As we are in the middle of Summer, homeless school children and their families have the added pressures of rolling heat, humidity, and storm activity; especially in Florida. Unfortunately, our “Sunshine State” at this time also endures its hurricane season.
Hurricane season makes shelter solutions extremely difficult for the homeless student and their family. Makeshift shelters put together by homeless persons are often destroyed by heavy tropical force storms, forcing the homeless to try and repair the damage constantly and relocate more frequently. That stressful experience of never feeling settled takes its toll on everyone involved. Hurricane season robs the homeless not only of shelter spaces but also of time and opportunity to improve current and future living conditions. There’s less time to look for work, to study, socialize and rise out of poverty.
One of the most significant problems homeless folks have to deal with during these times is public perception. People are busy with their summer vacations, sports activities, camps, playground time, arts and crafts, civic activity, and wherever their interests are. As a result, their problems are a bit different. Often, the focus is on trying to tear their children away from video games and getting kids to eat what’s in front of them rather than trying to get something to eat in front of them, which is an ongoing homelessness problem.
Support of public education becomes essential during summers as many schools offer programs and continued education that primarily benefits students that have fallen behind during the school year. In addition, homeless students benefit if they can find a way to get to school, because the school supplies food.
It’s important to remind those that speak against public education of how valuable it is in the life of the homeless student. Public schools bring so much more than a classroom experience for children and are often the last line of defense for homeless children. Unfortunately, however, narrow-minded people will continue to complain and seek to eliminate public assistance to the detriment of our nation’s most vulnerable population.
If people would take a few minutes to try and understand the problem of homelessness and become angry at the condition instead of those suffering from impoverished conditions, then perhaps our discussions might reshape into something substantial instead of blame, anger, and hatred of the poor. The two million homeless kids in our country aren’t villains. But, if you take a handful of examples of bad illegal behaviors and cast it upon the entire homeless population, you have offered nothing toward a solution, and you’ve just made the problem even worse with your determination, attitude, and absence of compassion and mercy.
The problem is that to become a better society, it takes actual effort to improve our soulful stance in the face of homelessness. It’s easy to blame persons for their condition and take the moral high road and compare our status to those without, inevitably turning our backs on the life settings of others. We too often become blind to our level of unwillingness toward any level of commitment toward embracing charitable efforts and opt-out with excuses like “what can I do,” “It’s not my fault,” “If they weren’t so lazy,” or “It’s not my problem.” These are the mindsets that throw fuel on the fire of homelessness and many other crisis areas of society.
If we could look upon the condition of poverty and homelessness the way Jesus looked upon the poor and suffering, then we would grow as soulful caring persons, and we would begin to bring changes for the better in our communities. Jesus looked upon those suffering with pity and responded. And while the solution will take many different forms of action, it’s action that is required. So I want to encourage you just to select any action that helps. The best way to do this is to support the current actions that are helping today. Join our cause at the Clean Kids Backpack Program. We are by no means the first backpack program supporting homeless students. We just chose to attempt to fulfill a need not readily thought of: personal care and hygiene. We’ve been at it since 2006 and pray and hope if you aren’t part of a solution yet, that you would bring consideration toward assisting our efforts. More importantly, that you choose to act in any decent matter that supports the less fortunate. May God bless your efforts, and may they glorify the Lord through the relief you bring. In His name, Amen. Rev. Mark J. Niznik
