Sunday Snapshot: When There's No Home Sweet Home
I found out this week that a girl I went to school with from first grade through high school is homeless in Carlsbad where we grew up. My Mom learned this sad fact from another old childhood friend's Mom who volunteers at a homeless shelter where the girl goes regularly for meals. This girl comes from a good Catholic family, her Dad was a prominent doctor, she was well-liked, smart, good at sports. I remember a pool party at her big, modern house at the end of 8th grade was the social event of the year. How did she end up homeless? I started theorizing that she must have a mental illness and self-medicated with alcohol and drugs. I was trying to construct a story that would make sense out of something so sad and seemingly senseless.
There are 554,000 people without homes in the United States according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Last year was the first time that number increased in 7 years, alluding to a disturbing trend. 25% of those people who don't have a warm, safe place to go at the end of the day are in California. Living in San Francisco, where the homeless population is estimated at 7,500 people, I see suffering every day.
Thinking about all these people without a home reminds me of all the refugees who may have temporary shelter in a camp, but they are without a country to go home to. UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, estimates that there are 65.6M forcibly displaced people in the world. 22.5M of those people are refugees, and children make up half that number. When I was volunteering in Ritsona Refugee Camp in Greece last summer, I heard first hand from Syrian residents that their homes, their cities, their country has been destroyed. They are beyond homeless - they are stateless.
It's an overwhelming and completely out of control situation that's so big it's hard to imagine a resolution, but I'll continue to hope and pray for peace and safety for all people, especially my old friend who's on the streets of her hometown without a home.