OF A BLACK PLASTIC BAG
Poverty is a common social issue that has troubled nations for thousands of years. This social problem has various impacts on different institutions and people. Homelessness can happen to almost anyone, especially in a country where the medium class is disappearing. What is it like to be homeless? How does it feel to be homeless? When you are homeless you feel rejected by all, not just by another. It is a feeling of abandonment, of rejection and loneliness. So, the closest feeling of having nowhere to stay for the night is that of a broken heart.
POVERTY IS WORLDWIDE
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Imagine that one day they fire you from work and you have to pay the rent and bills but at the end of the month you don't have enough money to pay all the invoices and due to that they foreclosure all your possessions and you finish being homeless. So, you get up every morning from a dirt- and illness-stained mattress. The sheets have long since been used for diapers and you have a smell that never leaves, a smell of urine, sour milk, and spoiling food. It is the smell of someone that cannot pay for food, and less, for a shower. Anxiety, constant worry, insecurity, inequality, tear and violence is what they have to deal in the streets. People misunderstand them completely. They will give you the food they choose and then think bad of you if you’re not grateful. If you have any allergies or dietary restrictions, you are expected to eat the food anyway. If it’s freezing cold, and you have a drink, you are labelled as an alcoholic. If you make noise, you are a nuisance. Little tasks become chores as depression saps your energy. Stress clouds your judgment. You grab at anything that looks like an opportunity, yet you feel like you’re getting nowhere. You walk everywhere. In so many little ways, you’re constantly reminded that you are nothing without money.
So, you have to deal with a lot of things and wearing plastic bags of clothes when it's freezing outside is one of them. That's why we see this picture of a homeless man bundled up in plastic bags facing the cold weather in downtown Los Angeles. I’ve been thinking about the man that is in the picture, and I arrive in the conclusion that he could have been a doctor, engineer or a businessman and for some reasons, he loses his job. So, everyone that has a job can finish being homeless. He makes me realise and think about how easy your life can change in a good and bad way. How desperate that man must have been to dress in plastic bags. In this case, how can this happen in a country as wealthy as the United States, affordable housing should be a right, not a privilege, no one should ever be homeless.
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NO OPPORTUNITY
NO OPPORTUNITY
The longer a person remains homeless, the more difficult it is to return to the mainstream of society. Being homeless is destabilizing, demoralizing and depressing. You’ve lost your base, a foundation from which to function, so I think it becomes hard to focus on. And how we can help them? First not judging the homeless as no human being deserves that.