After reading At Home on the Street, by Jason Wasserman and Jeffery Clair, I was shocked and impressed by the measures they took within their experience with the homeless. In this book, authors tell the story of their journey and methodologies they used. They lived among the homeless on the streets and were able to form relationships with them. One leading question was why did they choose to live on the streets and not in a shelter. They chose the streets because they were able to choose where they slept and were able to get the full effect of what it truly is like to be homeless living on the streets.
I found this to be commendable of Wasserman and Clair and believe they took the right approach in their research. In addition, they were able to build relationships/friendships with fellow people on the streets and hear their stories. Also, they felt that living on the streets was safer than living in shelters which I thought was unexpected. May people think that sleeping in the shelter is the safer option but in reality there are a lot problems with crime and violence within shelters making it an unsafe environment. In addition, you may not get to choose were you sleep in the shelter, unlike the streets. In the book, it was explained that people who were living on the streets did have a home, it just did not seem like a home to outsiders. Many had a constant resting spot that they would go to every night and that was their home. I found his to be very powerful and eye-opening.
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I also found it very interesting that homeless choose to live on the streets rather than the shelters. This really shows that the shelters could be reconstructed.