To Be or Not To Be: The Things Most Crucial to Equanimity

Reflection #5: Homelessness The content in the various articles that we were exposed to prior to the visit to Moore Place built a solid foundation which clearly explained how the classical visualization of homelessness is changing. Overall, these mixed media sources showed the average homeless person today differs vastly from the stereotypical street vagrant that many people still see as the face of homelessness. After the visit to Moore Place, the realization that homelessness is a huge factor even in the underbelly of prosperous cities like Charlotte, really set in. What stood out most to me was how normal the homeless could be. The idea that they are someone you pass on the street on a daily basis or interact with at work makes you think that they’re doing fine, or that they don’t need any extra support, but in reality, it could be the exact opposite. The housing-first model that Moore Place exemplifies is definitely a new way of thinking about homelessness, but I think that it fits the new form that homelessness has taken on. Homelessness is no longer represented by a majority of people who lost they way or fell on hard times do to circumstances they could control. It now is the face of anyone on the street who may still work, or support a family, or been evicted from their grounds, or even struggle to get clean, but it isn’t just the bitter and beaten making up the homeless population now. I think the Moore Place idea of housing first provides the stability of a foundation that creates a basis for improvement that the more conventional methods set aside for other factors. The method that Moore Place uses is one that I feel is ideal to the new face of homelessness because it focuses on the largest factor of uncertainty facing someone who is homeless. I think homelessness needs to be addressed first and foremost at any level, because even now, it is mostly pushed aside, or assuages only the symptoms. Whether at a university level or a personal level or a societal level, homelessness needs to be recognized as something that not everyone has control over, and spend less time making it harder for these people to get the services that they need. The fact that people are homeless in America is a basic failing of the country as a whole. It shows that the system has failed to serve the people even if the people have failed the system. The rights and responsibilities of citizens of this realm are compromised when the people are homeless because they cannot focus or function in the long run. They are trapped with only partial resources and the lack of support that the negative stigma on their current conditions creates.