Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

...then he won't exist to us.

(Download)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Here in the US the "homeless" started increasing in number when the American Civil Liberties Union went to court and got a ruling that no one could be put in a mental hospital unless ruled a "danger to self or others" or they volunteered for it. A huge number of our homeless are those with mental or addictive problems but not ruled a danger and of course won't volunteer. I know, my brother-in-law was/is one - an alcoholic - get him into a program and in a few days or a couple of months he would just walk out the door and go back to staying drunk and being homeless. Same thing when various family members took him in (My wife and I did it multiple times). Then the alcohol degraded his brain to the point he couldn't even care for himself and the state ruled him a danger to himself. He now is committed to a state home and will sometimes break out (minimum security facility) but then just wonders the streets near the facility and they drive the streets, pick him (and others) up and take him back. Then he forgets he did it, forgets anyone visited him etc. He doesn't even remember his brother died 40 years ago or that both parents died. His children will visit and he doesn't recognize them because in his mind they are still little, not adults going on middle age.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Papa j Loc: Cary NC

We too often do

SpyderJan Loc: New Smyrna Beach. FL

I remember when I was very young, I was living in St. Louis at the time and my father and brother and I were on the way to a theater when we passed a man on the street selling pencils. I had no money, but I tugged my father's arm asking him to stop and buy a pencil, but he only tugged my arm and we hurried away. I remember that incident to this day because it changed my mind about street people and homeless in particular. Homeless people are first of all "People". This man may have wound up on the street, but he still needs someone to care. Please don't pass him by the next time. "But for the grace of God".

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

A good lesson well remembered.

SpyderJan Loc: New Smyrna Beach. FL

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

This image is very well titled. The homeless are so invisible. Some of us don't want to look. Or we've been taught to NOT look. Sometimes we're threatened if we look. Did you ask his permission? Or did you simply take the picture? It's hard to know which to do.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

When I was growing up there was a legless man who would sit on a mechanics creeper, dressed rather scruffily, and sell pencils on the main street of downtown. All my classmates remember him, but we don't know who he was. We all contributed to his tin can and perhaps took a pencil. We're pretty sure he was a WWII veteran. As a kid giving was what I could do. I didn't know how to interact. I wish now that I'd asked him his name and where he had served. Perhaps he deserved a write-up in the paper and a collection among my school mates. It makes me wish, too, that I'd put more in that tin can.