Over the past few weeks we’ve been talking more and more about the harsh realities of life on the streets and what it really looks like to be a homeless person in today’s society. We’ve read books and seen movies and collected data about how hard it is to live even on minimum wage, and how it seems like at times there is no way out for those living below the poverty line. Our in class discussions have been centered around what we’ve witnessed at our internship sites and our own personal stories of economic pressure. And it all feels very hopeless. There seems to be a disturbing lack of focus on what we can really do to help these people. I want to start figuring out ways to change these realities and begin to focus on what we can do within our societies to make a change.

Reading my assigned book “Sidewalk” by Mitchell Duneier was an eye opener, to say the least, and it provided me with a whole new perspective on those who sell goods on the streets. While I was reading the book I couldn’t help but think of how just simply having a job to do, a task to complete, and a sense of independence positively affected the men who were interviewed. This got me thinking: we should be focusing on how to improve these peoples lives, not just analyzing the factors and events that got them there. Understanding their situations is an incredibly important aspect of improving homelessness, but we cannot simply leave it there. There needs to be follow through, and helping others achieve some sort of economic independence could be the deciding factor between hope and hopelessness for someone.