HOMELESSNESS HAPPENS
We can try to ignore it, turn our heads, or deny it will ever happen to us. It could, just like anything else. We try to prevent illness, and we try to prevent poverty, but it can happen and happen without warning. Poverty and homelessness are not a choice; it happens due to some options that are made but can also happen by otherfor circumstances beyond your control. Judgment of those that find themselves homeless, living on the streets or in a shelter, is harsh. We stereotype the homeless as older men with unshaven, dirty clothes and a paper bag with booze. We see the shopping cart full of odd belonging and cardboard boxes. We turn our heads when we see the signs that read "Hungry, please give," or the paper cup stuck out from the curb. For all that is visible, there are thousands of untold stories that we do not see, both genders and ages. Homelessness happens whether we want it to; it just happens, and no one opts into it. For families living a paycheck away from the