We see them sleeping in alley ways, on park benches and doorways. They hold crude handwritten cardboard signs asking for money, work and prayers. They pass by us on the street and most people look away and the people that don't give up the spare change or maybe even offer them a sandwich.
Those are the homeless that puts themselves out there for all of us to see.
The truth of it is the homeless are a lot more closer to you than you think. They are your co-worker, the child sitting next to your child in class, the person behind you in the check-out line at the grocery store, the person sitting next to you on the bus and the person who takes a seat in the same pew you're sitting on in church.
The homeless are our veterans, your neighbor, your child, your grandparent, your parent, your sibling and your best friend.
The homeless are alcoholics, drug addicts, unemployed, bi-polar, handicapped, crippled, Christian, atheist, agnostic, clean and sober, members of the PTA, college graduates, recently laid off a job they held for more than 10 years and just recently lost the home they poured their heart and soul into for more than 5 years.
The homeless are you and they are me.
The homeless have pets, children, grandchildren and good credit.
They are intelligent, creative, talented, gifted, responsible, reliable, hard-working, trustworthy, God-fearing and honest.
There is a new population of your fellow human beings falling through the cracks because the right to affordable housing is becoming part of the American past.
We have become a society where affordable housing is becoming a luxury for the average, hard working American and I can think of no greater crime and/or crisis than this.
The reason I am so aware of all this is because I am one of the homeless.
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