Below is an essay written by a Year 6 student Will Fitzgibbons from a school who our charity has a great relationship with and who provide tinned food and clothing for the homeless each week. This is St. Anthony's Primary School in Kingscliff, NSW.
The essay by Will ---- enjoy
The Prison Cell with
no key
You Look at me. I look at you. You quickly move away through
the freezing mnight, hurrying to get back to your home, where you will be
greeted by warmth and an inviting bed. I also quickly move through the freezing
night to get back to my home, a few planks of wood and some cardboard, where I
will still remain cold and only have a small blanket for warmth. I know you
judge me for being homeless, but we are not that different.
Surviving as a homeless Australian means a harsh life; I am
just one of 105,000 Australians that are homeless. I am forced to sleep in
deplorable conditions; I poften find warmth at overcrowdede homes, some of
which are dangerous to my health. I only live like this to survive; I feel pure
hatred towards how I have to live. My only friends are others who are homeless,
the ones who I meet when I go to get food at the charities who give it to me.
Life is a day-to-day
challenge for me. When I try to get a job my efforts are often in vain; there
is a slim chance of getting hired if you have no address and practically no
chance of getting an address if you have no job. This is why it is so hard for
me to break the cycle of being homeless; I feel as though it’s a prison cell
with no key.
Ther are many reasons why homelessness occurs; I myself was
struggling to pay bills and trying in vain to dig myself out of my hole of
financial worry. Others I know who are homeless suffer sever mental issues;
others sleep on the streets because they are victums of domestic violence and
family violence. It’s dreadfully hard to get a house when you don’t have money;
besides, there aren’t many houses to go around. There are houses around that
are vacant, but they are off limits as they can be harmful to my health and
could give me terrible diseases.
Youth is very common in the homeless community I see it
every day. It’s appalling that approximately 44,000 young people are homeless,
they don’t deserve to be mistreated so much, and they don’t deserve to have to
mature so quickly. It is a devastating truth that shows how homelessness can
affest anyone; it concerns me that youth is such a common occurance with
homeless people like me. I see so many who end up like this because of
separation, being thrown out of home or simply being born into a homeless
family. Those who I know of often couch surf (sleeping on friend’s couches) to
have a warm and clean place to sleep.
As I lay in the cold I think to myself, “was it my fault.”
But I know that if someone reached out I would be okay again. Then I see you
again, you look at me. I look at you. You know who I am, I know who you are. It
is because we are not that much different.
Written by Will
Fitzgibbons
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