What if the only thing separating you from being unhoused was one unexpected crisis?
For many, that’s all it takes—a lost job, a medical emergency, a sudden rent increase. The faces you see on the streets aren’t just statistics. They are mothers, fathers, veterans, students, survivors. Each with a story. Each with a name.
I think about Ben. He wasn’t always unhoused. He worked as a mechanic for over 20 years, proud of his trade. But when his wife passed, grief swallowed him whole. He lost his job, then his home. When I met him at one of our mobile shower services, he hadn’t heard his name spoken with kindness in months. He told me people only saw the dirt on his hands, not the man he once was—the man he still is.
The truth is, homelessness doesn’t have one cause, and it doesn’t have one type of person. It’s easy to generalize, to look away, to assume. But real change starts when we stop seeing "the homeless" as a faceless group and start seeing our unhoused neighbors as people.
They deserve love. They deserve compassion. They deserve Radical Hospitality.
So next time you pass someone on the street, don’t just see their circumstances—see them. Acknowledge them. Say hello. A small moment of dignity can be the spark that reminds someone they are still human. Because they are. And they always have been.
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