Homelessness

It's truly and profoundly saddening to think about how many people out there who have nowhere to go, who struggle every single day to survive, who resort to unthinkable means just to cling on to the lives they have that have come to such a desperate place. From what I know, there are a wide variety of reasons why people end up as vagrants. Tragically, many of them were led to that point because of substance abuse or because of severe mental illness, while others end up homeless simply because they never had the socioeconomic means to get by in the first place. It's hard to imagine that anyone would be homeless by choice, I don't think there is a human alive that would rather prefer life on the streets as opposed to having a safe place to call their own. Alright, I'll admit it, that was far from a profound statement, and was really one of the most obvious and generic things anyone could ever say, but it's still true. It's particularly heartbreaking to think about how many veterans end up homeless. To know that someone who gave so much to their country only to be left abandoned by it is one of the greatest injustices I could ever imagine. Sadly, that's exactly how many of them end up. It does however fill me with hope to know that we aren't powerless to combat the issue of vagrancy. There are of course the obvious things we can do; volunteering at soup kitchens, helping out around the homeless shelter, etc. But in my eyes, significant as that may be, and it really is, it's still just treating the symptoms of the disease, not finding a cure. It's largely up to our elected officials to make real substantial change to curb vagrancy. They need to set up and sustain programs that give the homeless means to build their lives back up, to become functioning and contributing members of society once more. It would be nice if it was that easy to solve, but problems such as this never have easy answers. Many people are homeless because they lack the ability to work whether that be because of mental illness or physical ailments, and if they can't work, they're simply trapped in that same vicious cycle. I'll be honest, I don't have the answer for people in such circumstances, and I sincerely doubt it's something that would be easy to accomplish. If it was, it would have been done a long time ago. The fact that there is such a wide variety of reasons that an individual might end up homeless, means that there is no blanket solution that could solve the problem. There's no magic cure all that would solve the problem once and for all, rather the answer lies in analyzing and sorting through each individual case and determining what solution would be best for said individual. I could sit here and write about this topic all day, but while I can definitely write about the problem, writing about the solution isn't nearly as easy. One thing I can say for sure, is that in order to fix this problem, it will require effort on the part of everyone in our society. It won't be easy, matters such as this rarely are, but I believe the struggle will be truly worth it if we can see these people, these human beings, lifted out of the dismal state that they've found themselves in. I don't want to continue to read stories of rampant homelessness, I want to read stories of people rising up from their squalor and returning back to society as functioning and contributing citizens.