HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE

When I was 16 I worked at a restaurant and had the privilege of being friends with a 21 year old woman named Kylie. We got pretty close in the 2-3 years I worked there and a few months after knowing her, she shared with me that she had just recently moved into an apartment. She had been unhoused for the last 2 years.

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I remember struggling with it. Kylie was smart and fit and beautiful and young and wasn’t on any drugs so how could she have been homeless? It wasn’t due to a “lack” of anything on her part, she was dealt a difficult hand and was navigating it the best way she knew how.

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Even though I was only 16 at the time and I haven't talked to Kylie in 4 years, I still think about her and her situation often. It made me realize that anyone can be without a home, and it’s not always their fault. More importantly it made me realize that homeless people are still people. They’re sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, parents, cousins, uncles and aunts.

 

I want other people to be forced with this realization, that we’re all people in this together, in hopes of fostering a greater sense of unity and empathy. It could be you or anyone else you know. You have something in common with them. Because homeless people are people.

 

These are people who I had the privilege of talking to that live in the streets of Salt Lake City.