Or maybe you can't. Maybe you don't have a home. Maybe you go to school like all the other kids during the day, but sleep at a shelter every night. A shelter is a place where people who don't have a home can go to get a warm meal and sleep in a warm bed. Grownups staying there may have lost their jobs, or may have a job but not make enough money to pay for a place to live.

Way back before even your grandparents were born, a lot of people lost their jobs. It wasn't their fault - the companies they worked for didn't have enough money to pay them. So people didn't have enough money for places to live. A lot of people looked for jobs all day long so they could get money to feed their families. Some slept outside - on the street, in a doorway, or under a bridge.

Some rode trains from place to place looking for work. They were called hobos, and people were mostly kind to them. They showed hobos where to go to look for a job, and even gave them food if they came by the house.

Other people took whatever they could find -cardboard, wood, or rubber - and made shacks to live in. Some places had so many shacks that it looked like a whole city!

Things have gotten better since then. The people we elect to government make sure there's some money set aside to help people when they're "down and out." In almost every city there are shelters for people who don't have homes - "homeless" people. They can sleep there, stay warm, and get hot food. But the world would be a much better place if nobody had to sleep in a shelter and everybody had a home. Stephen

Teddy

Please email me at: stephen@ustrek.org