Why I Do What I Do: Homelessness and Disability Justice

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Three days each week, I load up a wagon with brown paper bags containing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies and fruit. Most of the people who take the lunches are homeless; many of them sleep in the park or places nearby. In my work, I’ve come to understand that homelessness is a disability issue. Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania  and the director of research for the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, writes that “nearly all of the long-term homeless have tenuous family ties and some kind of disability, whether it is a drug or alcohol addiction, a mental illness or a physical handicap” (Culhane 2010). My experience serving homeless people has shown me the truth of Culhane’s assertion. The vast majority of people to whom I deliver food have disabilities.