Vulnerable People: One more Night as a Homeless Person

   Photo: Pedrontheworld Studio    

  From streets, to shelters, to sleeping bags, and even side-walk camping, they sleep wherever they can in order to feel a little more protected from weather variations and possible nighttime threats--meaning other not well-intentioned homeless people.

             I ask Jimmy, a homeless person whom I interviewed a few years ago, and who dreamed about being a journalist, why he wouldn’t go back to school? “Come on, Kid. Look at me. I am old and a homeless person. Society has no place for me, and my time has passed.”  I verbally disagree, but deep down I am surprised by how aware Jimmy is. “It’s as though being  homeless, once you are there,  becomes a stigma and part of who you are,” he finishes.

            A survey done by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2014 (TNYtimes, 2015) showed that on any night in America, 500,000 people face homelessness, of which 300,000 are over 50 years of age. The reasons vary from drug abuse to mental illness to lack of income. They come from all over the country, and, contrary to  popular belief, 47% of older homeless people declare themselves to be white (DHUD, 2017).  

            In spite of the hope of a better future and the availability of shelter (the DHUD reported over 5 million shelters throughout the country qualified to receive people facing homelessness), the idea of being homeless one more night and the uncertainty of life improvement still haunts those who have lost everything.

          For further information click here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/us/americas-aging-homeless-old-and-on-the-street.html
https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2017-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

By Pedro Oliveira.