This Saturday, I got a very sad and heart wrenching news from a colleague about the death of our vendor Leonard Hyater. The news vanish all my weekend plans and put me in thoughts about the time that I have spent with him as a colleague and as the point of contact person. As a vendor, being the part of the organization, he worked so hard to bring a positive change in his life. Recently, he passed his certificate for real estate mortgaging for Maryland, and was prepared to take the test for Washington, D.C, and then for national. That’s how being a homeless person, he was hoping for his life to bring a change not only for himself, but for the community. The voice still echoing in my ears when he said that after passing my tests to get eligibility for national level real estate mortgaging, I will engage homeless community in business so that I can help them and bring some change in their lives.
We were about to celebrate his success but unfortunately he left us, and passed away. Unfortunately, he is not the only one, but there is an unlimited number of homeless populations who is passing away on daily basis throughout the world. We can’t deny the fact that death is a natural process, but, homelessness has increased the death ratio. On average homeless people three times more likely to die than the people who have homes. The average age of the people suffering from homelessness is 50 years while for others it is 78 years – which is a huge difference. The homeless people can expect the same kind of diseases but with a greater risk and severity, and the rates of affect are three to six times higher which enough to cause the death of a person is.
Being homeless, a person is more vulnerable to different kind of worst situations. Due to limited availability of accommodations for them in the shelters, in winter they have to face severe cold, while in summer they have to face severs hot weather. This kind of situation and extreme cold and hot made them vulnerable to a number of diseases with high rates. Some potentially fatal and communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDs, influenza, skin disorders, tuberculosis, malnutrition, parasitic infestations, dental and periodontal disease, degenerative joint diseases, venereal diseases, cancer, heart disease, hypertensions, and diabetes, has been remained the main factors of homeless persons death.
Faced with problems such financial instability, lack of fine health conditions, future tensions, lack of proper diet, lack of social setup, staying away from family, are all the factor that has made them mentally ill and put them in depression. This is a start for their un-healthy life. At one time, they have to tackle multiple problems which are indeed a very tough job to do.
As a civic citizen it’s our responsibility to make the world a better place, and also of the government to take care of the citizens. Being the citizens and part of the community we should raise voice our homeless community to take them out of the homelessness, and help them by giving them a space in our lives, corporations, non-profits, and government, so that we all can collectively make the world a better place by countering all our problem of which homelessness if one of the key problem.
Let’s take a start, it’s not so late. Let’s put this in our own and political leaders’ manifestos to get rid of homelessness by providing affordable housing, healthcare, education, and employment opportunities.
