Creating a Social Program

Homelessness is a very big issue and it has for a very long time, but with the economy at a low the numbers of homeless people have risen. Anyone can end up homeless for many different reasons. “On any given night in the United States, anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million people are homeless that’s men, women, teens and families. According to a December, 2000 report of the US Conference of Mayors, single men comprise 44 percent of the homeless, single women 13 percent, families with children 36 percent, and unaccompanied minors seven percent.   The homeless population is about 50 percent African-American, 35 percent white, 12 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Native American and 1 percent Asian.” I really do not think that any person should be left out in the cold; in my life I have been homeless twice. I did not live on the streets, or stay in a car but I did stayed in a house with not heat or electricity with friends because I did not want to go home. The second time I stayed with different friends ever night until I could get my own place.

      I think that by creating a social program that helps the homeless in many different ways would help so many people. I mean not just having emergency shelters for men, women and families so they are not in the cold or the heat. I think that would help in a short term way but to help in a long term way the root of their homelessness needs to be addressed. Job training, permanent housing and counseling are needed so that people can feel they are in control of what is happening. Many people look at a homeless person and feel sorry for them but do they actually try to imagine what they are going through. According to "National Coalition For Homelessness" (2011), “Over the past eleven years (1999-2009), advocates and shelter workers around the country have received news reports of men, women and even children being harassed, kicked, set on fire, beaten to death, and decapitated. From 1999 through 2009, in forty-seven states,...