Dear Future President:

Imagine that it is a cold windy day and you don’t have any food to eat. This is what half a million Americans are dealing with.

In the U.S. alone there are more than half a million people living in poverty and it needs to change because many people have lost their loved ones from illnesses and not that many people care about helping them find shelters or homes.

Many Americans live on the streets and that is not a stable environment because they are more likely to get diseases or illnesses.

Homeless people, no matter the age, are 3 times more likely to die from illnesses. Middle aged men and women are even more likely to get illnesses. Homeless people get similar illnesses as normal people that live in homes but their chances of get diseases are three to six times higher. A few examples of illnesses that homeless get include HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis influenza, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. Those lucky enough to live in shelters are more likely to get illnesses. Due to bad ventilated areas and crowdedness, diseases spread even faster. In the 1900’s the average death age was about 50 and in 2006 it was about 78 years old.

Most people in America avoid homeless people, and that needs to change because people, even if they don’t have a home, are still people.

Even if people can’t afford some of the things u can afford does not mean that you can ignore them. As addressed in the previous paragraph people can die from being exposed to the elements of the outside and giving them a quarter or even more can really help them get health care that is essential for them.

25% of homeless reported that they lost jobs, 13% were evicted, 3% said their landlord raised their rent and 2% reported foreclosure.

Even though most are for helping the homeless, many are actually against helping them. Some reasons that people are against helping are sealers are expensive to build, there are too many people to help and the more we help homeless creates a beacon for more homeless. But this is not a good enough excuse for not helping homeless.

As you can see helping homeless is not an option, it is something that needs to be fixed. I know that we can’t get rid of homelessness for good, but there are many ways that it can be solved.

Sincerely Daniel D.  

Placzek, Jessica. "Homelessness: You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers." KQED News. KQED, 29 June 2016. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

“The Hard, Cold Facts About the Deaths of Homeless People” nhchc.org. N.p. Web, 6 Nov. 2016

“Why Do Some People Object To Helping The Homeless?” slohomeless.wordpress.com N.p. February 23, 2010. Web. 6 Nov. 2016