by Melody Jane

Created on: December 29, 2010

Close your eyes if you are afraid. If it scares you; if you feel an uncomfortable emptiness in the pit of your stomach and a catch in your throat because you don't know what to say, try to think of something else, something nice. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. This is far too uncomfortable and the answers that exist are not going to make you feel less so. The sights, the smells, the uncontrolled madness that doesn’t wait for you but continues whether you choose to open your eyes or not is always there, if you walk down the wrong street, at the wrong time at the right time, all the time. Don’t breathe, because they can tell when they can look at you, about to corner you; they can smell you; you're not one of them and you are so afraid. They touch you just to watch you squirm. They must be mentally ill. They must be alcoholics, lazy or on drugs. Why don't they go to a shelter? Why won't they just get a job? Close your eyes. You're home now. Lock the door. Check it. You're safe. 

Where did all of this fear come from? Why would anyone live like this if they had any choice? Don’t they have a choice? Why does the problem exist and whose actual problem is it? Aren’t there enough programs to help these people? In order to answer these questions it is necessary to examine the common perceptions of the homeless population that are circulated. Even statistics can be misleading. It is important to examine why some statistics about this particular subculture of people can, in fact, do more harm than good. There are far reaching implications regarding the perceptions of mental illness, drug use, and alcoholism; as well as social services and how people with no support system are often blamed for the abuse that is inflicted upon them because of an intrinsic fear of people with no community affiliation.

There are several easy labels that make thinking about the homeless population easier. They are mentally ill and unwilling to seek help or take their medication. They are lazy and unwilling to find a job or hold down gainful employment. One of the most detrimental attitudes toward the homeless is that by not seeking to take the assistance offered by the charity programs that they are being lazy and deserve to be treated disrespectfully. One does not translate to the other. Because a person does not have a job, no matter what the reason, does not forfeit a person’s humanity. They do not cease to be a person and thus do not cease to

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