Personal Narrative Essay On Homelessness

Helena M. Gray-Beathley Since the early seventy’s, I discovered more people homeless in the community, it was never to noticed due to everyone always helped each. When the eighty’s came and drugs and HIV-AIDS was more prevalent in our society. Homelessness became an academic around the world. Drug addiction was on the rise and, I became very aware of the issues, when it hit home. My father was an alcoholic and my brother was addicted to crack. The neighborhood I came from seemed normal, at least has normal as I knew it. There were all walks of people and, from different cultures. There was homosexuality to domestic violence to a Southern Baptist Pastor living right door to us raising goats and chickens, but through all of this, there was a

Since I was a young parent I worked in Buffalo until the late ninety’s, and moved to Sacramento CA and for twenty years leaving my daughter by her choice, and I took her young two year old son. I learned what humility was. My first job was working in a nursing home I received my nursing certificate, working with mental and physical patients, I learned a lot of empathy. Working with Transitional Living Community Support, taught me about mental health, and homeless, and how people suffer everyday with this disease, and how being homeless is not always by choice. While, working at TLCS I worked with CARE Connection, a program to recruit homeless hoboes and, homeless from the railroads and from under the byways and bridges. There is always one client that is one’s special, and I found mind. I’ll call him Mr. C, it took me almost a month being diligent enough to convince him to come into shelter, little did we all know , is that Mr. C finally went to get a checkup and he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Now Mr. C was a very humble and quite man, and private. He taught me how to be humble and have faith, never give