Dear Mr. or Ms. President,

          Teen homelessness is a serious issue all around the world. Teenagers are the next generation of our world and they need all the help they can get from people to be successful. With no triumphant teenagers, the world will not be a successful place in the future. People need to get a taste of what some teenagers have to go through every single day so they will want to help out. There are companies who help out teenagers that are in need of shelter, food, and water, but these companies still need help from individuals in order to provide shelter for the homeless. Many parents and individuals are the reason some teens are homeless, because they belong to the LGBTQ community. Every adolescent deserves a successful life.

          I believe that schools should go on field trips to homeless shelters to see what it feels like to live in these awful conditions. At Andrews University in Chicago, Illinois, the school took some students around for a walk while watching and talking about a documentary about teenage homelessness. After the heartbreaking night, Ed Brennan, the co-organizer and participant of Homelessness Awareness Week stated that, “the idea behind this activity was to allow students to begin to understand the life of someone with no other options, I think that God wanted us to see what people really deal with when they live on the streets” (Reiner). This shows that the field trip does work and it helps the students understand what some people their age have to go through in order to survive. The co-organizer clearly stated that the trip worked since he says that God wanted them to see what people really deal with on the street and the whole idea of the walk was for students to understand the life of someone with no other options.

          People should learn the facts and reasons teenagers are homeless in order for them to understand what they go through so they can help. According to Covenant House, “Every year, more than 2 million kids in America will face a period of homelessness... 57% of teenagers that are homeless spend one day a month without food. More than 20,000 kids are forced into prostitution in order to survive, this is called survival sex and it is when people have sexual intercourse with a stranger for money, food, water, or shelter” (Covenant House). This shows only a small amount of what is terribly wrong with teenage homelessness. Teens should not have to have sex in order for them to get the food they need to survive. Just think that there are nine year olds out there forced into prostitution because they could not find the healthy help or home they needed. Sadly, this is the reality and something has to be done in order for it to be stopped.

           While this may seem important to some, others tend to ignore because they think that others will take care of it. Even some of the parents were the ones to kick out their kids from their house for belonging in the LGBT community. Between 20-40 percent of runaway teens identify as LGBT (Homeless and Runaway Youth). There are some teenagers who decide to run away themselves because they are being abused or they did it to help out the family by helping them feed one less mouth in the house. Teenagers need all the help they can get.

          People need to help out the homeless teens community. With school field trips to shelters instead of aquariums or zoos, the help will increase towards them. Information also needs to be shared with people in order for them to know what some people have to go through everyday. Everyone has a right to a good education and living style. Hopefully next time you see a homeless person you think of the suffering they have to take every single day: worrying about food, shelter, water, and money. Of course, you having money and a roof over your head is not that worried and doesn’t consider the living situations of others, but next time just think. Since I hate Donald Trump who hopefully isn’t the one reading this letter, I’m going to tell you, since I hate you this is a chance to prove yourself by saving the homeless teens in the world.

Sincerely,

Karen Casillas

                                                                       Works Cited

"Covenant House." Helping Homeless Children & Youth. Covenant House, 07 Sept. 2016. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.

"Homeless and Runaway Youth." National Conference of State Legislatures. NCSL, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Reiner, Ali. "Homelessness Awareness Week." Digital Commons. Andrews University, 1 June 2016. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.