Picture window on homelessness

In her recent entry to the Huffington Post, Christine Schanes provides an amazing summation of the landscape of homelessness in the United States.

Here's a sample:

Raise your hand if you've ever seen a person who you thought was homeless. I can see that all hands are up!

I'll be 61 years old this week and when I was young, the situation was not as it is now. In my youth, the vast majority of people who were homeless were men. There were very few women and even less children who were homeless.In the old days, we called those homeless men words like, "hobos" or worse. We envisioned them "riding the rails," jumping on and off railroad freight cars and living a life that they chose, free of cares and woes. At that time, the homeless life was romanticized and movies were made, such as "Emperor of the North" staring Lee Marvin, which depicted homeless men enjoying life to the fullest without any reflection on their possible responsibilities to society.

Today, this is not the picture of homelessness.

Want to take a look at the current "picture"? Read her incredibly helpful update here.

Reactions welcomed.

.