As much as the country aims to supply its resources effectively to its homeless population, sometimes fundamental aspects such as the quality of shelters, is overlooked. The UN recently declared that shelters in California were quite similar to the rat-infested, garbage-strewn, overcrowded, and abandoned shelters found around the world. The treatment of the homeless population living in these shelters is especially worse, for example, in shelters within the San Francisco and Oakland areas, homeless individuals are denied access to basic necessities such as water, and proper health services, in an effort to get rid of as many residents as possible from these shelters. In an effort to solve for the overcrowding in homeless shelters, officials are compromising on the sole mission of these organizations: to serve as many homeless individuals as possible. As wealth inequality worsens, homelessness rates continue to skyrocket, and the treatment of those who seek help from shelters in simply inexcusable. This problem is not completely due to a lack of resources, but is also caused by individuals who would rather have an uncrowded shelter than one filled with a large population who needs the resource. Luckily, peaceful protests and petitions help bring light to the individuals complicit in the problem, and are slowly making change to the way in which our homeless shelters are run.
– Siya Sharma (11th Grade Student, Santa Clara, CA)
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