Help Make Someone Else's Summer

For most of us, summer is a time to catch up with friends and family, relax, get a job, and enjoy the beautiful weather. For some of our very own LA-er's, however, summer offers no escape and solace from lives much more difficult than ours, that they live all year round. It's sad but true that Southern California is one of the most expensive regions to live in across the US, which results in more homelessness and struggle for poor families than anywhere else. Adults living day to day with no place to call home is bad enough, but when kids are brought into the mix, it's a heart-breaking reality.

Homeless but capable

Melanie Shaw

Why is it that almost every time I pull up into a gas station or drive off the freeway, there is always someone begging for change or food? And the majority of the time that someone is a man that looks fully capable of finding labor. Not only does he look capable, but also these men range from ages 21-40 most of the time. Why is it that these men cannot find a job? Why is it that these men would rather stand all day at a gas station or at the end of a freeway exit holding up a sign instead of looking for decent means of work? Unfortunately, life has not been kind to them and somewhere down the road of adulthood and perhaps even adolescents; life has made a drastic turn for these young men. Majority of the time these men have encountered many foster homes throughout their lives, some might have even dropped out of school for drug or gang related reasons, and majority of the time, these are good men who were just unlucky enough to have lost their jobs.