A few days ago, I was going out to eat with my roommate at chipotle and as we were walking in the doors, we passed by a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk in corner outside the restaurant. He did not disturb us at all and we proceeded to walk in to order our dinner. When we were standing in line, my roommate told me she wanted to buy that homeless man a burrito bowl because she felt bad that he was sitting outside a restaurant with nothing to eat. So, she bought him a burrito bowl, and as we were leaving she walked up to him and offered him the food. But to her surprise he actually rejected her, saying that he already had food and that he wanted money instead. It became pretty obvious to us that he was intoxicated in some way. My roommate was taken aback by this and preceded to leave the food next to him and walked away. Back in the car, she made a very interesting comment to me. She said “that is the reason why no one wants to help them. All they want is money for drugs”

On our drive back to school I thought a lot about what she had said. It got me thinking again about society’s perception of the homeless. How they are portrayed as drunks and druggies. From being in this class, we know that the majority of the homeless are neither drunks nor druggies. But the rest of the world’s knowledge about the homeless comes from their 2 or 3 second interactions with them on the streets. So when they run into a drunken man or one who appears to be strung out on drugs, they then assume that all homeless people are one in the same. One bad experience can deter people from desiring to help. This is the problem! One drunk man does not define the whole of the homeless population. Just like one white person does not define all of American or one NBA player does not define the whole national basketball league. We cannot confine ourselves to these constricted views of our world, but especially of the homeless. It is stereotyped views like these that hinder the rest of the homeless from being trusted to hold a job or receive assistance. It hinders them essentially from being able to be apart of society because no one wants to hire a drunk or a druggie.