June 5, 2012
by Christine Schanes
by Christine Schanes / San Diego Free Press / June 4, 2012
Violence: Is it caused by nature or nurture? I have often wondered why people hit each other in physical, hand-to-hand fights. And when people are homeless, living bereft of everything, why doesn’t the fighting stop?
To find out about the nature of violence among homeless people, I asked a 48 year old man who lives on the streets why he fights.
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May 30, 2012
by Christine Schanes
“They have too much food to eat.”
Really? Do some housed people really believe that homeless people have too much food to eat? Actually, yes. And they provide what they consider the evidence:
“Of course they have too much food to eat. See how fat they are!”
This myth leaves me stunned because I believe its falsehood is obvious. I’ve had the privilege to work with people in need for over twenty years. Sadly, in all of that time, I have never known a homeless person who was able to eat three healthy meals a day. Really.
As we all know, obesity is an American epidemic. Whether we are housed or homeless, many authorities agree that our diet of high-calorie, unhealthy foods contributes to our obesity. It would appear that many housed people are neither utilizing their kitchens to prepare nutritious foods, nor making healthy food choices at restaurants. Homeless people may have similar nutritional challenges, but for different reasons.
On May 25, 2012, the San Diego County Regional Task Force on the Homeless reported in “A Point-In-Time Assessment of Homelessness In San Diego County – 2012,” that there are a total of 9,641 homeless people within the county.
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