The right wing stereotype that we are hearing a lot of lately is that the homeless are lazy bums that don't want to work.
Most people never associate with the homeless. Sometimes you might give a few coins to the guy on the street corner. I was like that anyway.
But the Occupy movement changed that. I found out that a lot of the homeless are very bright articulate people.
In the past when jobs were plentiful and the safety net was intact, many of the homeless had various problems that kept them from getting and holding on to jobs. People with drug or alcohol abuse or mental problems.
But now times are tough and anyone can be just a paycheck away from homelessness. There are a lot of families out there who just have a few too many tough breaks. There are a lot of vets. There are a lot of people who got laid off and they are too old to start a different career. 50 million people are without health care. 65% of bankruptcies are the result of medical problems. Many of those are people who thought they had insurance but the insurance companies dropped them after they got sick.
Leo Garvey had a job as a cab driver and his wife Olga worked as a nurse until she was in a car accident and couldn't work. They couldn't keep up the payments on their house and was evicted on New Years Eve. Their two daughters and son continued to go to school although the family was living in a homeless shelter.
I love happy Endings! Samantha Garvey one of their daughters has been honored in a science competition and the family has been given low income housing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13...The moral of this story is that the homeless all have a story. Some of them have fallen and need some help getting back up. Some are decent people you would be proud to know but they just fell through the cracks. They are all deserving of our respect and compassion and should be treated with dignity not with scorn.
I am delighted that one family has been helped out. There are another fifteen million that have been on the streets much longer that also need help. Will austerity programs and tax cuts help them?