My first thoughts when I think of Arcata is a nice, homely town with lots of small businesses that help the multitudes of college students all over. But besides the fact that there is a college nearby, one thinks of Arcata as very isolated and certainly not the kind of place many homeless people would choose to stay. That’s because I usually imagine homeless people wanting to live in big cities and forced into the poorest areas of those cities. However despite this, Arcata is still full of homeless people. One can hardly walk into the plaza without passing at least one group of homeless people, and even if someone did manage that they would certainly find many homeless people in the plaza itself. In my experience when people ask questions about homeless people they often wonder what their past background was. For example, did they got an education and if they did was it not enough or did they make a mistake and end up homeless, or is there some sort of mental disease that made them have no choice but to be homeless. However no one, including me until now, ever seems to wonder about their families. It is my intension to learn about the homeless people’s family life, for example did they just loose touch, or are they still together and supporting each other. If they lost touch with their families what happened that made them loose touch, and if they still are in touch with their family why are they homeless and not with their family. What was their family life like before they became homeless, and how has it changed sense they started living on the streets.

The specific cross-cultural group that I will be studying is the life of the homeless and in what ways that it may differ from our life. More specifically, my ideas for how I’m going to accomplish this is to find several groups of homeless and just get to know them. On top of getting to know them and building trust, I will try and focus on weather or not the homeless stay in touch with their families, and if not what happened, and how whatever has happened has effected them personally. I will also try and find out if they do not have a family if they have other relationships with people or even animals that they consider their family. In addition to the homeless, I think I will try and find a homeless shelter and ask them what they have observed, if most homeless people come to the shelter in groups or alone, and if they do come in groups if it looks as though any come with their families or if it is only their friends. Hopefully these questions will give me a better understanding of a homeless person’s family life and how that effects them in general

After going through Arcata in order to survey homeless people about their family, it became very clear to me that most homeless people do not want to talk about their family life, or really take a survey in general. The very first man I talked to was very friendly, and yet as soon as I even mentioned a survey he immediately wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. However I was able to find two homeless people willing to be surveyed, both of whom would prefer to remain nameless, who both had very different experiences with their family life. The first man I talked too actually still kept in touch with his mother every now and again, and was quite close with his sister. However they were forced to grow up without even knowing their father, and he says at this point he‘d rather not have his father be a part of his life. Although this man was still fairly close with his family, he still ended up homeless because financially his family couldn’t afford to have him stay. His mother simply couldn’t afford the things he’d need and they can‘t handle living under the same roof anyway. His sister is in a small apartment with her family, so there wasn’t enough space for him. Despite not being able to live with them, he says that he is still grateful for having his family to support him when he really needs it. He also says that he considers friends that he has met since becoming homeless to be family at this point, and they all support each other.

The other man I interviewed had very different experiences with his family. He lived with his mother and father, but they got in many arguments, largely due to his drug use, though he believes there were many other factors that led to their difficult relationship. Because of all this, his parents finally kicked him out when he was only 19, and he hasn’t talked to them since for the past 12 years. He says that he really misses his parents, but doesn’t dare try and reach them because he is afraid of their reaction. He is not as close with as many people, but he says he considers his dog family to him. I found that most people long for family ties, and usually became homeless because something got in the way of those ties. However even in homelessness they try and keep in touch if they can, and develop new relationships with people that they consider to be their families.

After the survey, I was very happy to know that my expectation was right and even after becoming homeless weather people stay in touch with their family or not they seem to generally have some people or animal that they can rely on and who they consider friends. I feel that this aspect would be necessary to survive any time on the streets, because I believe it would be almost impossible to last in conditions that would likely feel lonely and where one needs to struggle to get through the day. Without people or even animals to support you, it would be unlikely that anyone would get through the days like that. That is why I’m not surprised at all that the people who have spent a long time on the streets and are still going would have some sort of companion

I was, however, surprised at first that some people still keep in touch with their family even after becoming homeless. This is because it would be my first expectation, coming from a well off family, that if a person was in danger of becoming homeless and they still had good relations with his family that their family would have the ability to pull them out of it. However it did not surprise me after awhile of thinking, because not everyone’s family has the resources to feed so many mouths, especially when they are grown mouths and take up more food and room. On top of this, people who are independent enough may reject any help because they might consider it to be charity from their parents who feel they have no choice but to help, weather or not they can afford it. So now I am not too surprised that some homeless people do have their families support, even if they don’t have the means to help as much as they may wish too.

