Living in a big city, homelessness is not something that is new to me. On top of that, my aunt, who is an editor the Chicago Reader, has done a lot of work for the homeless, specifically the homeless youth of Chicago. I even got to attend a LGBTQ youth homeless summit a few summers ago and hear about the issues facing this population. My aunt was a part of a project in which architects from all over tried to design tiny homes that would then be built to house homeless youth. Still, with all this, there is still so much that I am ignorant to in terms of homelessness, and poverty too, and this class is already opening my eyes more.

The issue of homelessness reminds me of a lot of other social issues in the sense that the responsibility is often passed off to the next person, and because of deflection of responsibility, the issue rages on, when it doesn’t need to be like that. It’s often said that it would be cheaper to house the homeless then to keep them on the streets, but yet, their still on the streets. It sounds like a good idea to house these people, but when it comes time to vote on a tiny housing community to come to your space, it doesn’t sound so good to most people. And so the problem continues.

In terms of the book, Nickel and Dimed, I was skeptical at first. Here was a upper middle class white woman, attempting to understand “what it’s like” to be poor. However, as she acknowledged her privilege, my skepticism left and I instead saw it for what it was. I would be interested however, to compare her writing to that of someone who is truly poor, and writes about it. I’m excited for this class, because although I may see homeless people on the street, am I actually SEEING them? I don’t think so. And almost everyone deserves to be seen.