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A street person is someone..............someone's mother, someone's father, someone's daughter, someone's son. Street people are my sisters and brothers. I know the drill. I know what most people say. They are there, they are street people, of their own accord. They have in almost all circumstances brought it upon themselves. Isn't that Right? I don't know, nor do I pretend to know, what society's answers are to such difficult and complex issues. I don't know how to solve homelessness. I do know that I thank God for giving me intelligence, for giving me drive, for giving me mental capabilities. I thank God for the strength to say no to drugs, for medical insurance and the ability to provide for my children. I'm confident that mental illness is not new to society but the days of the "taking a village to raise a child" are gone, and we no longer take care of our own. We leave it to mental health professionals and we hope that our loved ones find their way to such a professional. There can be valid reasons why we cannot take them into our homes, into our new, nuclear villages.

I know homelessness on a personal level, although I've never been homeless. I have a sister who has struggled for many years with various issues that have left her without a home. I know the pain it can cause the family of the homeless. Don't ever assume that the homeless person doesn't have anyone who loves them, doesn't have anyone who cares. Many of them do, some of them do not. Once a person enters the spiral, it seems almost impossible to climb it upward to a different life. If you are willing to get a job, how do you accomplish that without even a shower and clean clothes to make yourself presentable? Most of us live in a silo where we love to believe there are programs plenty for anyone who reaches out. I've looked for those programs to help my sister and had a difficult time finding help and navigating the system. Me, a gainfully employed, integellient person with internet access and phones available had difficulty using the system. Imagine for a moment that you've slept on the streets of Seattle on a cold January night. You wake in the rain, your clothes dirty and damp. No phone, no internet. How do you weave through the system of help? I admire those who choose to work in the field of helping those less fortunate, I just wish there were more of them.

I have known homeless people, befriended some a time or two. Yes, some of them choose not to work. Why anyone would make such a choice is beyond me. Can we say they are fully competent if they make such a choice or is it an illness that disguises itself as laziness? I have talked to the homeless and heard some of their strories, stories of war and finding their way back home to a land they grew up in and now live on the streets of.

When you ask who are street people, while some may have a violent nature, just remember that all of them are our children, members of our village and many of them fought for this country where they now lay their head on sheets of concrete. And when you figure out the answer to our epidemic program, please let me know. I hate passing by my brothers and sisters in the cold of winter.

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