Why are so many people homeless these days?

Some are homeless because they are drug addicts and don't know how, or don't want to get themselves out of the vicious cycle of drug abuse, while others are homeless because it's their choice. Some are homeless because they are alcoholics and were unable to hold down a job, resulting in them losing everything, including their families. And there are thousands upon thousands of teens and young adults who are homeless because they ran away from home to escape physical and sexual abuse, with no place to run to but the streets. But the majority of homeless people didn't chose to live this way.Many of our homeless are vets who, after returning from combat zones, suffer from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). This can be a debilitating illness, which leaves them unable to hold down a job, resulting in those who defended our country with no home. And the amount paid in disability isn't nearly enough to support a family.
There are actually entire families who are homeless - a lot of them. These are families who became homeless when the parents were unable to pay the mortgage or rent, usually due to illness or losing their jobs. They have no place else to go, so they end up on the streets, in homeless shelters, or in "tent cities". Millions of families in America are literally just one paycheck away from being homeless. Those who live from paycheck to paycheck, with barely enough to pay the bills and buy food, aren't able to save money for emergencies. And if the landlord raises the rent, even by a small amount, they can no longer afford to stay and are eventually evicted. And since they already had no money saved, they have no way of moving into another home, and end up homeless.

Tent cities are relatively large areas of other homeless families who live in tents or 'lean to' shelters. They have no running water, no bathroom facilities, nor electricity. They have to prepare what little food they have on camp fires, and get by the best they can. Sometimes the parents are able to find work for a few days, or even a few weeks, but it takes so much money to be able to pay to move in to an apartment (utility deposits, first and last months rent, damage deposits, etc.) that they just can't manage to find enough work to save up that kind of money. And even if they could find work, the job market is such that the jobs don't pay enough, or often are not long lasting enough to sustain the expenses of moving into an apartment or a house.

This means in the winter they have very little heat, usually the camp fire is their only source of heat. And those can be hard to keep burning because fire wood is not that easy to get in these areas. As miserable and difficult as it is on adults, it's even harder on children because they just can't tolerate the cold as well. So many of them become sicker, and sick more often, in cold weather. They often go hungry, and the food they do have often lacks many of the nutrients needed.

Frequently, the children also have to drop out of school since it's difficult to manage to get to and from school since the buses don't transport kids from these areas, and the parents have no car to transport the kids to and from school. So this tends to perpetuate the cycle of homelessness. For children who grow up homeless and with no education, it makes it much, much more difficult for them to be able to make a better way of life when they grow up.

So the next time you pass by a homeless person, think of them as a real person, someone with a family who is just down on their luck due to no fault of their own. And have some compassion for them; if you have a few dollars to spare, it could mean the difference between them going to bed hungry or fed. And it's OK to have compassion for those who are homeless because they are drug addicts, as well, because they are people, too.