People that are homeless face obstacles out on the street everyday, but two of the worst obstacles for them to over come is the search for food and shelter. These two things are essential to survival. These are also things that people take for granted everyday. Have you ever watched someone sleeping on a bench or digging through a trash can for food and said, "I would never do that"? What you don't realize is that the person you are watching has no choice but to dig for food or sleep on a bench. There aren't enough resources here in Spokane to support the cities homeless population.
Homeless people are forced to beg, panhandle, and steal in order to eat, and survive. Sure there are some places for them to go get food, but there is not nearly enough. The homeless need three meals a day seven days a week just like anyone else. Brown bags of food are distributed only on scheduled days at designated food pantries by community based organizations (Peeler). This is the reason you see people desperately digging through garbage cans for food, because they have no where else to find food. Since last year there has been a fourteen percent rise in the number of people needing meals. In Spokane County alone there are over fifteen-thousand homeless people to feed each month, that's over 1.3 million meals needed each month. About forty-four percent of these mouths to feed belong to hungry children (Gleeson). It's a difficult number of meals to come up with; therefore it is difficult for the homeless to find breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day. Their hunger problem is only one of many struggles that homeless people face everyday. .
Another one of their many obstacles is shelter. Whether it is on a bench, under a bridge, or in the middle of a park, the homeless have to sleep somewhere. Many times the homeless are brutally awoken with a kick, or given fines by the Spokane Police for sleeping in public places.