After this I am very impressed at how these homeless people have managed to not only survive going through what I’m sure is a very tough situation. And not only surviving, but also being able to create friends and stay in touch with family, and continue to be supported and support others in situations where it’s hard to even support yourself.

After the survey, I was very happy to know that my expectation was right and even after becoming homeless weather people stay in touch with their family or not they seem to generally have some people or animal that they can rely on and who they consider friends. I feel that this aspect would be necessary to survive any time on the streets, because I believe it would be almost impossible to last in conditions that would likely feel lonely and where one needs to struggle to get through the day. Without people or even animals to support you, it would be unlikely that anyone would get through the days like that. That is why I’m not surprised at all that the people who have spent a long time on the streets and are still going would have some sort of companion

I was, however, surprised at first that some people still keep in touch with their family even after becoming homeless. This is because it would be my first expectation, coming from a well off family, that if a person was in danger of becoming homeless and they still had good relations with his family that their family would have the ability to pull them out of it. However it did not surprise me after awhile of thinking, because not everyone’s family has the resources to feed so many mouths, especially when they are grown mouths and take up more food and room. On top of this, people who are independent enough may reject any help because they might consider it to be charity from their parents who feel they have no choice but to help, weather or not they can afford it. So now I am not too surprised that some homeless people do have their families support, even if they don’t have the means to help as much as they may wish too.

After this I am very impressed at how these homeless people have managed to not only survive going through what I’m sure is a very tough situation. And not only surviving, but also being able to create friends and stay in touch with family, and continue to be supported and support others in situations where I’m sure it’s hard to worry about others.

After going through Arcata in order to survey homeless people about their family, it became very clear to me that most homeless people do not want to talk about their family life, or really take a survey in general. The very first man I talked to was very friendly, and yet as soon as I even mentioned a survey he immediately wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. However I was able to find two homeless people willing to be surveyed, both of whom would prefer to remain nameless, who both had very different experiences with their family life. The first man I talked too actually still kept in touch with his mother every now and again, and was quite close with his sister. However they were forced to grow up without even knowing their father, and he says at this point he‘d rather not have his father be a part of his life. Although this man was still fairly close with his family, he still ended up homeless because financially his family couldn’t afford to have him stay. His mother simply couldn’t afford the things he’d need and they can‘t handle living under the same roof anyway. His sister is in a small apartment with her family, so there wasn’t enough space for him. Despite not being able to live with them, he says that he is still grateful for having his family to support him when he really needs it. He also says that he considers friends that he has met since becoming homeless to be family at this point, and they all support each other. The other man I interviewed has very different experiences with his family. He lived with his mother and father, but they got in many arguments, largely due to his drug use, though he believes there were many other factors that led to their difficult relationship. Because of all this, his parents finally kicked him out when he was only 19, and he hasn’t talked to them since for the past 12 years. He says that he really misses his parents, but doesn’t dare try and reach them because he is afraid of their reaction. He is not as close with as many people, but he says he considers his dog family to him. I found that most people long for family ties, and usually became homeless because something got in the way of those ties. However even in homelessness they try and keep in touch if they can, and develop new relationships with people that they consider to be their families.

The specific cross-cultural group that I will be studying is the life of the homeless and in what ways that it may differ from our life. More specifically, my ideas for how I’m going to accomplish this is to find several groups of homeless and just get to know them. On top of getting to know them and building trust, I will try and focus on weather or not the homeless stay in touch with their families, and if not what happened, and how whatever has happened has effected them personally. I will also try and find out if they do not have a family if they have other relationships with people or even animals that they consider their family. In addition to the homeless, I think I will try and find a homeless shelter and ask them what they have observed, if most homeless people come to the shelter in groups or alone, and if they do come in groups if it looks as though any come with their families or if it is only their friends. Hopefully these questions will give me a better understanding of a homeless person’s family life and how that effects them in general.

My first thoughts when I think of Arcata is a nice, homely town with lots of small businesses that help the multitudes of college students all over. But besides the fact that there is a college nearby, one thinks of Arcata as very isolated and certainly not the kind of place many homeless people would choose to stay, considering one thinks of homeless as generally preferring to reside in the big cities. However despite this, Arcata is still full of homeless people. One can hardly walk into the plaza without passing at least one group of homeless people, and even if someone did manage that they would certainly find many homeless people in the plaza itself. In my experience when people ask questions about homeless people they often wonder what their past background was, if they got an education and if they did was it not enough or did they make a mistake and end up homeless. However no one ever seems to wonder about their families. It is my intension to learn about the homeless people’s family, for example did they just loose touch, or are they still together and supporting each other. Who they are and what they are like.