Question One. Combating Homelessness

1. Have you ever known anyone who lost their home a friend family member, maybe just someone you saw pushing a shopping cart around town?Tell me about his or her situation or your impression of that person.

Jenifer Bowman: I have seen homeless people by the interstate in lewisburg and I had thought that they were lazy. This was before the Nashville rescue mission, where I learned the true nature of homelessness and the problems faced by them.

Ashleigh Gill: Prior to this trip I haven't known anyone homeless. I have seen homeless people though a number of times in New York. I used to see a homeless woman sitting by a building barefoot in a tattered dress. She carried a sign begging for help. Besides her was a tin can. The saddest thing to me is that we all walked by her and never gave her a second look, i was part of the group that ignored her. Everytime I think of her I feel a twinge of guilt.

Tad Binkley: My grandparents and my great parents have experienced homlessness in world war I and II. They have told me about the hard times and the struggles they had to undergo. For instance when food was rationed sawdust was mixed in with bread. My imprssion is that it was hard to make ends meet and survice during that time

Jordan Cole: I have never actually personally known someone who has been homeless, nor interacted with someone who has experienced it until we heard Farnk from the Homeless Coalition tell us his story. My first impression of him was reluctant and questioning, I honestly wanted the meeting to end but as I started listening to his story I was intrigued and very interested in his story. I felt a connection and a compassion to this man and a saddness for the hard times he had been thorugh.

Jonathan Barnett: I have seen people with shopping carts around and before i came on this trip. I used to look at them as just bums. I now relalize that they are people too and everytime i see a homless person I feel ignorant for having thought that way about them.