HOMELESSNESS By Aiden Finch

Homelessness Facts In the Untied States about 750,000 to 1million people are homeless on any given night, but only about 44% are on the streets the rest are in shelters. About 1 to 2 million people experience homelessness every year. People only stay homelessness from 4.7 to 5.7 months on average. About 98,452 families are homeless in the United States.

Homelessness Facts Between 2008 and 2009 increased about 3% in the United States. About 39% of the homeless go hungry because they can not afford food. Around 44% of the homeless have a paying job. The major cause of homelessness is there is not available housing that is affordable.

Who is Homeless? The homeless community is not made up of any group in general but is very diverse. Males have the highest homeless rate and about 25% of the homeless are children. The race with the highest percent of homelessness in African- American and the least is Asian.

Homelessness in New York City This spread shows the number of people without homes live in New York City Shelters from 2002 to This doesn’t include the number of people sleeping on the streets.

Thesis The homeless community suffer from stereotypes, misconceptions, and is abused by the non-homeless community.

Stereotypes That the homeless are lazy and choice their life-style. That homelessness is a result of poor choices in life. The large homeless percent of teen is because of poor grades or choices.

Misconceptions That all homeless people are addicted to drugs and alcohol. That all homeless people are severely mentally ill or crazy. That everyone in the homeless community is a criminals.

Abuse of the Homeless The homeless are physically abused by others. The homeless are often kept out of the democratic process. They are always looked down by others.

Interview I interviewed a women named Summer- Lee Rodriguez, she is the Program Coordinator at West Valley Community Services. She explained to me how she believes that misunderstanding of the homeless are the reason for the stereotypes and other problems that non-homeless have with the homeless.

Community Service I did my community service in a food pantry for the less fortunate at West Valley Community Services. There they take in donations from local grocery stores and put it a pantry and allow the people to “shop” for their food. As a volunteer I sorted the donated food items and then helped the people shop for their food.

Personal Change At the beginning of this report I did not know much about the homeless or less fortunate. And I will be honest I probably could have been considered one of those people who believed in the stereotypes. At the beginning I was taking in all the information from websites and my interview telling me that all these stereotypes that people have, and how they are not true and not all the homeless community is bad. But I do not think I really believed it. But once it came to my community service I think that my ideas about the less fortunate changed. I saw these people who were less fortunate than me and they were still incredibly kind and polite. That is what I think changed my mind and made me start to believe everything that I had heard and read.

The Difference Between us There is only a small difference between the homeless and those who are not, and the difference is some have homes and others do not. Other than that there is no difference. I could not find a difference between the two groups of people, both are very nice and have the same personalities. I personally don’t see any difference between to two groups and if I was passing on the street, I could not tell a person from each group apart. We are all human beings and have many small differences, but we are all still human and should not be limited by society status.

Homelessness in Other Countries About 1.3 Billion people live on less than 1 U.S. dollar a day. 100 million people do not have any housing, when about a billion do not have good housing. In lesser developed countries 78% of people live in slums.

What Can you do? 1. You can donate food 2. Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or shelter 3. Donate toys or clothes 4. Be kind to the less fortunate 5. Volunteer a local service or Habitat for Humanity

Conclusion My report has opened my eyes to the problems with misunderstanding and stereotyping the homeless. I think I was only able to do this because I had my ideas changed by my experiences during this report. My experiences have lead me to the understanding that the only reason that homelessness is a problem in the United States is that people do not understand the homeless population. Understanding and kindness towards the homeless community could change the people’s thinking of homelessness.

Work Citied Addiction Blog. “Drug and alcohol and the homeless.” January 7, Online, 18 March 2012 Faces of the Homeless. “Faces of the Homeless Raising Awareness on Homelessness.” ND. Online, 18 March Public Policy Jobs. “Almanac of Policy Issues”. ND. (web). 5 March, Rodriguez, Summer-Lee. interview 21 March Shay, Kylyssa. “Homelessness Myths, Misconceptions, and stereotypes.” E-library, 17 March Valek, Sarah. ‘About Discrimination of Homeless People.” E-library.5 March “Homelessness” Google Images Search. 7 May “Homelessness graphs and statistics” Google Image Search. 7 May 2012 “Hunger and Homelessness: Fact Sheet.” Hunger and Homelessness. GLSEN National Office May “Homeless Stats.” Chicago Alliance to end Homelessness May “ West Valley Community Service” Google Image Search. 7 May 2012.