Timothy T. California

Hope For The Homeless

We have to help the homeless.

Dear Future Mr/Mme President,

There is a huge problem in America and I believe you are well aware of it. I bring up this serious matter that must be dealt with.

Homelessness.  

Almost every day in San Jose, California, I encounter homeless people on the side of roads holding up cardboard signs with "I'm just hungry" scrawled in faint black marker. As I pass these people, I get this feeling that I am so privileged to be in the position I am in. I have a protective roof over my head, an education, food, and basically a comfortable, happy life. 

However, I also get this feeling of sadness that these people are not experiencing the same, privileged life as I am. They have a life where their biggest problem is not homework. It is finding food. Finding water. Finding shelter. Surviving. 

On the streets of San Jose and the Santa Clara County in California are thousands and thousands of homeless people. To be exact, 7,631. In the whole of California, there are 113,592 people living on the streets. In the whole continent of North America, around 564,708 people are experiencing the life of a homeless person - with no food, no shelter, no warm fire to gather around with friends and family while sipping a hot chocolate on a cold, Christmas night.

Although you might object and say that they are just too lazy to get out and work, many of the people are actually mentally or physically ill. Some companies reject them because of their inability to work. So what can they do? 

Or the question should be - What can you do?

It is all in your hands, Mr/Mme President. Are you going to ignore the anguished cries of all these homeless people? Are you going to do something to prevent, and possibly decrease, the inexplicably large number of people without homes? Or will you just leave them as they are with men, women, and even children shivering on the chilly, dark sidewalks in the middle of the night? I ask you, with all due respect, to take into account these people and reach out to them. Build shelters. Offer jobs. Donate food. 

Save lives.

Respectfully,

Timothy