The Stereotypes of the Homeless

The Stereotypes of the Homeless

            According to many studies, research explains that one major factor that contributes to the homeless population are the low wage jobs that people have no other choice but to work in because they were not able to receive an opportunity for a better education and or connections to a better paid job.
- this is a good opening to some background info/stats on the homeless population, specifically in California.   

            (notice how quickly you jump into the stereotypes right after mentioning general info?  Can you find a way to smooth this transition from one topic to the next?)The way one is raised can contribute to the personal opinion you have towards a certain group of people that are classified with labels. It is quite often noticed that parents keep their children away from any individual who appears to be homeless because they were taught that the homeless are lazy and explains why they often do not work, might have dropped out of school, did not continue school, and in some cases are taught that that they are addicted to drugs and alcohol. The thoughts that one learns from their parents toward people that are actually a part of the community or society are carried, with a mentality as if it were a tradition and is passed down to their children if not properly educated about the issue.

-I can see this being a good place to show examples of negative representations of the homeless that then lead to negative stereotypes that are taught to children, etc. 

            The fact that people are so prejudice can in general affect the way you interact with one another and in this case, many people may react in the same way when they encounter a homeless person as if they encountered an unwanted human being. For example they could simply ignore the homeless individual or in certain extreme cases residents have called the police department to report particular people in which they believe are threats to the safety of their community.
-can you continue to develop this by discussing how the lack of understanding and involvement, or negative involvement, of our community then affects the larger picture-  the high number of homeless,  legislation regarding the homeless, etc. 

            The way we have reacted to these people in general are all because of the poor way we are educated on the issue or matter. Each individual, regardless of the amount of money they have or race have a different story to tell about why they are where they are now. The lack of interaction that we have with them only causes us to go in the opposite direction of being able to help part of our community.

            John is a perfect example of a man who ended up on the streets but did not full fill the stereotypes that society had about him. He was not an addict and was quite respectful with people in the community. He liked to sleep in a particular block but did not show up to sleep there until after dark because he did not want to anger the people leaving in the house in which he slept in front of. He slept on one side so that he would not disrupt people passing by on the sidewalk and often greeted people passing by him. He also held on to his faith the enter way through.
-can you develop John's story even more? 

-these last two paragraphs work very well together.  Now the question is how do you want to wrap up?  
-it seems that your overall position/focus is negative stereotypes of the homeless and how those affect us individually and as as a society when it comes to how we interact with our homeless. Can you expand this more and include how those feelings then affect how we advocate or support the homeless.
-also, consider adding representations of the homeless that lead to certain stereotypes, negative and positive