I was right. Selena, the woman I had met earlier, along with 5 other women were at my table. As we conversed about each others lives, I realized that all of those stereotypes about the homeless that I had in my head were false. All of the negative misconceptions I had about them were changed into something deeper and positive. I felt as though I had already learned so much, yet I had barely talked to them. Once we finished the small talk, the woman sitting to my right began to express the misconceptions about the homeless. Her name was _____. She said to us,
“A lot of people believe that homeless people are all on drugs or addicted to alcohol. Most of the time that isn’t true, some people are just in a bad situation at that point and it’s hard for them to get out of it. Some people are homeless for the sole fact that their house burned down. We are not all stupid, or just to lazy to get a job either. I went to college and got straight A’s in high school. I have a job, but my ex-husband stop paying for childcare. I cannot balance four kids on my own even though I still work everyday, so don’t judge people just because they are homeless.”
She and the rest of the group continued to preach to us about the truth about homelessness and their own personal stories. I gained so much more deeper knowledge about how it actually is to be in that