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Edit of Drug and Alcohol Abuse: How it connects to homelesness

Page history last edited by April Sopczak 13 years, 6 months ago

Ehle,

 

I did a little reorganization of your paper to help give it better flow. I have done no editing for grammar, word usage, spelling or punctuation yet, but I will look at it more closely tomorrow. In the meantime, take a look at the order I put your paragraphs in and see how it works for you.

 

April

 

    

    My first night exploring downtown St Petersburg, Florida, I noticed a lot of what appeared to be homeless people hanging out in the parks and on the sidewalks.  The downtown area consists of beautiful beaches, million dollar homes, and homeless people. My concern about homeless people is that still many people remain on the street and it doesn't seem that much is being done to resolve this problem.  Homelessness is an issue that has faced St. Petersburg for over a decade now. "Street sleeping isn’t a new problem in St. Petersburg. The sidewalks in front of City Hall have long been a magnet for the homeless"(Craig). Homeless people all have different reasons for why they became homeless. Some reasons homelessness keeps increasing is because people lose their jobs, have mental illnesses, are abandoned, become addicted to  drugs and alcohol, have little education, or have lost their homes due to natural disasters, such as flooding .

 

     Homelessness is defined as a person who does not have a night time residence (Winchester). Some homeless people could have a mental illness, have abused drugs, or lost their family. However, some people on the streets lost their job or got laid off during tough economic times. Often, homeless people do not care to get a job and have no hope in themselves. (This sentence needs clarity and context.) In some cases, kids are born into homeless families. “Donald is among hundreds of children in Pinellas County who are defined, by federal law, as homeless. That definition includes any child who has no regular nighttime residence. It includes those who live in shelters, motels and doubled-up arrangements with friends or relatives” (Winchester). The people on the streets have different reasons for their economic condition. In Donald’s situation, his parents were unable to support him and he grew up homeless. Many homeless problems go untouched; it has been 5 years now since Hurricane Katrina and still, thousands of people are on the streets. President Obama has pledged to rebuild New Orleans, but has not started.  Action is needed now, "An unofficial examination of this January's count indicated that Pinellas County has roughly 7,000 homeless people — about the same as last year 2009" (Nohigren). People say they don't ignore the homeless and are trying every day to look for solutions to help them, yet the population only seems to stay the same or increase. It is sad to see people that are neglected and have nowhere to go. 

 

     Homeless people overcrowd downtown, which takes away from the beauty of this area. Lately in different areas around the United States, homeless people have been injured or killed for different reasons. Excuses of teenagers and people who harm the homeless is that homeless are degrading public areas. (Rewrite this sentence.) It (What does this "it" refer to?) is to the point where I cannot walk on a public sidewalk in downtown St. Petersburg because it (This "it" is unclear as well.) has turned into the bed for many homeless people. Homeless people have nowhere to go, and a solution is needed to fix this. Areas such as playgrounds and public parks were created for children and are now filled with homeless people. In 2008, 27 homeless people were reported to be killed (killed where?) and it that number increased in 2009 to 43. Money (whose money?) is being spent towards other issues such as girls affording prom and animal shelters, yet homelessness people, at times, can be ignored. "As man's inhumanity toward man spirals out of control, however, its concern for animals seems to be improving — at least in Virginia. This year Virginia Beach allocated $11 million for a new animal shelter and just $4 million for a new homeless shelter for people" (Blanton). Homeless people are targeted for the crime of being “homeless” such as this man (which man? Not clear enough written this way.) who lives in Virginia and was sleeping under a bridge when he got lit on fire by people he couldn’t see. This is a reoccurring problem and a solution needs to be implemented to help homeless people.  (This paragraph jumps back and forth between local and non-local without smooth transitions. Try to rework this paragraph.)

     

     If there isn't a solution, or enough funding to help people, then they end up homeless on the streets. (Rework this sentence.) "Rolle (Who's Rolle? He needs context to be directly quoted like this.) thinks public perception of the homeless in this city is wrong. The indigent population is not all lazy or alcoholic. Though some do, not all the homeless rob and steal. Not all panhandlers are liars. At the end of the day, Rolle insists, he never met a homeless person who wanted to be on the streets" (Perez). It seems that we have created a world where we just do not care about each other. Many people look past the homeless whom struggle every day to eat food and find a comfortable place to sleep. Imagine if your family had to live out of a car or on the street and deal with the hardships that the homeless are put through. 

 

     I feel that people who become addicted to drugs and alcohol are ignored and this is one of the reasons why people end up on the streets. When teenagers start doing drugs and drinking alcohol at a young age, it is more likely they will become dependent (More likely than what? Clarify.). I have had personal experience in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse.  My sister was a high school dropout, and at the age of sixteen she ran away from home with an older man she had met. This older guy had multiple drug issues that he involved my sister in. A year later this man dropped my sister back off at home and, my dad recalls, that she didn't weigh over ninety-five pounds. It was clear that my sister got involved into hardcore drugs. She has now has had issues for the past 10 years of her life because she has an addiction to drugs. My sister is 32-years-old and she has three children whom she hasn't been able to take care of for most of their childhood. Although my sister is unable to mother her children, she still seems to think the drugs are more important. She has never been serious about her probation and she always ends up relapsing. About five years ago my sister left her husband, stopped taking her medication for her mental illnesses, and she shortly ended up on the streets. My mother and father are very loving, but there is only so much they will do for their daughter when she is on drugs. Every time my sister has used drugs it has resulted in her eventually living on the streets. Wasting all her time and money on drugs never helped her keep her life together, so people lose have lost hope and have stopped taking care of her. There have been times where I felt comfortable that with my sister was being in prison because at least she was not roaming the streets doing drugs. One time my sister got jumped in the ghetto of Fort Lauderdale and hit over the head with a cinder block, which could have killed her. It is a horrible feeling to have to know someone who is addicted to drugs and homeless, especially when it is my sibling. I try to give hope to my sister, although she has destroyed her own life.  

