The Author's Corner: North Ender

Picture yourself with no money and unsure where your next meal is going to come from. You are living on the streets as your life has taken a complete 180. Months before, you had a high paying job, a nice car, a house in the good part of the city and you had a wife and children. Life was good.

Suddenly you lost your job because the company you worked for was sold and the new owners downsized and so your job was lost. On returning home you told your wife and then is when you found out the truth about your life. A month passes without any new job and your wife leaves you with the children and then the legal battle starts. You lose everything that you have and none of your family wants to help you which is why you end up on the streets. Picture it because it happens all the time.

Most people see the homeless as a problem and think that they are all drug addicts and such. What is unseen is the story of how they ended up on the streets. As the story I just gave you was a story that I was told by a homeless man in Halifax. He never asked me for money or even a meal, all he just offered what his story to a listening ear.

Ray, the homeless man, told me his story and he might have told everyone that story however that does not matter. Not all of the homeless are bad people, it is just that their stories are different as it happens to be. I use to see Ray twice a day as I walked to work every day.

There is also a lot of mentally ill people who are homeless as there are fewer programs to help them to pay for a place to live or for medication. There is also those who do not have the support from families and friends. What little money that the government has to help, to receive the money you must have an address. There is also the fact that it is almost impossible to get the help because of all the red tape. I know that from my own experience of dealing with the government because of my own needs.

The fact that there are homeless army vets who nee a place to live once they leave the army. A good number of the homeless vets suffer from PTSD. They give their lives to the service of their country and receive nothing when their duty is done.

In everything that has happened in your life, remember if you have a roof over you head, food to eat and such that there are people who do not. If you are reading this in the comfort of your own home, realize what you have is a dream for those who live on the streets. If you are interested in helping, there are many groups that help the homeless.

So, for the next time you are going through a hard time remember that you could have it worse where you end up on the street. Before you judge the homeless, walk a mile in their shoes.

Stay safe.