A Roof Please...

By Kerwin De Matas

Homelessness, socially displaced, transience etc. These are some of the names used to describe people that doesn't have an address to go to, or in other words, they don't live anywhere. It is sad, to see countless persons on the streets, dirty, hungry, simply, displaced...

An Indigenous Man In New Zealand

What causes this problem? There are a lot of reasons why people are on the streets, starting with simply not having enough to pay the home or apartment. It is really frightening that one day you have your own address, and because of economic problems, no matter what you do, the ends are just not meeting...You get two jobs, plus little side jobs, but the damage is already done, The payment just cannot be made. Maybe you might have a sympathetic landlord/lady to understand your plight, but if your dealings are with the bank, and you don't have an insurance for unemployment to help pay the debts, then forget it, look for another address!!

Homelessness Does Not Discriminate

What causes such distress? I don't think I am the one to give the answer, but I'll try anyway. Cost of living in an environment, where everything is so expensive and salaries too low to back up the costs. A person with a low salary, and in most cases not knowing how to budget their finances, causes such a build up of credit with the banks or department stores making it impossible to respect the payments that were due. Maybe this is asking too much, but I think to discontinue this trend, employers should help their employees with programs on how to manage their finances, not telling them how to spend their money, but just showing the basics on budgeting their finances.

Feeding Programs For The Homeless

Other causes for homelessness are, drugs, mental illness, pregnant women being thrown out of their homes by family members, poverty, escaping whatever abuse in the home, kids left abandoned by parents doing jail time, or simply left, never to return. What about war in certain countries, losing everything that was owned, or family that was loved. Famine, in some countries are so severe, that the area would just be unlivable, the home would be impossible to sell, and in the end, everything would just have to be left behind, whether in the care of someone, or alone, to migrate in search of better livelihood.

Natural Disasters

Of course, there are people who are really lazy, they don't want to work, and just prefer to live on the streets, an easy way out? The worst I guess, would be natural disasters. First of all, most insurance agencies don't cover natural disasters, so imagine in the case of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes etc, if personal funding cannot be found, then everything has to be done from scratch, most people don't have the capacity to do that.

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Looking for refuge at a family's home might be an alternative, if no other can be had. If not, then the search for a roof has begun, where ever that might be... So there you have it, in my little opinion, this situation can happen to anyone of us, one day we can be under a roof, the next day, no..... Whenever we see homeless people in the street, just think of these situations that put them there in the first place. My aim is not to scare anyone, but just to be aware of the ' WHY ', there is always a ' WHY ' in every situation. Have a good day.