Helping Those Who Can't Help Themselves

I start this posting with a disclaimer- I do not have a degree in any of the social sciences, I have a very limited understanding of what causes people to be homeless and the past solutions that have been applied to resolve this tragic issue, be they successful or not.

However, in my last posting, "Parks are Good, Right?" I touched upon the issue of homelessness as the homeless sometimes utilize parks as resting areas. It is a sad fact that homelessness is not limited to big cities. In my small town in the central valley in California we have several homeless people, some of whom live in the park near my house. I think one of them lives, or at least was resting in the bush behind the fence that sections off a neighboring sub-division, or at least I thought I heard a bush talking as I was rushing off to work one morning. Could have been my ipod.

In any case, homelessness is an issue that remains an ugly and stubborn stain on the fabric of American life.

However, I came across an innovative solution in the Livable City: Revitalizing Urban Communities by Partners for Livable Communities, where in Washington D.C. a Business Improvement District (B.I.D.) opened a "daytime drop-in center in a local church where the homeless can eat, shower, wash clothes, and meet representatives of various government and nonprofit agencies offering job training and detoxification programs." (the Livable City, 166)

This is an excellent idea and hopefully will be adopted by other cities. It's one thing to say that all the homeless need to do is clean up and find a job, it's another thing to help them accomplish such a task.

Also, a surprisingly touching and revealing take on this issue is in Mel Brooks lesser-known movie, Life Stinks! I won't go into the details, but suffice to say Mr. Brooks gives an honest and sympathetic, but never patronizing look at what life is like to be homeless, albeit, through the eyes of Hollywood.