Reflection on Chicago Coalition Presentation

The speakers of the Chicago Coalition discussed an issue in regards to the homeless that can have a negative impact on their ability to move themselves out of extreme poverty. The issue was that important projects, geared toward helping the homeless, have been cut due to the city's budget crisis. I feel there is something really wrong with our economy when projects are being cut for the most vulnerable population in America.

The two speakers, Stephanie and Jose, who at one point were both homeless, were two examples of many who had a story to tell. To work your way up from being homeless, I can only imagine, is an extremely difficult process for many, as they are not likely to have the proper knowledge, guidance and resources to do otherwise. It is this homeless population that is in the most need. Instead of helping, our city made budget cuts due to the budget crisis, on programs that were used to successfully help this population in one way or another. Why our most vulnerable population? These are the people who have been to hell and back and it was decided to cut programs which had the potential to assist these individuals in a positive direction. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the programs for the homeless were seen as unimportant to give money to when we are in a budget crisis, as the homeless people are viewed by many to be a "burden to society."

The three programs discussed that were cut were: Homeless education, homeless youth programs and homeless prevention. I really feel that by getting rid of these programs is like throwing the homeless down into the tubes. They would get no education, there would be no youth programs which could possibly help to prevent one from living a life of crime, and there would be no homeless prevention. Cutting these significant programs is only going to cause this population to reproduce and increase in numbers. These are the people we need to focus on helping out, not the one's who refer to this severe problem as being of unimportance.