I drive through the same two intersections every day. When I was a kid, I lived in a different neighborhood, and my family would drive through those same intersections. I never saw a homeless person in those intersections, not once.
Now, I see not just one, but four people at those two intersections. Not the same people every day. DIFFERENT people every day. AT LEAST four. Sometimes couples(making it five or six). Sometimes people I think might be young enough to be kids.
And if I drive about half a mile north, there’s another intersection. And there will be a different four there. And if I drive a half a mile east, there will be another four there. And if I drive about a mile south, there will be a whole neighborhood of people living on the street. When I drive through that neighborhood, the streets will CONSTANTLY have at a minimum 20-30 different homeless people on the streets throughout the day. And that breaks my heart already, but that USED TO be my neigborhood.
So I can see the buildings that I used to see every day, but they look VERY different now. When I was growing up there, I knew there were homeless people, but I never saw any unless my family would drive down by a charity on the other side of town, and at that point, I never seemed to see more than one.
But now, whole areas of town are literally full of them. I live in a fairly upscale neigborhood now, but the one I lived in as a child is full of homeless people, and there is rotting furniture and piles of clothes on the street. There are large camps full of more people than I can count as I go by.
I can’t even count how often I feel the need to bring them food and leftovers.
There are two people I see very often. They’re separate, not together, and they’re not in the same place. But they have really distinct looks. Both of them are white, and both of them have skin which looks charred to a crisp. The man doesn’t even have clothes. He walks around in nothing but shorts, and is among the huge groups of homeless people I see. I don’t mean I see many people. I see literally hordes.
And I used to be someone involved with landlords. I helped around properties, and helped build homes with Habitat For Humanity.
I actually reached this conclusion when one of the landlords I worked with told me that he was selling his properties because he realized he no longer thought it was ethical to own multiple properties when so many people were starving.
Personally, I have never lived in a home that I owned. Not one day in my life. And I am in my 40s. And I grew up in a family that was deeply poor. One of my strongest memories is asking my mom for food and saying I’m hungry, and having her respond “I know, but find something around the house. We can’t go shopping until next Friday.” I can’t tell you how often it was bread and butter. Or a single potato. Or nothing. Very often, it was nothing.
So it’s very hard for me to have sympathy for anyone who has multiple homes when there are so many people who don’t even have the ability to go inside to get away from the sun, or to get a glass of water if they’re thirsty.
I act like nothing.
I drive through the same two intersections every day. When I was a kid, I lived in a different neighborhood, and my family would drive through those same intersections. I never saw a homeless person in those intersections, not once.
Now, I see not just one, but four people at those two intersections. Not the same people every day. DIFFERENT people every day. AT LEAST four. Sometimes couples(making it five or six). Sometimes people I think might be young enough to be kids.
And if I drive about half a mile north, there’s another intersection. And there will be a different four there. And if I drive a half a mile east, there will be another four there. And if I drive about a mile south, there will be a whole neighborhood of people living on the street. When I drive through that neighborhood, the streets will CONSTANTLY have at a minimum 20-30 different homeless people on the streets throughout the day. And that breaks my heart already, but that USED TO be my neigborhood.
So I can see the buildings that I used to see every day, but they look VERY different now. When I was growing up there, I knew there were homeless people, but I never saw any unless my family would drive down by a charity on the other side of town, and at that point, I never seemed to see more than one.
But now, whole areas of town are literally full of them. I live in a fairly upscale neigborhood now, but the one I lived in as a child is full of homeless people, and there is rotting furniture and piles of clothes on the street. There are large camps full of more people than I can count as I go by.
I can’t even count how often I feel the need to bring them food and leftovers.
There are two people I see very often. They’re separate, not together, and they’re not in the same place. But they have really distinct looks. Both of them are white, and both of them have skin which looks charred to a crisp. The man doesn’t even have clothes. He walks around in nothing but shorts, and is among the huge groups of homeless people I see. I don’t mean I see many people. I see literally hordes.
And I used to be someone involved with landlords. I helped around properties, and helped build homes with Habitat For Humanity.
I actually reached this conclusion when one of the landlords I worked with told me that he was selling his properties because he realized he no longer thought it was ethical to own multiple properties when so many people were starving.
Personally, I have never lived in a home that I owned. Not one day in my life. And I am in my 40s. And I grew up in a family that was deeply poor. One of my strongest memories is asking my mom for food and saying I’m hungry, and having her respond “I know, but find something around the house. We can’t go shopping until next Friday.” I can’t tell you how often it was bread and butter. Or a single potato. Or nothing. Very often, it was nothing.
So it’s very hard for me to have sympathy for anyone who has multiple homes when there are so many people who don’t even have the ability to go inside to get away from the sun, or to get a glass of water if they’re thirsty.