November 3, 2016

Dear Next President,

There are 7.125 billion people in the world and about 100 million of them are homeless. To matters worse 1.6 billion people don’t have adequate homes. Homelessness is a problem that affects the whole world. In the U.S. alone about 700 people die each year due to illnesses caused by homelessness like hypothermia, starvation, mental illness and many more. Also a quarter of the homeless community is children under the age of 18. I believe that homelessness is a serious problem and the next president should do something about the growing numbers of homeless people.

The main 5 reasons why people go homeless is the lack of employment opportunities, domestic violence, mental illness, and drug and alcohol addiction. Stephanie Watson states, “many homeless people start out with jobs and stable residences, but then social and economic factors intervene, causing a rapid change in their living situation.”The lack of employment opportunities is a serious growing problem while the numbers of jobs go down the prices of homes go up. So while many people are losing their jobs they can't pay for their homes and they become homeless. Mental illness is another serious problem because it disrupt people from doing important things such as self care, doing their job correctly, or even paying a house payment. Mental health also affects physical health, especially homeless people because the mental illness may make them not take care of themselves physically like going to an urgent care if they feel sick or drinking water, is it’s available to them.

According to the Homeless Hub, “if you are homeless, getting the food you need can be a big challenge. Where people who are homeless get food really depends on the town or city they live, the laws that exist in that city, and the kinds of services that are available for people who are homeless.” Most homeless adults and kids go days without eating and almost never get their nutrients from food. If they do eat it’s not very much or not very nutritious food! Tammy Dray states, lots of homeless people have diets consisting of fast food, basic staples such as bread and cheese and convenience food. Many homeless people do earn some money by picking up and selling cans, plastic bottles or other recyclables. Because cooking is out of the question, the diet of a homeless person usually revolves around quick foods that can be bought ready-made or that require no heating or preparation. Fast food places such as McDonald's are also popular because of their cheap menus and the fact that most locations are open 24 hours.

Next president, one way you can fix this is create more jobs and raise the amount of money the workers get per hour. You could also lower the prices of houses, apartment, or even cars. Another thing you could do is lower prices of hospital bills because people can’t go to the hospital because they can't pay for it, and with lower hospital bills the number of homeless people will definitely go down.

Sincerely,

Sophia