This week in class we spent our time on group presentations listening to what books our peers had read in relation to homelessness. The book that stood out to me the most was “Homeless Mothers: Face to Face with Women and Poverty.” They started off the presentation with a video of a family with 6 children living in a hotel. They were living in a hotel because they were kicked out of the home they were renting due to the landlord not paying the mortgage and just taking their money. This is just another example of how no one plans on being homeless, but sometimes life takes a dramatic turn for the worst – especially when crooks are involved like this landlord. They then went on to discuss the different mothers in the story and the hardships they were facing. Most of them had/were in abusive relationships (usually multiple) and quite a few had multiple children. It was sad to listen to these women’ stories because I felt as though they were all trying to escape, but kept ending up back into an unhealthy cycle of abuse and drugs. I am glad that they were all able to find the author, Deborah Connolly, a social worker for help, but it makes me think of the women who are not as fortunate to have someone. I hope that they one day do find the person who will help them out of this cycle though. One final thought, there was one thing that really grasped my attention at the end of the presentation and that was when one of the mother’s said she just wants to hear her child laugh again. That broke my heart to hear that this mother isn’t asking for money or anything, but simply for her child’s laughter because a child’s happiness is the purest thing I think.