It's Thanksgiving weekend, and pretty soon, it will be Christmas as well. A lot of homes will once again be filled with reuniting families, memories and laughter. But for some who do not have a home, where will they spend their holidays?
If you still have your family or friends around a table, laid out with sumptuous food, then you are one lucky person, and indeed, you must be thankful for that. Each person deserves to have a place that can keep them safe and warm, a place that they can call their home.
As one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the US has a story to tell about people without homes. Statistics reveal a sad fact - more than half a million Americans sleep on the streets or spend their holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas in homeless shelters. Most of these Americans are poor children.
That is why in 2010, the Obama administration introduced the first federal strategic plan to address homelessness known as Opening Doors. This was in the pursuit of not only reducing homelessness but to put an end to it.
Recently last week, based on the annual homeless estimates that the HUD has announced, a reduction of homelessness was found among veterans and families. As the record shows, the entire population of homeless people is down to 11 per cent and 36 per cent among veterans since the year 2010. And it was during the same year, where nearly half of all unsheltered veterans have already been stably housed. Cities of all sizes including the whole community of Commonwealth of Virginia, have already announced an effective way to end this social concern is to focus at one community at a time.
According to experts, if people can keep the lessons that they have learned from achieving this progress, veteran homelessness can actually be reduced and be applied for a family's homelessness. This goal aims to continue its downward trend until the very end.
Furthermore, authorities at UHD claims that they are doing this because for them, every person does matter and worthy of an investment in their future. The organization also believes that every person deserves to have the opportunity to live with dignity.
Lastly, the team from UHD also aims to persuade individuals, together with them, to affirm their commitment to put an end to homelessness most especially that it's the holiday season, a time for gratitude for everything that we have.
