The New York City Rescue Mission started this project to ask one question. "Have the homeless become invisible?" Although the United States is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the most recent survey conducted found over 600,000 people who were homeless - 200,000 of which had no shelter of any kind. In heavily populated urban areas, residents have become so familiar with seeing a person lying on a street corner, they hardly even notice them. By staging the following experiment, they remind us that underneath the layers of clothes, hidden behind a newspaper is a person. Whatever state they may be in now, they were family to someone.
The issue of dealing with homelessness is a complex one, primarily because it is a symptom of many different underlying problems. Mental health, including PTSD and abuse is one. Some also say the current drug policies of incarceration instead of rehabilitation play a factor, and others point to income disparities. A family living pay-to-paycheck is one prolonged illness away from homelessness. All of these factors can contribute to the temporarily, transiently and chronically homeless population in the United States.
It's clear that public awareness is not the issue. I can't think of a single person who isn't aware of homelessness. Rather, we have to begin thinking about it in a different way. Temporary shelters and soup kitchens offer much-needed help to a family that might be temporarily homeless, but many are in need of long term help. Once we begin to see each person as an individual, we can begin to address the question, "What do you need to get off the street, permanently?"
SF Globe knows that many of you already volunteer to help with homeless shelters. We often see comments where you share some of the best memories you've had from working with the needy. We want to thank you for your work, and also share some good news. Homelessness, has in fact, been in slow but steady decline over the past decade. We believe this is in part due to help from people like you.
Share
Tweet