California has been facing a lot of issues regarding homelessness. If you are going to visit California, bear in mind that you might bump into a homeless person on the very street that you walk. If you think that Hollywood is safe from that, think again. There are even homeless people along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But worry not, most of them are just insane but mean no harm.
A lot of people think that homeless people are dangerous and will hurt you in one way or another. Now I’m not saying you should not be cautious because there are some dangerous ones but most of them are just hungry, thirsty and might be under the influence of drugs. It’s not entirely their fault but at the same time, drug abuse might’ve caused them to be homeless in the first place. Aside from that, a lot of these people have been on the streets for quite some time now so it’s understandable if some of them have lost basic common sense or common decency. These are people who have lost hope as well as lost their dreams too. So to make California a better place for everyone to live, we should all band together to fix issues with homelessness.
Build More Homeless Shelters
One of the issues that have kept California as one of the states in the US with the highest homelessness rates, is the presence of homeless shelters or lack thereof. Yes, they may have a lot of rehabilitation centres but a lot of those cost a lot of money. The thing about homeless people is that they don’t have any money. It’s pretty obvious that they’re out on the streets because they have no money. Rather, they’d spend what they have on drugs. This can all be slowly fixed with the establishment of at least a few more homeless shelters. They could make a lot of space in one building by strategizing how they arrange the living quarters. For instance, in Malaysia, they sometimes use glass partition wall Malaysia to create a division between people living there and so that it wouldn’t take up that much space. They can also hire an operable glasswall specialist to organize the space better while still providing privacy for each of the people staying there. This may take a while to carry out but the outcome will certainly be rewarding. With fewer people on the streets, California would certainly be a better place to visit.
Provide Counselling/Support Groups For Homeless People
Once there are enough homeless shelters, we could create support groups that may help homeless people get back on their feet. As mentioned before, these people have been on the streets for a pretty long while. So, they most probably have lost basic common sense or common decency. A police officer making rounds through a predominantly homeless area in California said that he’d saw a man bite a pigeons head clean right off. These people just need a little nudge back into society so that they can learn to live on their own and leave the shelters to make room for more people. What better way to do that than to just provide support groups where groups of people can get back on their feet together instead of on their own. Bear in mind that these people might be addicts or might have trauma from living on the streets so that’s why they’d need a little help with transitioning.
Access To Healthcare
Alongside building more shelters and building support groups, we could also provide healthcare to these people. Especially since we’re in a pandemic, the homeless are the most exposed to the virus than any of us. This might not just affect them but it may also affect everyone in close contact, causing more outbreaks. We need to be considerate of the fact that these people have no money at all. Plus, helping them might improve society as well. Also, since these people have been on the streets for most of their lives, who knows what they could carry. Giving them access to proper healthcare will bring us forward as a society.
General Prevention
One of the important ways we can fix the homelessness issues and keep them fixed is actually preventing it from happening in the first place. Thus, this means reducing the risk of housing crises. The problem with that is, in California, it is rare to find a safe and affordable place to live. Instead, we should try to create an area that is suitable for people who are experiencing financial crises so that they are still able to live off the streets and live their lives while being somewhat financially stable.
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At the end of the day, we need to remember that, in most cases, homeless people aren’t homeless by choice. They need help and they won’t receive that until we take action to help those in need of it. Helping them will help society in the long run and California will be a better place.
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