Dear Citizens of Philadelphia,

Have you ever heard the saying that we can’t change others? Well that’s just stupid.  I believe we can change people by changing their lives. You might not be able to change a person per say, but their lives can be. For example, we as humans tend to look down on others who seem to need our help. I mean anyone who is in need of help we tend to think “well it’s not me”, but if it was or even someone you knew. If you haven’t caught on I’m talking about the systemic oppression that the homeless must take from us. I believe that we have forgotten the true meaning of the city of brotherly love. Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love, but what does that truly mean that mean that we help and love each other in time of need. Here is the problem -is it love when we leave the homeless nowhere to sleep because it not a nice sight? Well guess what life isn’t all rainbow and unicorns because we as a city do have homeless people. That’s just fact and we need to change that.  I suggest we can have equity in our city and put more money in shelters.

First, it’s  obvious that Philadelphia has a lot of homeless people. In fact over 6,500 citizens are living on the street. Can you believe that we have that many homeless well that’s from 2016 it’s about to be 2018. Fortunately, that number has gone down. It’s now 5,693 which is only 7% less than 2016, but that’s not enough. If you don’t believe me all this information can be found on the websites (Project Home) and (Current numbers). Just read and you will see what I mean about systemic oppression. I believe the richest country in the world shouldn’t have so many homeless people. However, some people could say that we help them by giving then food,but what about equality? Some homeless people need more help than others. We need to be equal not fair. There is a difference and we should use this difference the right way when developing policies.

Second, I’m pretty sure many people have said that the homeless are just junkies and drug addicts. However, I’m here to say that’s not alway the case. There are many homeless people who just lost jobs, family or even friends and just couldn’t get back on their feet. Did you know that we have homeless veterans? These are people who fought for our country and we treat them this way; we are oppressing them. We tend to help them ore which is great, really. That’s just veterans we try to help them more, but what about the other homeless people? We as a city can save their lives if we just tried to care just a little bit more. There are many places that are trying to help the amount of homeless in the city. Why not join them? We should try to makes more shelters and more jobs for these citizens of Philadelphia. We need to make a change or soon we will have more homeless people than we can take.

Fortunately, as you can see, there has been a decrease of homeless people in Philadelphia, but that’s not enough. We need to make a plan for how to help these people and their families have a better life. Just think of all of the poor families that have this problem of homelessness. I believe if we really try that we can make a great differences in everyone's lives if we make more shelters, homes, and even more jobs. YOU can make a differences and we can beat this systemic oppression. This city will be one of the first in America to not have any homeless people in it. Do you believe we can do this or not? I want the city of Philadelphia to show everyone what it truly means to be the city of “Brotherly Love.” What do you want our city’s legacy be?

Sincerely,
Michelle M.