Homeless

While looking through many articles I came upon an article on Aljazeera that made me think upon my life. Here i am working to support a large family while going to school to better myself and to be able to provide better for my family, by getting a higher paying job after I graduate with my diploma. I feel stretched to my limit in finances and time. Then I read this article about the homeless. 

When you here the word homeless you think of a person living under a bridge with a shopping cart and a cardboard box for a roof over their head. The article I read was about a mother and two young daughters living out of their Mazda minivan. Paula, the mother and her daughters Alice and Emily have been living out of their van for the last four years. They are three out of 214,000 “unsheltered” homeless people in america. In most cities in America it is illegal to sleep in a vehicle on public property and roads. Over the lsat ten years Santa Barbara, California has a “Safe Parking” program that help some of these homeless with vehicles. In this program you have to apply for a permit for the “Safe Parking” program. During this application Workers and volunteers help you by seeing if you need any medical assistance, looking for a job, filling out job applications and finding housing placement.  This program combined with other programs have helped over 800 people per year to get back into traditional housing and off the streets. With this program, the homeless can park their vehicles in certain parking lots though out the city. The police instead of handing out tickets or arresting homeless due to breaking the city laws, stop by these specified parking lots and do a sweep around them to make sure everything is ok has eased the tensions between the law and those who are less fortunate. 

I find this article to be cogent. It states a believable premise that there are homeless out there. Give us relevant information about the homeless and the hard ships of staying in accordance with the law. Valid reasoning that with the “Safe Parking” program it has helped many get off the streets and back into traditional housing and has eased the tensions between the law enforcements and themselves. 

We all want to better ourselves. That is one of the many reasons of those of us going to school, and that is to better our selves and get a good job. I feel grateful for what I have, for the comfortable home that I come home to each night that provides safety and comfort for the ones I love.  We all go through hardships in our lives. I am grateful that I haven't had to go through this kind of a hardship and my heart goes out to those that are in this predicament.