Day 2:5-16-14

Today I had the pleasure of participating at this meeting that Bishop Cosgrove has every Wednesday called the Homeless Congress. This is where some of the homeless people from Bishop Cosgrove go to voice their opinions and issues on their current situations with their shelter. Their problems range from theft from people’s personal lockers or trying to find a home or trying to understand how CMHA housing works. CMHA stands for Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority and they help provide housing for low-income families in the Cleveland area. CMHA partners with different landlords around Cleveland so that the rent for the housing is affordable for particular families who need the aid. I was happy to see that Cosgrove allows these meetings to take place since in today’s society; the homeless usually don’t have a voice because society tends to devalue the homeless as people.  We often forget homelessness does not have one single face. Homelessness shares hundreds of faces; this could be you or me at any giving moment. I was proud to see one of my friends that I made last time named Silk able to find a house through the CMHA program. When I talked to him in the winter Silk seemed defeated as if he was going to always live at 2100 Lakeside Men’s shelter but to see him overcome this obstacle inspired me.