Shelter: a dwelling place considered as a refuge from the elements; the shelter supplies basic need food, clothes, and shelter (by law all shelters must provide this to be considered a shelter)

Homelessness is a lack of a regular adequate home or residence.

On this page we will explain to you the reasons people are below the poverty line and why people are driven to become homeless. There are resaons you might not even know about.

 

shelter picture

 

The number of homeless people in America is hard to estimate because you may count people twice or not count them at all.

One estimation is that between 2.3 and 3.5 million people experience homelessness and or below the poverty line.

Homelessness can lead to many other severe problems, such as hunger and disease. Healthcare for Americans has been very expensive, and many cannot afford it. Public education is inexpensive, yet many children are unable to keep up with the school material, so they receive bad grades and drop out of school. Without a high school diploma, obtaining a high-paying job is nearly impossible. Without a job to pay for a house, one has to live in the streets. Communicable diseases are easily transferred in a place that is unsanitary. For this reason, many homeless people get diseased and cannot afford to pay for healthcare, so they can die just from a cold.

Housing in America has become very expensive. About two-thirds of Americans own homes, but these people end up sacrificing other things to pay their rent. These other things can be things such as food, water, electricity, and many other necessities. Some people find it impossible to maintain rent costs as well as other bills on their low salary. If someone makes minimum wage, or $7.25/hour, and works for 40 hours a week for about 45 weeks, this person only makes $13, 050 a year, which is barely enough for rent, bills, and other necessities. This causes many people to become poor, and lose their expensive homes.

 

 

bikes for the porverty stricken

 

bikes for shelter

 

Cost of Housing

by Shilpa Saxena and Katie Schenk

A major issue of homelessness is the cost of houses. Housing in America has become very expensive. About two-thirds of Americans own homes, but these people end up sacrificing other necessities to pay their rent. These can be things such as food, water, electricity, and other things. But more often than not, people sacrifice their homes for these other necessities. This is because many people find it impossible to maintain rent costs as well as other bills on their salary. If one's salary is only minimum wage, or $7.25/hour, and he or she works a 40-hour workweek for about 45 weeks of the year, that person can only makes about $13,050 a year, which isn't enough for rent, bills, and other necessities. This causes many people to lose their homes, and descend into poverty and homelessness.

Another reason people become homeless is because of economic depression. In our current economic climate, many adults have lost their jobs because of budget cuts. Job openings are minimal, so those who are unemployed have difficulties finding jobs after being fired. The jobs these people do obtain are usually minimum wage, which doesn’t provide a sufficient salary to support families. Most of these people have lost their homes because of their unemployment and the high cost of homes. The current economic state, unemployment, and expensive homes in America have caused the high homeless rate.

 

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Picke Emelmentary School:

Pickle is an elementary school in North East Austin. The group that you see was helping give away free bikes to the kids at this school. "It was a nice to see the smiles on the kids faces", quotes Wyatt.

 

The shelter group that went to pickle probably had many good experiences. They gave away many bikes and made many kids smile. " I was suprised to see how the kids faces transformed. A simple bike can make a kid so happy." quotes Rory

 

 

Habitat for Humanity

by Shilpa Saxena and Katie Schenk

    Habitat for Humanity is an organization in Austin, Texas, which deals with creating, maintaining, and promoting affordable home-ownership. Their goal is to “eliminate poverty housing through the power of home-ownership” (Austin Habitat for Humanity). This agency deals with not only helping prevent homelessness, but also working on creating a better environment for the future of America. They do this by not only creating inexpensive housing, but by building eco-friendly houses for their participants.

To help people in poverty, this organization builds low-cost, simply-built homes for many people in poverty. They are attempting to prevent homelessness by providing those who are homeless with the organization’s services. Home-ownership solves many problems for the homeless, and leaves money for them to use for other things. It also gives homeless people a sense of dignity and belonging in a community, which can help prevent later drug abuse, alcohol addiction, or a suicidal perspective on life. When people have something that belongs to them and that they can maintain, it gives them something to live for. Children or spouses are thought as to provide this help, but houses can do this as well. Habitat for Humanity is located at 310 Comal St, Austin, Texas.

 

Rory can ride

 

The second group went to Brown elementary, they helped hand out gifts to multiple children. There was four gifts for every child.

 

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This is the main corridor to Brown Elementary. This is what you first see. You can obviously see that poverty has struck this school.

 

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This little girl was very happy to gift her gifts "I love presents" she quotes. She was very excited over the few gifts that she recived. It should make you feel very blessed when you look under the tree and there are at least ten to twenty gifts just for you.

 

Then there was light

We had to give at least fifty-two gifts away even though we did not hand them all out we handed out a lot and we saw a lot of smiles. The famlies and children were surprisingly calm when they had to wait in line. The kids said thank you politely and smiled then walked away. " These kids had to grow up fast because, their parents had to work mutliple jobs and take care of many children" quotes Sofia.

Amy's

We hope that we blessed a lot of kids and that they have a good Christmas. We appreciate your time for reading this webpage. We hope you go and take the things that we have told you and help others in need.

We have truly had a lot of fun particapating in D-term.

 

Reflection of Volunteering

By Katie Schenk and Shilpa Saxena

    Getting the chance to volunteer is very rewarding because when you get to help people who are less fortunate than you, you have the opportunity to give back what other people have given you. Volunteering for us was was very special because we got the chance to help little kids. Each time we gave a gift to a kid, a big smile would appear across their face and that was really good to see. Even though they are less fortunate, with the community helping they can be just as happy as other people that aren’t in their situation. There were moments when there weren’t gifts for anyone, but they would just come back the next day. We thought there would be crying because their sibling would get one and he or she didn’t, but the kids were very mature and it didn’t bother them. That really showed us that we have to be appreciative of what we have and grateful for the opportunities that we have because other people don’t have the same opportunities. It also showed me that when we don’t get something that we want, we have to think, “Do I want this, or do I need it?” For most of us, it’s that we want something, we don’t need it. These kids don’t ask for a lot of things, because they know they are in a tough situation. They are mature and they get what they need, not just what they want. A lot of these kids also are very independent because either they have a mom or a dad that is watching their other kids, or he or she works a lot. These kids are used to doing things on their own, and it really shows us that if these kids, who don’t even have the necessities to survive, can be this independent, then we can take care of ourselves too. We can’t always rely on someone to do things for us, we have to take care of ourselves just like these less fortunate kids. When we first went to the school, we thought we would be role models for these children, but they actually became a good example for us. Volunteering was a heart-warming experience, and if you get an opportunity like we did, you should really take advantage of every second of it.