So today was my first day of "work", and it was basically an introduction to the organization and to the social problem of homelessness. One statistic that I learned is that the average hourly wage of a family on welfare is $7.62. To rent the average 2 bedroom apartment in this city, one must earn an hourly wage of $11.31! A brochure I read states that housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30% of ones monthly income. It also stated that single mothers on welfare often spend up to 75% of their income on childcare!

So this points out two obvious problems that contribute to homelessness, lack of affordable housing and lack of affordable childcare.

I also learned that homeless people rarely panhandle- beg for money on the street. Of course there are exceptions, but it seems that most panhandlers have housing and use money for drug fixes.

After 4 years of book learnin I'm seeing what its like in the real world.