Right Down the Street

(Google Images)

In my last post, I stated that an alternative solution as to how we can provide a gift to someone else and show them the true meaning of the Christmas season is to show them the poor living all around us in surrounding areas of New Jersey and New York City. According to Eileen Quigley, author of the article, "The Homeless: How Can the Complex Problems of the Homeless Be Overcome?" which I found on the CQ Researcher Online Database, states how the image of the poor has changed over time. She explains how people originally viewed a homeless person as a "white, middle-aged alcoholic," and now, many of the homeless consist of minority families with young children (Quigley). Although many people express their thoughts as to how people should be educated how homelessness should be prevented entirely, this is at many times very difficult or even impossible to do because we may never understand the circumstances as to why a family might become poor or homeless. Eileen Quigley explains how many providers are working to create facilities that will help to change the lives of families who are in need. These facilities will not only provide housing and food for poor families, but it will also provide motivation and resources to help them to start making an income to allow them to eventually buy their own house and provide for the rest of their family. 

(homelessshelterdirectory.org)

After reading Eileen Quigley's article about the poor and the homeless, I was inspired to see how many homeless shelters and food banks there are in the area, in case some readers would like to know some specific places as to where they could take their loved ones to show them the Christmas Spirit. After some research, I was taken to the website http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org. This website allows you to search any area in your selected state, and it will provide you with a list of homeless shelters, food banks, and soup kitchens in your surrounding area. I typed in the town Caldwell, New Jersey, which we all know and love, to see how many homeless shelters there are close to us. If we think about Caldwell, it is a nice, small town where we rarely see homeless people. The same goes for surrounding towns such as Verona and Roseland. But the Homeless Shelter Directory gave me the names of different homeless shelters in the towns of Hazlet, Elizabeth, Sussex, Paterson, Newark, and even Morristown. These areas are about twenty minutes away from Caldwell, but we would never truly think that there are areas that close to us with Homeless Shelters, many of which are filled with today's economy. 
It is so easy to use the excuse, "Well, I'm not homeless, and I don't see or know anyone homeless around me, so why should I help?" To many people's surprise, it is so easy to become homeless, such as if a person suddenly loses their job and cannot obtain another one. Also, there are many homeless people around us! They might not be there right when we walk down the street, but if we take a couple of minute drive to a homeless shelter, we can see how many in our local areas need help. If you want to visit and help at a local homeless shelter, feel free to type in the name of your town at the link above. During that nice, long, winter break we have, don't forget to help some of the people in your area :)