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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2015)
Street Roots • April 3-9, 2015 Commentary Page 13 Opportunity, support keys to end homelessness BY JOHNNY WILLIAMS crippling. Also people who have no money for food will not travel far from where they can e a t So if the self-help classes are not omelessness is a problem that cannot within a small area, it makes it difficult if not be fixed just by throwing money at i t impossible, for them to get back and forth You can throw money at a fire all day between different sides of town, especially if long, and it will never put out the fire. Only using a shopping cart to carry belongings in. helping people to get the things that they People need a place where they can leave missed — i.e. education, job training, and such — will change homelessness. Others just their things, knowing that they are secure. The stage of homelessness is an obstacle: need a place to live cheap and save money People find it hard to get up. They start to for a place of their own. give up. To understand how a person can The homelessness problem can seem so become accustomed to being homeless, overwhelmingly out of control. There are consider the opposite. That would be many services available, but only during institutionalization. At first, you hate being certain days and hours. They don’t help locked up. But after a while, you start to get much. used to the walls. And with enough time you “Must have” are two words that cause the find that you depend upon them. Being cateh-22s that keep people from getting up. homeless and sleeping on the ground, feeling You must have a GED, experience, like no one really cares, it is easy to turn to references, a phone, certification and such. If drinking and such. It helps to hide the pain we want to truly help a person, let’s start of knowing that you have no place to sleep with those things. but the ground. Or harder yet* Having to There are some who have multiple issues. watch your spouse lie down and sleep under Let’s say a person has worked as a caregiver, a bridge can be too much. but it has been a while back and the company You cannot allow the bottom to fall out. you worked for didn’t require a GED or a Take for example a box, full of very fragile CNA. The person, who although has items. If the bottom of this box opens up experience, now needs to go through a class everything inside will fall out. Starting with and be taught what he already knows, just for the bottom item, all the way to the top. Then a piece paper. If the person can’t get a GED, you have an empty box and a real mess to it’s hopeless. Or it seems that way. clean up. If you allow the homeless to just The majority of the people who are drop out, it will not be long before the K homeless have had something happen, Joneses will find themselves on th e bottom — something that sent their lives into a and then gptqJthe^^eets..^. , whirlwind, and they ended up being The government cannot afford to homeless. I have never heard of a child when completely support everyone. If you want to asked, “what are your aspirations?” answer help someone who has no physical or mental with wishing to be homeless and eat out of a illness, the best way is to educate and/or give garbage can. them employment opportunities so that they What most of society sees as they are can help support the country, rather than the going through a day is all the homeless country support them! people standing around doing nothing. The John F. Kennedy said, “Let uS not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic problem is most services are too far away to answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek walk to and the times of availability are to fix die blame for the past. Let us accept typically only business hours. People who our own responsibility for the future.” It’s have lost almost everything will carry time we take responsibility and help the everything that they have left on their back homeless in responsible ways. to keep from losing it. That in itself is C O N TR IB UTIN G C O LU M N IS T H Johnny Williams is a Street Roots vendor a n d a periodic colum nist fo r the newspaper. The Who Poem by T.M. Otto Who will cry For the mentally ill Who will share Their pain Who will be there For them When the world Turns on them Who will ever Erase The stigma That they face It’s a daily Battle That can never Be won Who will lend them A shoulder To lean on When the rest Just turn away Who I ask you Who
