Jeremy Alderson in WPFW Studios.

As covered in our previous article, Extreme Poverty and Homelessness: 20th Anniversary of the Homelessness Marathon, this year marked the 20th anniversary of the homelessness marathon.

According to Alderson the program had virtually no technical problems, but he went on to say, “I think the important thing for people to realize is, not just the homelessness marathon but combine that with the efforts of every homeless advocate in the country for more than 30 years and the net result is that we are going backwards and things are getting worse.”

There are many sides to homelessness and people find themselves without a home for various reasons. With brutality against the homeless increasing, and the continued attitude that they are not as important as other citizens of this country, the homeless are in an increasingly more vulnerable state. As this issue continues to spiral out of control, like so many other issues, what is a practical step you can take? Alderson says, “Even just smiling at a homeless person can make a difference… Homeless people live in a vast cesspool of dehumanization, and treating them as human beings, even in the smallest way, gives them positive energy that they desperately need. I’d like to think of all these little gestures as raindrops. Individually, they don’t amount to much, but collectively they can create a flood.”

For more information about the homeless and what is being done to help them visit National Coalition for the Homeless and/or Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, you can also visit Homeless Marathon‘s website.