 

     Are Drug Wars purposely adding to the illegal drugs brought into the country? Is this a possible reason why the Government doesn't spend time focusing on attempt decriminalizing drugs in hope that they will not be abused?  "The ability of the U.S. government to stop illegal drugs is handicapped by the size and power of the international narcotics business, drug production, smuggling and distribution have exploded into a sophisticated multinational business structure, estimated at 300-400 billion dollars world wide" (PBS). Drug Wars continually raise money for the government. Lately in Portugal, they decriminalized heroin, marijuana, LSD, and many other illicit street drugs hoping that, “focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections"(Vastag). This country has tried decriminalization in hope to better their country and lower the drug usage so that people will go to rehabilitation centers and lose their drug habits. "Decriminalization, as practiced in Portugal, eliminates jail time for drug users but maintains criminal penalties for dealers"(Vastag). Could decriminalizing drugs help the homelessness issue; could people realize their problems and want rehabilitation? Would people feel more open to admitting to their addiction's because people would no longer be punished for the usage of these drugs?  I know as a class and with the help of a nonprofit organization, we can come together to help solve situations like this by leading our community into caring about the homeless people. (Too many rhetorical questions in one paragraph. Try to rework some into statements.)

 

     Homelessness is a vast, random, and growing issue in St. Petersburg. We should focus our money to St. Petersburg, and not another area in Pinellas County because it St. Pete has the largest homeless issue. I was thinking thought about a possible non-profit organization that would really make a difference for the homeless, and I decided that if there was a place for counseling of the homeless in order to help them and people donate their job interview worthy clothes to this place, then the homeless could get clothes to go out into the real world and plan for a job interviews. (Run on sentence.) Maybe if more homeless people were given the opportunity to clothe themselves correctly for a job interview then it could help them change their ways and save up money for a normal life. (This sentence is not very clear. It sound like it should be reworked into more than one.)  Nonprofit organization, The Boley Center in St. Petersburg helps people who suffer from these issues addiction and mental illness"About 50% of the homeless population in Pinellas County is mentally disabled, and nearly 50% of them are drug- or alcohol-addicted" (Gerard).Other homeless organizations that have a huge impact on helping the homeless people are, Pinellas Hope, and Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless.

 

     Out of the three nonprofit organizations I learned about Pinellas Hope, also known as Tent City, interests me the most. Pinellas Hope is a temporary shelter that provides homeless men and women privacy and a safe place to leave their belongings during the day or while they are at work. The residents may sleep undisturbed, take a shower, and are fed an evening meal. There is a strict code of conduct in Pinellas Hope. The clients will be required to agree to rules associated with the shelter, but they say it is much better then sleeping on the concrete. The cool part about Pinellas Hope is that their goal is not only to get homeless people off the streets, but to help them find jobs and "graduate" from the organization. (What does it meant to graduate?) Through Pinellas Hope, homeless men and women have an address that provides themwith a place to receive mail and keep all of their belongings during the day. This isn't a large area of land where homeless go to hangout; they live, eat, shower, and sleep here. People who volunteer for this program usually help with donating toiletries, food, and clothes. The people homeless who live here are provided with every basic essential necessary to help them pursue their dreams. Even computers are located at Pinellas Hope so that homeless they can search for jobs. Pinellas Hope even has laundry facilities for the people to use there, in order to try and live a normal life.

 

     Although I do not have a specific organization in mind yet, as a class we should work together with a nonprofit organization to shelter homeless men and women and help them find jobs. How much longer will it take to get people off the streets? Money is raised to aid all types of organizations; it is time to address the issue of homelessness. Many different places we can give grants to such as soup kitchens, housing shelters, food pantries, permanent housing, mental homes, and HIV/AIDS cure. (This is not a complete sentence.) What non-profit organization could we consider helping for homeless people who abuse drugs or alcohol and need help getting back onto their feet?  There is no specific solution to getting people off the streets, but the homeless need somewhere to go. America is a powerful country and is clearly not doing enough to resolve the homeless issue. If St. Petersburg had more shelters and organizations for the homeless, and more people could have normal living conditions and be able to get jobs.



 

(You need a works cited for your references.)

Comments (2)

kms said

at 11:38 pm on Sep 18, 2010

Additionally, the St Petersburg Free Clinic has Beacon House for men and the Women's Residence for women. These places provide housing for a succession of months in order to assist individuals to become independent again. SPFC also helps coordinate a community program that offers individuals access to a voice mail account. Tough to get a job when one can't afford a phone and hopes to hear an employer call and say 'you're hired". Another wonderful area organization is the Florida Resurrection House where residents can live up to two years so they can return to school in order to create better lives for themselves and their family. Both of these places utilize volunteers; that is one way almost anyone can help to be part of the solution. :)

Ehle so fly said

at 1:37 pm on Sep 19, 2010

thankyou!

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