Looking for recent news articles relating to homelessness, I stumbled upon one published by Diane Turbyfill in the Gaston Gazette online site entitled “Is Something Bringing Down our Downtown?”. The article focused on Gaston North Carolina where a reported increase in homeless population has been negatively impacting dining and entertainment areas by decreasing business according to the business owners. Being fed up with this, one owner reportedly created t-shirts saying “Throw the bums out, Gastonia, N.C.”, creating a media frenzy around this business. The article went on to say that while some people have formed an increasingly negative view towards the homeless as a result of this, the majority of the population in this area expressed embarrassment by the actions of this business.

Because in this city the shelters that are available to homeless populations are nearby the busy downtown area, the homeless have no other option but to walk by this part of town when going from one shelter to the other. While the people in this city have an awareness that there exists a homeless population, they don’t want these individuals to be visible in areas of high traffic business because of the simple fact that the homeless make the rest of the population uncomfortable.

In the article, the author mentioned an interview with Capt. Mark Hunter with the Salvation Army of Gastonia who described the homeless population by stating “That’s why they’re on the street. They don’t like structure. Those people are always going to remain homeless”. I found this to be extremely shocking due to the fact that this man works with the homeless population for a living. It is clear that he sees them as those who have placed themselves on the outskirts of society purposely by not adhering to social rules. In this way, he is making generalizations towards the entire homeless population when in reality the cause of homelessness cannot be summed up in this way because there are endless amounts of reasons for ending up on the street. However, his statement further illustrates the ways in which homelessness has been socially constructed to be thought of as an individual issue and not a larger structural issue.

While Hunter shows a point of view suggesting that the homeless are responsible for thier situation, when speaking about the apparent increase of homelessness in the area he stated “Ignoring it is the worst thing we can do. There’s a problem, and we just need to come together.” I think thta this is the correct way of looking at tackling the issue of homelessness that should be encouraged in this town and everywhere. The problem with this is that members of society are so far removed from the homeless population. Just like these business owners who wanted something done about the increase of homeless in front of their businesses, people generally want to pretend homelessness does not exist by keeping themselves far removed from it. Out of sight, out of mind.