Karla Gutierrez

Homelessness in Our Communities 

1. We are humans. We know and learn empathy, compassion, pain, gratefulness, amongst many other values and lessons throughout life. We clearly know that homelessness is in an important issue and that it is an unfortunate event but what we do not understand is how big of an issue it really is and why WE should care more than we probably do now. 
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How this affects YOU

This is a major social issue that not only directly affects me but you as well. Everywhere we look in our society whether it is us on our way to work or home or to a happy event, we see them there. When it is pouring hard and cold and we’re inside being warm, they are outside freezing even soaked. When it is hot and we are cooling down, they are outside trying to keep cool so they will not overheat. While we eat regularly and even leave food left over or sometimes just throw it out, these people sometimes don’t get to eat at all. Homeless people are a part of almost every community and yes, even the gated ones.  As much as we try to ignore it or know we can’t do much, they are there and sadly will not be going away anytime soon. It is up to us to lend a helping hand.

1. Facts 
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• January 2018 - California had an estimated 129,972 experiencing homelessness. Reported by Continuum's of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 
• 6,702 were family households, 10,836 were Veterans, 12,396 were unaccompanied young adults (aged 18-24), and 34,332 were individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. 
• 2016-2017 school year shows an estimated 246,296 public school students experienced homelessness over the course of the year. 
• 7,533 students were unsheltered, 17,061 were in shelters, 10,095 were in hotels/motels, and 211,607 were doubled up reported by the U.S. Department of Education. 
• According to Journalist's Resource, the national trends can hide significant regional variation where 20 states experienced increases in homelessness between 2012 and 2013.
• New York experienced the largest increase (7,864 people), followed by California (5,928 people). Other states with large increases include South Carolina (1,629), Massachusetts (1,528), and Maine (623).”

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2. Why I am Writing about This 
3. 2. I am writing about this because it is an issue I feel strong about and is something I would like to fix in our world. I was raised to always be appreciative of everything and to always look on the bright side of the darkest things because my parents would always instill in our family that there were people out there that had it worse. They also taught us that most people ignore daily things that we are lucky to have and we take it for granted because others would be more than happy to have them. I am very passionate about things and helping and when I see these people who are homeless and how many there are I feel bad because I know it is more than hard out there. With every possibility and things they have to endure, I feel bad and want to help in even the smallest of ways. So I began recently during the winter a little project of some sort where I asked friends, family, coworkers, etc if they had any sweaters, jackets, sweats and things like that to give to homeless people during the cold months. When we collected, my mom and I made it our mission to go out and hand them to the homeless people around our community that really needed things. I feel horrible for their living situation because no one should live that way and I want to help in any way I can and hope that spreading this message, we TOGETHER can make a difference.
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   8. “You will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” - Audrey Hepburn  
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"Yes, homelessness does affect me in varying degrees. Is it a sad reality? Absolutely. And I feel horrible for what happens but I also cannot help but feel that some of them make choices that put them there. I not only witness it with strangers on the street but I have first-hand experience with it through family which is why I feel the way I do. It is sad but at the same time seeing many of the cases and even going through it personally 3 times the past week, with homeless people going crazy in places and trying to hurt innocent people, makes me feel anger. But for those who didn’t make the wrong choices and just had bad luck, I definitely feel sad and hope their lives will get better." -Ian Prado

"Yes, it does. In a way I can't walk down the street by myself because it is not safe due to fear about the reality of how they can react. There have been many times you hear a homeless has gone in a restaurant or on the street hurting people for no reason because they are not really there. I feel bad for them and what they go through, but I would like to be able to feel safe again especially with my kids and grandkids.” -Karla Gutierrez 

Resources 

https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/map/#fn[]=1400&fn[]=2900&fn[]=6000&fn[]=9900&fn[]=13500 

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013553

https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/health-care/homelessness-u-s-trends-demographics/

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