I met a lot of people that night, witnessed a fight, experienced theft and learned a new way of playing solitaire; things I would’ve experienced with any community of people, homeless or not.
Tonight opened up my mind to the people who are underserved. As odd as it sounds saying this, they are like regular people. The reason I said it was odd was because they are no different from me, you or your neighbour, but yet I had the mentality that they are different. I’m sure many of you feel that way as well. I am quite ashamed of myself that I felt so much fear against them and pretended as if they weren’t there. I think from growing up in downtown Toronto my whole life, I’ve grown used to hearing them beg for money, food, drugs, and cigarettes, that they end up dissolving into the traffic which is as horrible as it sounds. The past four hours at the community drop-in has really showed me how wrong I have been in the past eight years of my life.
These stereotypes may seem like a small factor from one person, but even that one person’s actions are hurting the greater community of underserved individuals.
JLS 