Homelessness

                                                                    By: TS30 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akhir/3926708952/

     Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on the street? First, you lose your job, then you figure out what the need to survive really means. Violence, sexual assault, and gang beating become a way of life for you. You need to "grow" eyes on the back of your head, and begin to sense fear and danger every where you turn. You, your mother,or your sister may disapear, and when you find them they are a victom of sexual abuse and/or pregnant; adding another mouth to feed into the picture. Always being ready to protect yourself, and minding your own buisness become a need of survival. While you sleep, people "relieve" themselves on you, and harrass you. You may wake up in jail, or not wake up at all. Your life as a homeless person would help you realize that the world isn't just fun and games, but a struggle to survive.       

     Living without a home, on the streets, or in shelters is homelessness. Article twenty- five of the Decleration of Human Rights states, that we have the right to whatever we need so we have clothes and a house. Why isn't the government doing more to help those in need? A shelter is enough to keep homeless fed, but is it enough to keep them alive.   

     Homelessness isn't just starvation. It doesn't just happen on the streets. Homeless people are with friends, in hospitals, and jails. But the majority live in shelters. One in seven homeless in shelters are children. Sixty-six percentof homeless struggle with alcohol/drug addiction and/or mental illness. Twenty-two percent have been physically abused. Seventy-seven percent sexually assaulted. Sexual assault, starvation, dehydration: The homeless must deal with them all. 

     The government should be helping the homeless survive. A school should be built for the un-employed, so they can get an education, then a job, then maybe a house.

     Doing this project about homelss continuously reminded me of the homeless I saw when I went to Niagra Falls. Their faces stick in my mind like bees stick to honey. Some of them had clean faces, dirty faces, bruised and broken faces. I felt very sorry for them while I walked past in clean clothes and freshly showered. I read one of their signs. It said, "Please help me. My father beat me. Then died leaving me alone." The girl behind the sign was very young maybe fourteen. She was the same age as me, but very beat up. This shows me that it isn't just elderly on the street. It is also children who are hardly old enough to know how to keep care of themselves. The road through life may be bummpy. School may be hard, and jobs may be boring. But what we all have to remember when we are sitting on the couch complaining, is that at least we have a home. The homeless don't and that is what we all forget.

http://intraspec.ca/homelessCanada.php

http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/plain.asp

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_nowayhome_causes.html

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_nowayhome_life.html

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_nowayhome_hazards.html

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_nowayhome_cost.html

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/homelessness/index.shtml

 http://www.raisingtheroof.org/lrn-hh-index.cfm

http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Homelessness.html

http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/07/16/los-angeles-ranked-worst-city-for-the-homhttp://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread353292/pg1?ref=patrick.neteless