For this weeks reading we read Reeve Vanneman’s online summary of Christopher Jencks’, The Homeless. Many aspects of the summary stuck out to me, specifically chapter 7 titled, Social Skills and Family Ties. It brought up the notion that those who live alone and have little to no ties to a family are at a higher risk of homelessness. This interested me because recently we have been talking about the hopelessness of homelessness. Regardless of the reasoning behind why one becomes homeless there is this crippling hopelessness attached to it that seems to span across each experience that we have read about. To me, this aspect of homelessness is the part that seems to be the most damaging. Wether it be through the stories of the homeless mothers, teens, addicts, etc., each person described this inevitable emotional aspect of homelessness. This emotional frame of the homeless experience is what essentially acted as the “human” and “relatable” aspect of homelessness for me. The idea of being hopeless when you have nothing really is what in my opinion, makes homeless seem so all encompassing. I do think that if you don’t have a family or someone to at the very least share that burden with, the hopelessness of homelessness can become never ending in a way that permits and perpetuates its existence in a persons life.  I was also interested in the notion posed in chapter ten that suggests that homeless shelters do not necessarily help issues of homelessness and could perhaps be sustaining it. I have never personally lived in a shelter and I know the risks and potential issues that can come with living in them solely through the perspectives and experiences that we have read about. Yet, I cannot really believe that providing a means of shelter for people could be damaging. I feel like to suggest that homeless shelters perpetuate homelessness is in a way implies that one believes that homelessness is not an issue of circumstance, but of choice. While the article also acknowledges the idea of intentional homelessness, I do not believe that the reasons behind choosing to leave a home or family necessarily means that those people were given a choice. I also would argue that homeless shelters are by no means, “nice”. The reality is, is that you still don’t have a space where you are entitled to your own time, privacy, expressions, etc. You are living in cramped conditions with people who you do not necessarily know, and are being forced to abide by rules that permit little to no spontaneity, fun, pleasure, etc. To suggest that homeless shelters are providing with people who chose to be homeless with a “nice” alternative form of living is in my opinion pretty ignorant.  I also simply cannot get behind this notion that Americans seem to be so obsessed with that is essentially “There is a person out in the world getting something for free that I am not getting for free and that is wrong”.

On a personal note, I had an experience this weekend that made me really think about what my life would have been like if I was homeless. I very recently burned my leg. It is a third degree burn that covers about a third of my calf.  I remember debating whether or not I wanted to go to urgent care. Just being able to have the option to go and wait in a room for an unspecified amount of time with people who were both seriously injured or sick, or to just wait until Monday morning when I could go see a doctor on my campus and be given the proper care and instruction that I needed to get better was a privilege that I would not have had if I were homeless. I was also work on campus and have a pleasant and understanding relationship with my bosses and was able to go directly to them and talk about what had happened and be comfortable and capable of missing work for a few days until I could get it checked out. I didn’t have to worry about how missing a couple days of work was going to effect the way I was able to eat or effect my quality of life. I was able to take the time to let my body recuperate and heal without the stress of strain of having to worry about all of the ways that it could affect my life. Overall I am hoping that perhaps in class we can talk about times in our lives where being homeless could have really effected our physical wellbeing. While I am aware of the many ways in which homeless does constantly affect a persons physical wellbeing, it was interesting to really be confronted with an issue that had I not been financially stable or had medical attention provided to me in the way that it was, my quality of life could have been drastically altered by something as simple as a burn.