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.
I think that is a good point that it was good for the homeless people that they were able to make friends with animals and other homeless people in order to create a family of their own. It is essential for us as humans to have loved ones that we consider family. I too would have guessed that most homeless people didn't keep in touch with their families so it surprised me as well that some did but still remained homeless. It is a good assumption that perhaps they are too independent to accept help from their family.
ReplyDeleteI have never really thought about the families of the homeless. Whenever I see somebody that appears to be living on the street, I always wonder about why they are there, but I never think about why nobody in their family has helped them. I think that the fact that not every family has enough money to support their offspring is a really good point, and something that I'd never even considered until you brought it up in your blog. I think there are probably a lot of other reasons a person might end up living without a home. Maybe their family didn't want to support them or they didn't want support. Maybe they ran away or were diagnosed with a mental disorder that caused them to leave or be sent away. Maybe their family is deceased.
ReplyDeleteYou have a really cool topic, and documenting the stories of the homeless was a great idea.