Homelessness: A Narrative Fiction

Hugh Anthony Cregg III, better known by his stage name of Huey Lewis was born in New York City in 1950. He is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. Huey Lewis is perhaps best known as the leader of of Huey Lewis & The News, one of the most popular musical groups of 1980s. Apart from singing he is also known as an actor who has appeared in movies like "Duets" with Gweneth Paltrow, "Short Cuts" and "Sphere".

As has been discussed throughout this class, American Indians have endured a great deal of suffering since Anglo-Americans made contact with the Americas. This suffering, however, has not ended in modern times. American Indians are still treated unfairly in many ways and are also being reduced to several stereotypes. Such stereotypes include beliefs such as that the American Indians are drunkards, savages, promiscuous, lazy, and many others. These stereotypes can be seen in multiple mediums, including advertising campaigns, books, movies, and product labels. With the widespread coverage, these stereotypes can be very harmful to the American Indian culture as they perpetuate beliefs that are untrue. American Indian stereotypes in advertising and movies were very popular in previous centuries, but it has also been proven to still exist today.

Homelessness has been a problem in Hawaii, and especially Oahu, for more than two decades. The homeless have overrun the islands but it is no surprise as the circum- stances allow for it. Multiple factors contribute to the ongoing dilemma including the high cost of living, Hawaii being an island state, and the expensive housing. The prob- lems that cause homelessness are not going to go away by themselves. Although the problem is not increasing, the numbers show that it isn’t decreasing and shouldn’t be unless the state and community acts.

“I never felt like that before. Maybe it could be depression, like you get. I can understand how you suffer now when you're depressed; I always thought you liked it and I thought you could have snapped yourself out any time, if not alone then by means of the mood organ. But when you get that depressed you don't care. Apathy, because you've lost a sense of worth. It doesn't matter whether you feel better because you have no

The thought of being homeless is a terrifying to anyone, but sadly for many it is a reality. I could never imagine not knowing where I was going to sleep for the night, especially not as a teenager. Teenage years are a struggle for everyone then adding homelessness into it gives an entirely different set of issues for someone to be presented with.

A vast amount of studies have been conducted on homelessness in Canada and what the looks like in our society. How can we change this to become a mare successful ideas of help?The main topic that is going to try to be addressed is Homelessness and how help may be provided to those who are in need. The first thing that needs to be addressed is how displayed in the following articles and are they beneficial to our society. The ideas that the following article was written by Racine, G (2002) about the woman telling their experiences with help from society, while in poverty.Another source that is going to be dissected is an article written by Anucha, U (2010) addresses are going to address is it true that Homelessness is housed but not helped? The next article is written and will be examined is by Fallis G (2010) that is going to address to be on our current housing policy for those without a home. The next article is written by Walsh, C.Graham, J.Shier, M. (2009) and the main goal of that is what are the goals for a homeless shelter as a connective? One of the last articles I am going to be critically analyzing is an article written by Brushett, K Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario (2007) is one the people will go with the cuts to the housing policy. The final article that is going to be dissected written by Paul Morden; A story about College students holding a sleep out challenge held to spread awareness. The main

As I stated before, far too often our society ignores that homelessness is a struggle for many people. Additionally, our society often thinks these people choose to be homeless. Terra talked about an incident at a gas station, and how one of the employees at the gas station said all the people at across the street are drunks and addicts. She talked about how upset she gets when people have these misconceptions about people that are struggling with homelessness. Hearing her talk about this broke my heart because our society should not shame people for being homeless; instead, we should be looking at solutions to end homelessness. It is a human right to have basic human needs, yet our society continually provokes their unjust agenda.

“Sit down! Do not stand on furniture” “Stop running through the house” these are just a couple of things you’ll hear when you step into my house. My family isn’t what you’d call normal at all; we are a very facetious. You can’t say I didn’t warn you, so take a jacket and join the crew.

In the darkness of the alleyway, Mackenzie heard a familiar voice. “Stop!” said a voice from behind her. She spun around as fast as she could.

The church was packed of men, women, and children waiting eagerly for hot meal. They held trays in their hands, and were all waiting for the line to move forward. I was in charge of handing out the deserts, with both of my sister next to me, we were ready. The line kept moving, and smiles of appreciation, and gratitude were given at the same time as the sweets were. It was slightly amazing to watch the different type of people that walked through the food line. It varied from whole families together, to single parents, to elderly, to couples. There were many people who appreciated the service that the church offered, and many of them smiled and said something along the lines of, “Thank you for your help,” Many of them also went through the lines multiple times so they could have food for later days. After a few hours had passed my feet started to ache but as I looked at the homeless who have to spend long cold nights only to worry where their next hot meal might come from. My pain was nothing compared to theirs. A man shoved beamed, “The dessert! My favorite part…” after looking through all of what we had to offer, he pointed and said, “I’ll take two chocolate chip cookies, and an oatmeal cookie.” I reached my gloved hand into the box, pulled out his request, and placed it on his plate.

Noelle had no family, no friends, nor any money. The only person she felt even slightly familiar with was the restaurant owner’s daughter who threw scrapings into a pail behind the store. Anyone who gave her food, anyway, she considered a friend.

My view on homeless people came in many different ways they either got laid off by their job, wasted their life with drugs, or some gave up when they did not receive another job. I also viewed them as lying people using others just to get money from them then getting in their car and driving off. Viewing them afterwards was definitely an eye opener I learned that a lot of people have different stories. Not everybody did the same or went through the same thing to become homeless. Most people that are homeless didn’t have a choice because of them being laid off by their bosses and technology just replacing their jobs creating less opportunities for themselves and other people. Also that many of them lost their families so they have nobody to

I believe that the best lessons come when you least expect it. This belief was challenged four years ago when my dance team decided to run our own clothing drive for the homeless. We made and hung up posters, and gave up our lunch time to collect and sort clothing donations. Eventually, we took all of the bags of clothes to two separate inner-city homeless shelters. One for women and children and another for men. It was amazing to see the looks on all the peoples’ faces when we brought the clothing in for them. After dropping the clothing off at the men’s shelter, we stayed to make them dinner and eat with them. As a team it was a fun bonding experience to cook these meals together and have fun. But the mood changed once it was time to serve the food.

Being homeless isn’t as bad as it may seem. It’s actually quite invigorating. Being homeless in America is a pleasure and privilege. Having the streets crowded with beggars is honestly a sight to see. Who wouldn’t want to be homeless? It’s the greatest thing ever, and it’s not that hard.

Rocco has been homeless for over 5 years. He explained to us that he had some property holdings and when the economy plummeted in 2008 so did the value of his investments and the money that he had. When asked to describe being homeless he said, “You know, I think this is my place to be in. Like God is saying to me, ‘You need to experience this’ and now I am.” This struck me. Never would I think someone could embrace homelessness with such grace and such understanding. To him, there was no need to wallow in his situation, instead, it was simply a stop on his journey. He was going to learn from it, and his life would eventually make a turn for the better because of it.