Homeless or Hopeless.

Many in the US today are homeless and many in society have given up on them.  Calling them Hopeless. 

According to the National Alliance to End Homeless they estimate there are 1.7 million homeless in the US today.  The government numbers come in far less at about 700,000.   

The cause of homeless is not what most people

believe and it could happen to anyone at any time.  The major cause of homelessness is job lose and once that happens and you can lose your home and your life can spin out of control very quickly.  Once you are homeless you can be trapped, in order to get benefits or a job you must have an address and how do you get an address without money… you see the problem.  Then there is the battle to survive on the streets, the cold, thugs, drugs and more.  Once you are at the bottom rung of your ladder what do you do? Give up? Keep fighting?  Turn to drugs and alcohol to cope?  The influence on the street is no different than anywhere else, you try to fit in and get along and that sometimes means falling into the drug crowd.

Most of the shelters are over flowing every night and some are not safe.  Many homeless stay away from the shelters because of the crowds, the bad influences and fear of losing the few things they have.  Those few things may be just a coat, a sleeping bag and a mat to sleep on.  Let your stuff out of your sight for a moment and it may be gone.

I want to put a face on the homeless, you see most homeless are not the guy depicted in the movies, the drunk guys passed out on the bench with bottle wrapped in a paper bag clenched in his hand.  That is what the movies want you to see, but that is not the reality.  It is a mix of those who are struggling with events in their life.  Between 9% and 12% are Veterans, and 31% of the homeless and are not in a shelter.  This means they are on the streets every night.

I met Jacob the other day and technically he had only been homeless for 4 days. I am not sure he has ever had a real home, maybe a roof but not a home.   He was lost and has had his own struggles with drugs, but the day I met him he was clean off Meth for 4 months.  He is 20 and has had it rough, his mother over dosed when he was young, his dad has been in and out of jail and his grandparents were just arrested for manufacturing of Meth.  His brother, who seemed to be the one who had it all together, died of a brain aneurysm two years ago which push Jacob of the edge. 

Jesse and his brother I met at the Second Street Commons and they are homeless because they can’t afford the first and last for rent.  Both have jobs but are caught in the system and are trying to claw their way back up.  Neither of these guys drink or do drugs and tell me they will have enough money to get off the streets in two weeks.   

Well he was smiling

Donald moved up here from the Boise area to get away from a bad crowd and get a fresh start but has had a run of bad luck.  The last was crashing the truck he was living in his truck while doing odd jobs and  on this day we was walking back from shoveling sidewalks.  He is no spring chicken and has been sleeping at the shelter when it’s open, but those floors are hard and they are taking a toll on his hips.  Try sleeping on a blanket on a hard floor.  When he got this sleeping mat you would have thought he just got a new car.  He said “I Love you brother”

Do any of these guys look like the guy in the movie with the bottle wrapped in a paper bag clenched in his hand, passed out on the park bench?

I wanted to show you these faces to show where all the donations of sleeping bags and money for sleeping bags is going.  No they are not Hopeless! Just Homeless…..