Research paper without a defined title

¶ … Homeless

The disenfranchised population of people known as the "homeless" are those who do not have a regular dwelling because they are unable to afford or maintain a permananet address. While there have always been a set of people who live on the fringe of society, the contemporary problem of homelessness, particularly in larger urban areas, has become almost endemic in Modern America. In the United States the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a "chronically homeless" person as "an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homess for a year or more, or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years" (HUD, 2010).

I will admit, I had a bias regarding the homeless. I found myself irritated at those individuals standing at major intersections asking for money, and personally fearful when someone would come up to me while I was using an ATM. I felt disconnected from the homeless and somehow thought that it "was their own fault."

One Thanksgiving, though, as a family, we decided to forego our personal celebration and devote our time to bringing Thanksgiving to one of the local homeless shelters. My assignment was to do some research on the homeless and make a presentation to the family. I also had to go "out of my comfort zone" and visit a shelter during the day, hopefully interviewing one or two individuals to help understand their story.

My research showed me that while there are many homeless individuals who do resort to criminal activity to survive, there are a number who have been released from mental institutions, have been forced onto the streets due to medical reasons or unemployment, domestic violence, prison release and an inability fo find work, or even natural diasters and forced addition. One mother of 2 was fleeing an abusive husband, had no resources, so lived out of their car and used the shelter to shower and for meals. She was doing her best to work part-time and keep the children in school. Another gentleman came back from Iraq with a head injury and is convinced that he must live on the streets in order to survive. The stories are as varied as the people, but certainly one cannot lump every homeless person into a bundle and say they "want to be" in this condition (Conference of Mayors, 2009).

My assignement for Thanksgiving Day was filling coffee and Kool-Aid. This was perfect because it forced me to interact and get to know some of the clients in a different way. This was a real paradigm shift, and something that took me out of my comfort zone and provided a new personal achievement for me. I found the clients, for the most part to be engaging, interesting, and polite. They were so genuinely grateful that I was taken aback by the sheer emotionality of the situation.

Because of this Holiday experience, I continued on with the shelter a minimum of two days per week. I quickly found that one of the issues that seemed to be holding many of the individuals back was their lack of literacy skills. So, with the help of one of the monitors, we set up a twice a week reading session. Within a few months we had several successes. Some of the marginal clients who had trouble reading applications were able to successfully get part-time fast food and janitorial jobs based on their ability to read and understand an employment application.