Ana Garcia

English A

Professor Reyes

September 16, 2015

                                                            Who are the homeless people?

            Have you ever wonder why some people become homeless? How they manage to survive day by day in the city of Los Angeles, full of discrimination, violence and crime? The biggest question we ask our self, where do they sleep at night? Well in the city of Los Angeles the homeless population is about 45,000 people per night, every individual have their own story on why they are homeless. They manage to survive day by day. And they find anywhere to sleep, even in the floor under the bridge. Homeless people are humans just like you and I, they just need support, lot of help from the advocates.

            Every homeless person has their own reasons on why they are homeless, they are many reasons, you wouldn’t imagine .For example in the interview with John, and he had mentioned he was a retired veteran. Many people would think he was a drunk or a drug addicted or maybe something even worse, but it turned out he fought for our country. But yet many people think worse of a homeless. Not only are some veteran, but some are actually homeless due to drinking too much alcohol or liquor, or just addicted to drugs, and have hard time giving those up, that they end up losing their money and even home, they even lose the most important thing, their family. The majority of the homeless population is the runaways, those who run away from their home due to some type of abuse, physically, mentally, domestic violence, etc. They have nowhere to go, and when the shelters are full there nowhere to go but to be homeless. Same with some families that lose their jobs, their homes, and all the money they had, and it’s even worse when you don’t have support from no one, and have nowhere to turn but a shelter. They are many other reasons why people are homeless, not all reasons make them a bad person.

            Homeless people manage to survive day by day in many ways. Some manage to stay in the same area, so some people who already know them, offers them food water or clothing. Some also use their talent like playing guitar, singing, juggling, or even cleaning people car, for money. The majority of the homeless also beg people for money; some ignore them while other try to spare money to them. The city of Los Angeles is a place full of violence, and full of discrimination, they manage to survive by staying away from the places they know they shouldn’t be around. Many people discriminate them, they see them as criminals, as soon as they see one they tend to walk the other way around, or they quickly hide their belongings away. But all they are trying to do is survive one more day.

            Many shelter are offer to homeless, but not all can fit, so they have a limit, it mostly first come first serve kind of thing so the rest are stuck sleeping outside. Some sleep under the bridge, the park, outside business buildings, and on the bus stops, there are many other places in which they sleep in, but they get up before they get in trouble, or are authorize to move away from the property. Some place are illegal to sleep in, the police don’t care of their statues that they even take them to jail, and categorize them as criminals. I strongly believe banning the benching on the parks and bus stops are just dumb, it doesn’t make a difference, they want to do is sleep, only escape from reality.

            The reason I am writing this is to inform you about homeless people. Homeless people are human being like you and I, the only difference is that we have a home and they don’t. There are many reasons why they are homeless, so don’t quickly assume the worse of them. They don’t judge you so why should you. Think twice before you walk away from a homeless begging for help because you never know when you’ll need help.