Why Are The Homeless, Homeless?

Before I go any further with this post, I want to make one thing clear – I am not bashing homeless people. Not even in the slightest bit. I am one of the few who ALWAYS gives a dollar or two when I pass by a homeless person – I have nothing against them.

Back to the question; why are the homeless, homeless? Living in the Bay Area, I visit San Francisco quite often. San Francisco is a pretty fun place – lot’s to do there. But every time I go there, I come back asking myself the same question over and over. Why are the homeless, homeless? San Francisco has one of the highest homeless populations, and it is kind of ironic, seeing as it is such a wealthy area. There a few specific streets in San Francisco that are particularly quite bad. I can’t exactly remember the names now, but I’ll try to find out. The majority of homeless people are quite nice people – they usually ask you for money, and if you don’t want to give them any, they leave you alone. That’s has been how the majority of experiences have been for me.

Now, even though a good number of my experiences with homeless people have been good, I’ve had some bad ones too. Before I actually moved to California, I came on a 2 week vacation here with my father and sister (summer of 2007). My family seems to not be able to look at a homeless person without giving them some money – so yes, we usually do. Now, this one case was kind of funny, but scary for my sister. We were in San Francisco at burger shop, sometime around noon. Anyways, a homeless man approached us, and said his name was “Odis” – neat name, huh? As my sister pulled out the cash from her pocket – a whole bunch of one dollar bills, and a five dollar bill. As she tried to separate the money (a few one dollar bills) from the bunch to give Odis, he did something that shocked me. He yanked it all out of her hand and ran. Being a girl and quite delicate, she got quite scared and upset. Me and my dad thought it was pretty funny, and didn’t bother chasing Odis for $10.

Recently, I was in San Francisco, and came across a weird encounter. I ended up on the wrong street – yes, I mean the wrong street. I really regret going there, as it was quite dangerous. Everyone looked as if they wanted to kill me. One man even yelled at me and said “It’s because of you my people are out here on the streets!”, which really got me thinking for the rest of the day. Is it because of people like me (regular people) that these homeless people are homeless? I was offended in a way, because I never did anything wrong to a homeless person. I’m sure others will have a different opinion on this, but quite frankly, I feel that homeless people are homeless simply because they chose that path. I am not saying that is the case with all homeless people, just the majority. I will explain further below.

Many of these homeless individuals started there because of an addiction to a drug, or drugs. Although addiction is something that is close to impossible to control, they made that first chose to start. They could have chose the other path, and the chances of them ending up on the streets would have been a lot less likely. The part that confuses me the most is that many of these homeless people are good people – so why do they not make an attempt to get off of the streets? I’m sure some will say that is it easier said then done – and to those, I completely agree. But what would you do if you were homeless? Would you not make an attempt to get off of the streets? Personally, I would.

There is so much opportunity out there in the world, and I see no reason as for why these people are homeless. Once again, maybe I need to experience it first hand to realize their situation. But quite frankly, I do not understand how they landed there in the first place, in such a country (I’m talking about the USA specifically). Many children grow up in families that are poor, abusive, and so on, but they still end up living an average, if not above average life. You are the one who steers your own life, and if you want, you can ensure that you do not land on the streets. I feel that a homeless person telling me it is my fault he is on the streets is a bit unfair. I could change my life onto the wrong path – drugs, drop out of school, and so on. But the thing is, I choose not to, and these homeless individuals could have done the same.

So why do I feel that the majority of homeless people are homeless? Personal choice. Just my opinion though. I’m sure there is a wide variety of perspectives on this matter. Just please remember, I am not bashing homeless people. I have a lot of sympathy for them. I try to help out whenever I can, by giving them some money – but I can only do so much.

Why do you think that homeless people are homeless?