Homelessness
Victoria Hickson
Social Welfare
May 2, 2008
keepers.
Homelessness
Many years ago, when I was a young child growing up in the Bronx, something terrible happened to my uncle. My uncle whose name was St. Claire was one of eight children who was raised in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in the Bronx. The neighborhood was surrounded with drugs and criminal activity but somehow my uncle saw his way through and graduated high school, which was rare given the circumstances.
In pursuit of the “American Dream” St. Claire enlisted in the Army. Upon his return, I remember how he made my siblings laugh and myself and how fun it was to be around him. Shortly thereafter, the fun times became strange and the strange times became terrifying. It was not explained to us right away why our uncle’s behavior changed so drastically because we were children but we knew something was terribly wrong.
My most vivid memory of this crisis that my family was facing is the time St. Claire came over and started screaming that he was seeing rats all over and that someone was chasing him. He was taking away by ambulance. As I got a little older, I came to understand that when he came home from the Army he celebrated with some old friends. During that celebration, he was introduced to angel dust (PCP) and he was never the same.
From that point, he was in and out of hospitals and in between the hospital stays, he was homeless, sleeping on the streets. My family tried to get help for him but he always was always referred to a shelter. Whenever he would have a drug-induced episode the hospital would treat the symptoms and discharge him back on to the streets. Based on hospital policies and guidelines, if you pose no harm to yourself or to others they are required to release you.
Sociology: Is the study of social behavior and human groups. It focuses on social relationships and how those relationships influence people’s behavior, and how societies develop and change. My...
View Full Essay