Christopher Martinez
Professor Reyes
English 105
Homeless in America
Often when we walk down the streets or go to a local food
restaurant we see a homeless person asking for money. Most of the times past
experiences cloud the judgement we have towards those who are homeless, so that people thinking they only want
money for drugs and alcohol. Other homeless people are not homeless by choice
or because they chose to throw their life away in substances, but in most cases
the sad truth is people do not care because homeless people have this dark
cloud of stereotypes over their heads and does not seem it will be going away
anytime soon.
-consider spending some time discussing what negative stereotypes or representations of the homeless are before you get into examples of how that impacted you. I say this because your 1st paragraph jumps into your personal example but as a reader I have no real background on the specific stereotype you are talking about -homeless as addicts and/or alcoholics. Yes, this is now "common" because it is a stereotype, but where does it come from? How is it created? How do these negative stereotypes continue to persist in our society? these are the questions you want to ask as well. These two paragraph circle around stereotypes and I think they can discuss the issue a bit more in detail. Consider how the media portrays our homeless as one example.
Through personal experiences I have had bad ones (bad what?) when helping the homeless. For example, exiting a restaurant a man stood there with his ripped pants, torn shoes, torn shirt, and hair that looks like hurricane Katrina stuck. The man from a far seemed very helpless until he approached me with the smell of cigarettes and alcohol asking for money. I pay no attention to him, but I wanted to think that it might just his clothes that smelled, but I was wrong. I turned my back on him and found the sympathy to give the man money as I turned he had a bottle of alcohol in his hand. The man lived up to what was supposed to be expected and that is the society we live in today where every homeless man/woman is looked down upon the “upper classmen”-what do you mean here? needs more explanation. Although the stereotypes for the most does live up to its name not all homeless people are the same. ---
According to an article by Gale Holland and Soumya
Karlamangala the homeless population has increased by 12% in the past two years
in Los Angeles and county. “It’s everywhere now; the encampments are in
residential neighborhoods, they’re outside of schools,” said L.A City
Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents Venice. Homelessness has become a big
problem in our society and has escalated to point where it shouldn’t have. - here you have background on LA/California specifically. I think this would do well near the introduction of your article.
However, sometimes it is the own fault of the people of never taking the initiative to contribute to the poor besides sparing the change in the pockets just so whoever is asking for money can go away. When was the last time you went out of your way to contribute to the homeless giving them your nickels and quarters? --this could be its own section developing the idea of whose responsibility it is to help solve this issue.
- I can actually see this as your article introduction. Consider that here you moved from LA to the nation however the prompt asks you to focus on California. So what may be a better use of this paragraph is to start broad (nationwide) and then move to California to narrow your topic and then get into the stereotypes, etc. In Addition, not only Los Angeles has this problem, but it is a nationwide problem that has been pushed into an abyss that will be very difficult to overcome these adversities. In an article “Ten Facts about Being Homeless in U.S.A” Bill Quigley points out some outstanding facts. “On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the US according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.” This one quote says a lot about the homeless population in America and it may be increasing instead of decreasing. These people are not just man and women it is children, veterans, and people who can afford rent. Everyone who is a by standard that sees homeless people has this cloud of judgement and stereotypes over their heads. Another example expressed by Bill Quigley, “A 2014 survey of 187 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness and poverty found: 24% make it a city-wide crime to beg in public; 33% make it illegal to stand around or loiter anyplace in the city; 18% make it crime to sleep anywhere in public; 43% make it illegal to sleep in your car; and 53% make it illegal to sit or lay down in particular public places. The number of cities criminalizing is steadily increasing.” These facts indeed prove to an extent that homelessness is not just a small city problem it is a nationwide problem that everyone needs open their eyes to. Although it may seem that instead of helping the homeless we’re creating a worse environment, there are companies and organizations that do contribute to this cause.
However, sometimes it is the own fault of the people of never taking the initiative to contribute to the poor besides sparing the change in the pockets just so whoever is asking for money can go away. When was the last time you went out of your way to contribute to the homeless giving them your nickels and quarters? --this could be its own section developing the idea of whose responsibility it is to help solve this issue.
- I can actually see this as your article introduction. Consider that here you moved from LA to the nation however the prompt asks you to focus on California. So what may be a better use of this paragraph is to start broad (nationwide) and then move to California to narrow your topic and then get into the stereotypes, etc. In Addition, not only Los Angeles has this problem, but it is a nationwide problem that has been pushed into an abyss that will be very difficult to overcome these adversities. In an article “Ten Facts about Being Homeless in U.S.A” Bill Quigley points out some outstanding facts. “On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the US according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.” This one quote says a lot about the homeless population in America and it may be increasing instead of decreasing. These people are not just man and women it is children, veterans, and people who can afford rent. Everyone who is a by standard that sees homeless people has this cloud of judgement and stereotypes over their heads. Another example expressed by Bill Quigley, “A 2014 survey of 187 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness and poverty found: 24% make it a city-wide crime to beg in public; 33% make it illegal to stand around or loiter anyplace in the city; 18% make it crime to sleep anywhere in public; 43% make it illegal to sleep in your car; and 53% make it illegal to sit or lay down in particular public places. The number of cities criminalizing is steadily increasing.” These facts indeed prove to an extent that homelessness is not just a small city problem it is a nationwide problem that everyone needs open their eyes to. Although it may seem that instead of helping the homeless we’re creating a worse environment, there are companies and organizations that do contribute to this cause.
The first step in solving a problem is
realizing that there is a problem and we as a society is yet to fully
comprehend what really goes beyond a person being homeless. The stereotypes
that have lingered for years have become a part of our everyday life to ignore
and assume that people that are on the streets have thrown their life away in
substances. Time to open the black gate prisons and free the oppressed where
women, men, children and veterans have languished underneath society.
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