Many of you have just gotten through Thanksgiving and are beginning to get in Christmas mode. While many of you are wondering what to buy and how much money to spend on gifts, hundreds or more Americans have lost their jobs due to budget cuts and their homes due to foreclosure. How are they going to spend the holidays? If you don’t have family or friends to take you in, you are going to be among the millions of homeless people this holiday season.
I feel that many will likely spend the holidays in a homeless shelter or transitional housing. With the way the economy is today and record unemployment, the amount of sheltered homeless people is expected to rise.
More than 250 men, most of them strangers, sat together as they ate their Thanksgiving dinner. Among them were artists, drug addicts, college students, former businessmen, veterans, former athletes and others whose lives had hit rock bottom. The unadorned interior, cinderblock walls, concrete floors and fluorescent lights lacked the homey feel of grandma’s dining room. Those who entered the facility weren’t greeted by family members’ hugs. Instead, they passed through a metal detector. No, they weren’t in prison, but at City Union Mission, one of several area homeless shelters.
City Union Mission operated three shelters. One is the Men’s shelter; the second is a family shelter that houses single women and families. The third is a farm in Warsaw, Mo for men recovering from addiction.
A study done by the U.S. Department of housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2009 estimated the homeless population to be more than 640,000 on any given night.
I hope once the holidays are over and we begin a new year there will be new job opportunities. People will be able to get back on their feet and the homeless rate will drop.
For many, the holidays are more about survival than celebration.
Homeless during the holidays (2010). The University News Retrieved December 14, 2010 from http://unews.com/2010/11/29/homeless-during-the-holidays
No comments:
Post a Comment