In winter, some homeless choose between independence, warmth

Brook is a 42-year-old man who lives in Atlanta and is homeless. He lives in an abandoned house with no heat. The only warmth he has is 5 layers underneath a large coat and a hat. He refuses to go to a shelter because he does not sleep due to the fear of theifts. Many homeless people in Atlanta refuse to go to shelters except for meals and showers. Sheperd's Inn is a mens shelter in Atlanta and only holds 250 men. This past week they took in almost 400 men due to the unusual low temperatures in the area. Some churches become refuge shelters when extreme situations arise and shelters must refuse people. Shelters are working together to get more things donated to lower the number of citizens living under the bridge.

I believe all the shelters we have throughout the United States is great. Something that could be done, however, is increasing the number of shelters in areas heavily populated with homeless citizens. It does not seem right that a homeless shelter refuses to take in someone. Also it does not seem correct that people refuse to even go to shelters when they most definitely need to. In this article men were expressing how they are afraid others will steal from them. They have seen it happen to many others and wish that it not happen to them. With the extremely low temperatures our country is facing this week I think there should be enough shelters or churches for any homeless to attend and security should patrol the shelters to minimize the crime that occurs and allows the homeless to feel at home and sleep easy.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/08/cold.homeless/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29