Homelessness and hunger is a debilitating and a misunderstood epidemic in America. Homelessness is often negatively associated with unfit people, the mentally ill, and drug addicts. As for hunger, since it is not physically evident in some cases, individuals don’t see the hardships that families, especially ones who are not eligible for government aid, face in struggling to make ends meet. The homeless population in America includes veterans (8% of the homeless population), youth groups without adults under the age of 24, the LGBTQ youth, domestically abused victims and the list goes on (“2016’s Shocking Homelessness Statistics,” 2016). All these individuals have likely had certain experiences in their lifetime that did not provide them with the opportunity to progress and avoid the crisis of homelessness and hunger.
Hunger, and especially homelessness carries a very negative perception in the eyes of others. Researchers are trying to find effective ways to address this issue and change the perspective of these individuals. One study (Knecht & Martinez, 2009) focused on giving participants a chance to talk to and work with the homeless population and measure whether their perception of them had changed. The participants took a test before and after the PHC (Project Homeless Connect) event to measure their opinion on the homeless population. Thus, “the perception index shows that 56% of respondents experienced a positive net change in their evaluation of the homeless after volunteering with PHC, compared to 26% who felt more negative toward the homeless and 18% whose perceptions were unchanged.” This study helped improve the general population’s view of the homeless and allowed them to see the homeless people for the individuals they are, rather than being defined by a trope or stereotype.
However, in addition to learning why these individuals ended up on the streets to begin with, there needs to be a focus on how to solve the root problems such as how PHC does by finding homes and jobs for the homeless. We as a community need to be aware of why these individuals suffer from homelessness and help them find available housing and jobs, and not solely rely on shelters. For example, if you gave someone who has a debilitating sickness a pill to stop the symptoms but never to cure the actual disease, then the problem would still continue to grow. Thus, giving the homeless opportunities to grow but never a home to feel safe and comfortable in they will still be homeless.
With homelessness, comes hunger as well. However, those who receive government aid for food stamps are in low income families not the homeless. The government has given those in low income families programs like food stamps (SNAP) to fight this issue of hunger and money, Even so the rate grows and decreases every couple a year’s depending on the economy and who’s in office as stated by Max Kutner in the Newsweek (2017). Kutner states that there is no stability with SNAP and the more restrictions they have the less people can be a part of it which only harms the families who are unemployed and in dire need of it. Some individuals want to cut down SNAP benefits because their belief is that (SNAP) does not help the individuals to pursue work because they have government assistance. If we want to end hunger and truly assist families then SNAP should not be changing just to save the government spending or for other selfish reasons and if the population was really concerned for those individuals then they would need to help them find jobs and have affordable child care, and other resources available. Being aware of these short comings with hunger and homelessness can start to give us an understanding of what is going on and what we can do to help.