Kaya Lacey
Mrs. Elemen
Avid
13 January 2015
Habitat For Humanity Imagine making it through a hard day of work and you don’t have a house to come home to, this is sadly the life for people all over the earth. The up rise of global poverty has forced over 827.6 million in the world to live in an urban slum (Habitat For Humanity ). Of all these people, about 48.5 million are in the U.S. alone (Habitat For Humanity ). Everyone deserves to go home to a place that is comfortable and safe for those living there and this is why Habitat For Humanity builds houses for those in need. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that was founded on the conviction that everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to live. (Habitat For Humanity ). There are over 1400 centers around the U.S. that build houses for those in need, and since 1976, have built around 800,000 homes in America and over 4 million worldwide (Habitat For Humanity ). This program runs on its volunteer work and its donations. Volunteers donate their time and effort into helping build homes that will be sold to families in need, and with over 3.5 million homeless (National Coalation For the Homeless), their work is never finished. Many people wonder why homelessness is such a big deal. It is an epidemic because it affects 13.2% of the nation (National Student Campaign Against Homelessness and Hunger). In most cases it is not the fault of the person that they are homeless. There are multiple reasons why a person can go homeless. In most cases it is brought upon a social or economic factor. The realities of the numbers are that these are real people who are trying to survive and they have problems of their own besides the fact that they are homeless. 35% of the homeless population is a group or a family with children (National Coalation For the Homeless). Can you imagine being a child with no place to live? It is hard to support a family and the economic stress created by one can cause homelessness. Another alarming fact is that 25% of the homeless populations are U.S. Military veterans (National Student Campaign Against Homelessness and Hunger). These people have put their life on the line for our nations safety and our nation cant even keep them safe. Life creates a lot of inequalities, and one of them being the fact that mental illness is a prominent condition for many people in the U.S., about 26.2 million Americans suffer from a condition that qualifies as a mental illness to be exact. (The Kim Foundation). This translates to 25% of the homeless community being mentally ill/unstable. (National Student Campaign Against Homelessness and Hunger). The fact is, homelessness has no specific target, it affects every race; religion; and age. Stable housing is more than just a roof over your head, it’s provides a sense of dignity for those who reside within. Some people may argue that there are other causes that you should donate your time and effort to, but combatting homelessness is key to the nations economic