According to the article “I was Homeless” by Alessandra Potenza in Upfront Magazine, in the United States alone there are about 2 million homeless children from kindergarten to 12th grade. Many are hungry and struggling for life all by themselves. Some kids are kicked out of their house because they come out as gay and others have “run away from poverty, abuse, violence or alcohol or drug problems.” Once these children are kicked out of their initial houses, they are often too embarrassed or scared to get help. This is a major issue in the United States because young children shouldn’t have to deal with starving, freezing and keeping themselves alive in harsh conditions without a guardian. Although many children hide their situation, it is police and government duty to help homeless youth as much as they can and try to make this issue disappear as a whole.
To start with, it is the governments job to provide bedding for the homeless youth. Many children are too young to live and survive on their own. According to this article, “There are only 4,000 shelter beds for unaccompanied homeless youth across the U.S.” I find this unacceptable. If there is only 4,000 beds available and 2 million people in need of beds, it is obvious that the government can do better. This has to do with morality. Picture a kindergartener living all alone in a park starving and unable to get food or a nice place to rest. This is both dangerous and inhumane. Five year olds cannot take care of themselves and the government should spend the money to add bedding for these children. This would be money well spent because these homeless children are the United State’s future just as much as I am. They deserve more than being starving and freezing all the time. Children need beds and warmth. If the government is going to make them find their own food, they can go for it, but making them sleep in a place that is dangerous or unsafe is terrible. The least the government could do is to add more youth bedding all around the U.S. so that at least more people will have the capability of sleeping in a bed.
Additionally, the police and government have to be aware of the issues that these children face and that they aren’t “bad”. Children that are homeless often deal with things that many people haven't experienced. The article says, “their lives are very complicated, they’re full of trauma.” These kids deal with, “malnutrition,abuse, addiction, and depression. Every day, they have the incredible stress of finding food and shelter for the night.” I know that a lot of people think that homeless kids are homeless because they are bad or they deserve or it was their choice because they ran away, but that is completely inaccurate. These children are often victims of bad situations and cruelty. Something that the government and police could do to help these children, is to simply understand, be kind and generous to them. It is despicable for a police officer to be cruel to a child who already has many stresses and difficulties in their everyday life.
Although in 2010 the Obama administration created a plan to end homelessness within youth by 2020 by donating 5 billion dollars, just having the money to be able to help this issue decrease will not end youth homelessness as a whole. Just having the money to do this doesn’t mean that they know how to. According to the article, many homeless youth are, “hiding their situation from others.” The government doesn’t realize that many people won't say that they are homeless. They won’t get help and youth homelessness will not end without real support and kindness from the government.
In conclusion, there are very many homeless youth in the United States and some of them are barely 6 years old. They deal with more things than I can imagine and their lives are very difficult. They struggle everyday to stay alive. This issue has been mentioned and talked about, but the government has made no progress whatsoever with demolishing youth homelessness all together. The government is trying to help and they are not trying to be sympathetic and that is the only thing that will help. These children need sympathy and understanding from the government to be able to come out of their shell, but the government is doing the opposite and they will continue to get nowhere in trying to get rid of homelessness within youth.
No comments:
Post a Comment