Known as the “City of Trees” for its abundance of greenery, my hometown of Sacramento, California could also be called the “City of the Homeless”. There are staggering numbers of homeless Sacramentans and a significant amount of people who lack consistent access to nightly shelter. On any given night, the homeless population of Sacramento County totals nearly 2,700 people (www.sacramentostepsforward.org), and this number is on the rise.…
It was the first day that school was out. And, the old movie theater had just shut down last year. We wanted to go check it out. There was only four of us John, Luke, Ian and I. We had no more than one day.…
Emily Andrews argues in her essay “Why I Don’t Spare “Spare Change”” that it does more harm than good to give money to beggars on the street rather than giving to an organization such as United Way to help the needy, pointing out that “one cannot be certain that one is giving to a needy individual” and that by giving to a charitable organization “ones money is likely to be used wisely.”…
In John’s Blosser “Shocking Truth about the Homeless”, he shatters America’s stereotype of the homeless and presents the concealed truth. Many Americans view the homeless as helpless and innocent victims that crumble under the pressure of the cruel world but Blosser view is the opposite. Blosser relies on statistics and testimony of authority figures, who study the homeless to persuade Americans that the homeless are not in their unfortunate circumstance by chance. Blosser presents a controversial argument and fails to defend it due to his blatant use of fallacies such as the ad hominem, begging the question, and hasty generalization.…
I decided this summer, to use the free time for painting a comic. The protagonist of this comic, I determined, was a homeless person of color living in NYC. Notwithstanding I have been always especially active in my community, and have volunteered in several programs that benefit homeless people of color and LGBTQ, the research I made about homeless people in NY was an eye opener.…
I am one of the 220,000 that are homeless each and every night in Australia. Us as homeless people, we don’t really get seen as ‘’positive’’ people, we’re mostly seen as negative. A way we can be seen as positive, is if we as homeless people that have turned our life around successfully or if we are recorded giving to anther homeless who needs it more and is uploaded to Facebook or any social media. Which isn’t regular as we don’t often get fed most nights.…
A couple years ago, I participated in my football team’s monthly Feed-the-Homeless trip. During the time, my coach made the trip it manually for each player to participate in the trip at least once. I decided to participate during June, knowing that I had to do at least once.…
Mrs. Davis said, “Absolutely, this morning I was getting ready for my meeting when I heard what happened to Katherine and saw you guys over. I tried to get someone else to take the meeting and couldn’t find anyone willing to do it. When I came home, I called the police department to tell them about the man in the backyard. They told me to wait until you came back and tell you about the homeless man. He is probably the murderer.” Pointing her finger toward the detective, Mrs. Davis added.”Kathy was my friend.”…
It’s no fun being homeless. Everyday, I wake up, I am forced to spend another meaningless morning roaming around without a purpose, and another meaningless afternoon fighting for a spot in a shelter. Some days are better than others. Like on days that I make it to a decent shelter, I am blessed with an abundant amount of food, access to clean water, a warm bed that hasn’t been used, and a story from the book of life, aka, the bible. Life is good on those days, and no amount of rejection from the streets can take away my smile when I’m inside a place full of love.…
Though there are many homeless people in New York as well , it was a different feeling because it was mostly children and they were living as if they just needed a hand. Some looked as if a vacuum had sucked up all the meat on their bodies, others looked as if they were straining to live their last day. As I walked passed them, I realized that tears began to fall from my eyes. It was so heartbreaking and painful watching them begging and living as if they were nothing. I gave a few some dollar bills and I talked to them just to show them that they aren't alone and that there are people out there who actually care and appreciate them. After seeing them, I told my cousin to take me to a place where I can just talk to kids my age or under and spend some time with them. Especially after the earthquake that happened on January 12, 2010, I felt as if it was right to give to people that were hurt and even kids who lost their parents and had nowhere to…
The service that I did with the poor was at St. Vincent De Paul. I took the bus with a friend after school on a random Thursday with Ms. Reuter driving the bus, which I didn’t expect her to know how to do at all. It was my first time working there, because I had only worked at the distribution center the year before for confirmation. When we arrived we all signed in and they put the people who had been there before in their normal locations. My friend and I got split up, with me in charge of sorting all of the donated canned foods and my friend went over to move pallets around. While I was working with one of the staff there, I made friends with some freshmen that were also working with me. They started calling me silly names like “broth boy” because at some point I got in charge of sorting canned broths.…
Not only gun violence and mass shooting changed my expectation about America but also homeless people was another new experience I didn’t expect before coming. One of the weirdest things my friends taught me, was to do not stare people as much, but I couldn’t let things pass by without watching. I could watch something or someone for long time till I forgot where I was going, my friends decided to give me sunglass so that people couldn’t tell that I am staring to them. It was in that instant when one pregnant homeless caught me off guard and extend her arm toward me asking for help. I felt so bad that I didn’t help, I wish I could have done otherwise.…
When someone looks at me, they see one thing; I see another. In my mind I want to help people, but in a way that is behind the scenes and not the whole world knows about. They see a shy little girl, but I see a girl who wants to change the world. Although, it may be a little complicated for me change the world when I do not exactly have the best motivation. I have insecurities that may or may not always show on the outside, and anxiety that overtakes my mind when exciting or scaring events take place.…
The moment I looked out the window of the car and my eyes turned to the row of homeless people weaving its way through the traffic begging for money, I jumped out of my seat. It was my first visit to India after leaving the country for the United States. The homeless people's’ hands were making weird gestures and thumping the windows of the honking cars. I could not digest what I was seeing! While reaching out to an old woman to give her some money, I thought about what non homeless people could do to help those without a home and basic needs. Then, I asked myself a question. Why not give them something that will be with them forever and help them out of their poverty and teach them valuable skills? After all, a mountain of…
In the morning I was walking with my dog, when suddenly I noticed an old man sitting on the street while people were walking on the road ignoring him. The weather seemed a bit chillier this morning and his skin was rugged and looked tough. His outfit looked dirty, especially on the jacket. I looked at that old man, but he didn’t look at me. I was thinking, why was he sitting on the street in the morning? “Why do you sit on the road?” I asked the man, He replied to me, “this is my place”. I was shocked. I thought he may be homeless, but I’ve found that living with the homeless is not so bad as long as we understand them. Most people ignore homeless, but I don’t why. He looked hungry and I asked him “Are you hungry? “He said “YES” so I went to Country Fair to get him some pizza and a drink. I gave it to him, and he told me, “I don’t how to say thank you” I felt so bad for him. I gave him a few dollars, and I told him that…