Is there a choice to be homeless?

 January 27, 2020

Is there a choice to be homeless?

By: Steve Stieler

            Is there a choice to be homeless? A choice to live in a manner that in modern day society seems wrong, taboo, dirty or unfortunate? Life is full of surprises, full of ups and downs, full of choices. Some choices are controllable while others are a product of circumstances. Being homeless can have many different stigmas, realities, truths, and overwhelming casualties. It’s a manner of living for people that are unfortunate or circumstances got the better of their situation and forced them to abandon their home and seek a smaller means of life. 

            Whatever the choice is one makes, it is a reality that is growing in our country. Maybe it’s the system (unjust prices of an uncontrollable housing market) or one’s personal outcome of a job loss, divorce, a family tragedy. Whatever circumstance led to one being in a homeless situation is both sad and terrifying. But there is hope and there are growing solutions to the crisis we face. Just because you are homeless does not make you lesser of a person than one with a home. It hopefully is a temporary, unique situation and we should care for the homeless as we do with our remaining people in our cities. Everyone chooses a path in life, sometimes that path gets bumpy or takes a wrong turn, but there is always hope and if we hold our hands open and let homelessness have another chance, we can grow stronger as a society and hopefully beat this crisis completely.

Meet Doug. A man that has lived 22 years being homeless and his choices.

Check out this link:  click here

The Homeless Situation in Portland

Taking a look at Homelessness and Mental Health

By: Lauren Markley

This article presents the harsh and unjust status of the homelessness situation in Portland, Oregon. The numbers presented in the article highlight the severity of the situation noting both the number of people who are homeless in Portland “an estimated 14,000 chronically homeless people” and the number of people who suffer from mental illness who are homeless, “35-40%”. The homeless situation in Portland is something that has gone unchecked and has been ignored for years. Thousands of people are left to fend for themselves and they’re not getting the help and support that they need. The government continues to make false promises and what little efforts that they make, don’t do anything to address the core issues, like mental health and drug abuse.

Mental illness is a major issue amongst our homeless population, and it speaks to how both the government and the rest of the population tend to view people with disabilities. Change needs to be made and action needs to be taken to ensure that these people get the help and support they so desperately need. This highlights an overall issue with society, people overlook people struggling with mental illness or drug addiction and view them as lost causes. The lack of support from the government supports this claim, and the public must take action to ensure that this type of inhumane treatment is corrected.

More information on this topic, including the statistics I refer to, can be found in this article here:https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/commentary/why-portlands-homeless-problem-the-worst-the-nation