One-third: Homeless: When empathy is action

ONE-THIRD: HOMELESS WHEN EMPATHY IS ACTION When you see unhoused people on the street do you judge? You can be honest, it's betwwn you and me. I think we all do, at least to some extent; even if we have to catch ourselves. Do you think they're lazy? Perhaps they have a chemical dependency? Or they just like it out there and it's a choice. These are narrow perspectives of the reality of why people live (survive) on the streets. More specifically, one-third of unhoused women are in that state as a result of domestic violence (ACLU, 2004. “Domestic violence and homelessness", www.aclu.org.) Sometimes there are only two options: 1. remain in a violent household where beatings and abuse are all but assured -—- and possibly even death -- or 2. leave ... with nowhere to go. (If they don't leave then onlookers tend to ask that ridiculously short-sighted and inappropriate question: "Why don't they just leave?") Domestic violence is most often about control. The person abusing controls the money; strong arming the person being abused to hand over his or her check, preventing the abused from opening their own bank account or otherwise being an obstacle to their independence. All too often onlookers over symplify the very messy and complicated — circumstances surrounding homelessness. But these situations are often layered with children involved, and, or drugs, and, or mental illness, among a host of other factors that onlookers often neglect to consider. So on behalf of the unhoused, I would ask for compassion, not judgement, and an offer of help might just turn their life completely around. Whatever you do when you run across an unhoused person, exercise some empathy, Unfortunately, we have waaay too many unhoused people, and a desperate shortage of empathy.