Home Is What You Make It?

On my way to the gym everyday I pass by this corner mini-mart of sorts. On the weekends, in the mornings you can find 4-5 people sitting towards the back of the building, under a tree, smoking cigs. Sometimes there's an older woman with them, napping in the sunshine, in a wheelchair. I'm going to go ahead and assume they are homeless, however, I could be wrong.
Every day that I see them, I ask myself the same questions: Why are they there? How did they get to be there? What of their families? Don't they have children that wonder where they are? Where do they go when it rains? How do they get their money for cigarettes and food? What do they do all day long?


Were they laid off from their job, which resulted in them losing their homes? If so, did they not have any friends or family to help them over the rough patch? Why couldn't they get another job? Maybe they were released from a long prison term and had nothing to come back to? Are they vets, unable to rid themselves of war demons that still haunt them?


Still, where's t heir family? They have to have SOMEBODY !?!? Don't they? Do they have a place to live, or was I looking at it? Are they able to collect any type of social security, disability, etc? Probably need a mailing address for that. And as dirty as they appeared, if that were the case, one would think they would maybe shower? And what of that woman? How can I even begin to imagine what her story could be? Someone's mother?


Were these individuals, at one time, functioning members of and contributing to, society? Only to become victims of the same?

I just don't get it. Why are these people on our streets? We don't want to see them, look at them, we shun them. Yet no one seems to want to do anything to help improve their situation.


Or, maybe they don't want anyone's help? Maybe, at this point, they are unable to function in society?


Curious as I am to their situation, I also have to wonder if maybe some of them actually LIKE where they're at? Of course, I could never fathom that kind of life for myself. But here are these 5 individuals. All in the same boat, stuck with each other. They are each other's family. Maybe that's all they need.


And what of the children that are already homeless, living on the street. Pushed out by the very people who are responsible to them? What is to become of them?


I am sometimes dumbfounded by how our society treats our fellow citizens. Don't get me wrong, some people deserve what they get. But I just find it hard to believe that there is absolutely NO ONE in these people's lives willing to make their final days on earth a bit more comfortable, loving or respectful.