Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually the ONLY time during the year that most people think of homeless people. So many charities and philanthropies get involved in staging holiday dinners for the homeless at churches, shelters, and other venues. Pictures of worn out, sick, old, and disheveled men eating their turkey meal as a break before they return to street homelessness decorate the mailings that some charities send, and certainly those homeless people exist.
But some of these places give the impression that ALL HOMELESS ARE STREET HOMELESS and frankly, we think there are more options for street homeless than there are for people who are just experiencing homelessness for the first time due to the economic conditions in the USA - loosing homes, evicted from apartments, out of jobs, broke due to a major medical problem in the family... or displaced due to hurricanes and superstorms.
Some shelters soliciting donations would have the average american believe that all homeless are mentally ill or have a drug problem.
Living in poverty is stressful and depressing, but we don't hear too much about people being helped to the point where THEY ARE RECIEVING THE SUPPORTIVE SERVICES TO GET WELL. No, what we hear about is how people who are not mentlally ill are pushed by case managers to lie that they are. We hear about people being threatened with termination (being put back out on the street) if they don't "comply" (obey) and people being sent to certain mental health clinics that collaborate with lies, people being sent to certain lawyers to get SSI as if these shelters have some sort of deal.
Everybody likes the story of someone who was way down there looking up at the curb getting housing because thats drama, but if you're reading this and you are NOT HOMELESS, consider those who are simply parking overnight, sleeping in their vans, trying to go to school, trying to find work, and need a helping hand EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR!
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