary shelter or, if possible, even a permanent home for them.
Come, let us try to help the needy and do our bit to serve humanity. Everyone has a right to live and if he is struggling to fulfill his basic needs of life, we must help him out to make his living better.