Homelessness

" I never imagined that I would be homeless." Although I have read this statement made over and over again, the facts behind it remain astonishing. The facts are that there are millions of homeless in America today. Many of these people had no choice but to become homeless.

Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing had lead people to live on the streets. Many of the homeless are women that have become divorced or have left home because of physical abuse. These women have no education because they have not been given the chance to go and get the education that it takes nowadays to get the job, so they are forced to live on the streets. They have no family to help them and they are left with no other choice. People with mental illnesses also become homeless quite often. These people are incapable of handling the stress of living on their own. These people get kicked out of their homes and are to ashamed to go to their families because of their illness, so we see them on the streets struggling to stay warm. Teenage mothers are also forced to live on the streets because their families will not help them. The fathers are not there and that forces them to live on the streets. So they must resort to prostitution to pay for the food that their young ones need to stay alive. There are many other people that become homeless for many different reasons. Some of these people can not help becoming homeless. Some of these people are the illegal immigrants that come here from other places to get a better life but end up not having enough money to make it in this hard world that we live in. Teenage runaways have different reasons for leaving home but all have the same reason for becoming homeless. They simply just do not have enough money. Others are drug and alcohol abusers and disabled people. With this list of people there must be some way that we can help these people.

There has been many programs that have been available to help these homeless, but only have only succeeded in the short run and have failed in the long run. There has been homeless in America ever since the colonial times and not much progress has been made in the 200 plus years in helping these people. We have adopted programs such as FDR's New Deal in which the government produced more jobs that took little skill, and made these jobs available to the poor. Social Security, which is not welfare, was adopted and is still going. It is where you pay into