The homeless population in Brookings, Oregon

Zada McCoy Wright, Olivia Bodenstab & Klohi Oliver

April 4, 2024

When entering the town of Brookings, one might see a beautiful area filled with people and lovely greenery. On the other hand, homeless are all over-- to the side of the road, in tents, at the beach, and in bushes. 

When looking at the homeless, people think the worst, but you never really know their story and how they ended up on the streets. People like to judge them before even taking a second look.

“The town of Brookings is not prepared to assist the homeless with housing right now, so there's no shelter at the moment, but Saint Timothy's church offers a place for them to shower and eat food three days a week, although, there is talk about opening up a campground for the homeless,” Ray Branion, the BHSD School Resource Officer said.

One of the major reasons that people become homeless nowadays is because of the COVID-19 virus. Lots of people lost their jobs and their income to pay for their homes, cars, and things that they have in their everyday lives that they don't have now. Lots of people relied on the streets to keep them above because they didn't have much else after the pandemic.

There are so many reasons people end up on the streets, and these past few years have been hard for many people. Most of the people that live on the streets have lots of health problems because of the cold nights, bacteria, and the environment they live in. It causes them to become sick. They don't have insurance or money to pay for their health bills. They don't go to the hospital because of it, so they just get sicker each day. 

Homeless people don't have advantages like other people. It's hard for them to find a safe place to sleep, or warm clothes to wear. They don't always have places to shower, so their appearance is worse than others.

Many people look at homeless people as a disgrace to our community by first glancing at their look, or walking past and getting a weird smell. Most people also believe that the homeless choose to live the way they do, but in reality, horrible things happen leading up to being on the streets, you never know why until you're in their shoes.

Most of the population of homeless people are are surrounded by trash and items that aren’t necessarily good for their well-being. 

The well-being of the homeless is just as important as someone who isn't on the streets. Everyone is a human being. Being homelessness does not make you any less of a person. 

Homeless people have no shelter and no place to stay in Brookings Oregon, therefore they must sleep on the streets. If you pay attention, you see that most homeless people go to the parks because there you can sleep under a tree or on a bench. They do this because this is the only way they may feel safe or the best place to sleep if they have pets or things they care about.

Sometimes when they leave a place to find another, they can leave behind things like needles, drugs, and sharp objects. But there is no trashcan they can put it in. Most times, that can be dangerous for people such as adults, teenagers, kids and maybe even pets. It is not a good environment to have kids walking through the town and having to see that all over. 

A lot of the time when you see the homeless they don't have the greatest appearance and they also may be sick but it's not their fault they don't have money to go to the hospital to get help. 

Sometimes when you see the homeless people they are there because they lost their homes or jobs and couldn't pay for living in houses anymore so they went to their last resort which was being homeless. But another problem we have is that no one is trying to build this shelter. We have so many buildings that are shutting down and getting used for useless things but in reality we need those building to help the homeless even if its a place where people could donate old clothes or blankets and a place where they could just sleep for a night or two and maybe people could even help them try and find a job so they can get on their feet.

Actions people can take to support the homeless community is we can get a group of people to gather around a bag of food and give it out to homeless people three nights a week or pass out flyers and tell them about the St. Timothy's church and tell them about how they let people shower and give them food to eat. 

We could also get one of the abandoned buildings or a building the town doesn't use anymore and turn it into a shelter. We can get a place where a whole bunch of companies get together and help the homeless find a place to work until they can get on their feet. We can have a day every other week for the homeless to be able to go to the hospital  for a check up and get help as long as it is not being taken advantage of. People could also donate funds or clothing just for things that will help them on a day to day basis.

We can do fundraisers twice a month and the money will go towards shelters, food, a camp site, things to help them and their pets. If we show the homeless community that we care for them then that will show them that there is a way to get better.  We could also have something where people from our community are able to donate anything they don't need or want anymore. To give the homeless if they want because then they could have more blankets and more clothes to keep them warm. And we could also do a food drive and let them come get whatever they need for a few days and nights a week.

We could also provide them with a first aid kit because they can have bloody cuts or scabs but it can help them since they don't have money or insurance to go to the hospital. If we wouldn't be able to get a building for that we could put up flyers and have a meeting spot. We could do the meetings at our local park or our beach. When we would have those meetings we would provide a meal and some water.

Overall, being homeless is not always a choice, at the end of the day anything could happen to lead to being on the streets, not all homeless are bad people or do drugs and some are trying their best to get out of the horrible situation. 

Sometimes people will never know how they feel or what they went through unless you have been homeless or on the verge of it. Yes there are some people who don't want to help them at all but there are more people that want to get shelters started or give bags of food a few knights a week anything we do for the homeless community. 

Over the years the homelessness community has grown to a large chunk of people. And sometimes all they want is someone to care for them and help them.

Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homeless_anchorage.jpg