Do Your Share to Help the Homeless

By Penny Caudle

If there is a homeless person on the street you are walking on what do you do? If you are walking past a homeless person and they drop a bag that they are having trouble picking up, what do you? If you said you would cross the street or walk away from the homeless person, just because they are homeless, you are so wrong.

I believe what we need to do is help them. We think we do, but the truth is that we just make it worse. If you keep telling a person that they are stupid after so long they start to believe it. We have downed on these people for so long they have no faith in themselves. If you have no faith then you will not be able to get anything done. We start doing that by believing in them. So the first thing we do is help them to get their faith back, help them to believe again. Of course that will not get them a better life right away, but it will get them started.

A lot of the people that are homeless have problems with drinking or drugs. Then they need a little more help. What I am saying is that they need a doctor to help them. I think the government should give some money to have these people sent to a place to help them. I am not talking like a jail, but a hospital.

Most of the people on the streets have had some kind of luck that put them there. They could have lost a job or had a job that would not pay the money they needed for the bills. These people need schooling or job training.

There are people that have had a bad childhood and need help with dealing with that. They would need a special doctor. And maybe classes that will help them deal with their pain, their thoughts, and feelings.

The main thing that we need to do is have faith. We all need to do our share to help these people . All they need is a little faith in themselves, and people that will be there for them. They need a friendly place to turn, just like the rest of us.

Copyright NEOCH and the Homeless Grapevine published January – February 1997 Issue 19