I'm going to be honest with you. We all can do a little to help it temporarily, but do not believe we have the power to solve it. Two solutions that others have brought up that I agree with are:
1. Higher Minimum Wage. It's hard for anyone, homeless or not, to get a job that will pay a living wage (an amount that you can live on without trouble) on their first shot. My job, for example, would not promote me to full-time until I had spent a certain amount of time there. 5.50 an hour for 18 hours a week isn't enough to pay rent AND buy enough food AND afford insurance on a car. If you higher the minimum wage, without raising prices, this might be the start on a solution to homelessness. I doubt it is likely to happen, though.
2. Affordable Housing. This also might be the start of a solution. Homeless people often do not choose to be so. If they had housing that they could afford with whatever salary they make, I'm sure that they would try to obtain it. An organization called Habitat for Humanity is currently helping out with this, though it is more for the poor facing homelessness, I believe. I'm not sure, though.
Like I said, though, we all can do a little to help the problem. It doesn't take much time or effort on our part. Volunteering at a soup kitchen, or making food for it is simple. It feeds a homeless or poor person a meal and saves them the cost of it. Here in my city, we have more than one soup kitchen, and each one serves a different meal. Volunteering at a shelter is another option. There are many other things you can do to allay the problem, but keep in mind that these things do not solve it. The problem runs deeper than food and shelter. |
