Homelessness: A Teen's Struggle
“Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.” by Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose. Which means that in a way, people take things for granted sometimes, such as our homes. Homelessness has been a big issue for us, but we just mainly choose to ignore it because we may never notice it.
Many people are forced to go without a home for one reason or another, whether they ran away from home, weren’t able to pay enough, or were abandoned, but here’s a story about just one person. Elle, a 14 year-old girl who had just recently run away from from home and arrived in King’s cross Australia. She got the attention of a drug dealer who decided to take advantage of her, and since she was in his debt, she had to do whatever he said. She was eventually tied into prostitution. The other homeless people around the area saw this and decided to try to gain enough money to pay off her debt for her. They used many different methods, whether they got it from stealing or drug money, or money made for prostituting, they eventually got enough to pay off her debt. When Elle was finally free, they told her “take the chance you have been given and never come back”. Elle, she was lucky, other people like her have not been so lucky to be bailed out like that, and they’ve had to go through more. See, those people were not able to go to the police or ask charities for money because they would be no help because they wouldn’t think much of it, so they had to use other methods to help her. Her story is just one of many others out there that, with help from you, can be changed.
The Road Home Dane County is an organization that is trying to stop homelessness. It is located on 128 E. Olin Ave, Suite 202 Madison, WI. It was originally started in 1999 by mainly pastors of churches and other volunteers and celebrated their 15th year anniversary in 2014. It first opened for families who could not go to existing shelters and gave them a place to call home. These days they serve children and familie who do not have homes of their own. They offer affordable housing, meals, and activities. To get involved, people can volunteer in many different ways, one of which is to help out families directly by helping with activities or preparing a meal. One can also donate or help out in their office as well. People can even just spread the word about this organization to others.
Though we may not be able to stop homelessness entirely, that does not mean people cannot try to prevent it and give homes to a few more people than before.
Works Cited
Porchlight http://porchlightinc.org/
the road home organization http://www.trhome.org/
Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Youth http://www.wahrs.org/
Elle’s story http://www.homeless.org.au/people/elle.htm