Real Stories: Meet Angela

by Mark Horvath · 2009-09-08 20:34:00 UTC
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Since last year, I have been documenting the stories of the homeless. For the past months, I have traveled from coast-to-coast talking to people living in the streets, in shelters, in weekly-rate hotels, and under bridges.

Nearly one hundred interviews (and thousands of pairs of donated socks) later, my perspective on homelessness has changed dramatically. For me, Angela's story resonated. For you, it might be Willy or Drew or Donna's story that strikes a chord.

But regardless of how you get the message, I hope you get the message.

Homelessness is a complex problem. Although everyone has a different story and different reasons for being homeless, there are similarities in these stories. Although these videos are not often about solutions to homelessness, I hope one thing has become clear: if we want to solve homelessness, we need to stop focusing on band-aid solutions.

As advocates from coast to coast have screamed and shouted for years, it's okay to feed people in the park, but we have to focus on getting them out of the park and into safe, decent, and affordable housing.

Please watch this short video. If it affects you, do something. Embed it video on your blog, send a link to all your friends, do whatever it takes to help keep people like Angela from dying under a bridge in America.

Angela from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Mark Horvath is an activist for the homeless. He vlogs at invisiblepeople.tv and blogs at hardlynormal.com. He was formerly homeless in Hollywood.
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