The Homeless in Portland by Taryn

The Homeless in Portland by Taryn - February 2020 Scholarship Essay

For me, time always seems to be flashing by. The days all blur together, each one indistinguishable from the next. However, there is one day I will never forget.

I was fifteen. My friends and I went to downtown Portland for the day, to grab lunch and stroll through all the shops. We were walking down the street, in the midst of a fun, light-hearted conversation. Just ahead, a homeless man knelt on the ground before a storefront. As we passed, the man gently stretched his arm toward me. “Spare change?” he pleaded softly. For some reason, the calm yet desperate way he uttered those few words shattered my heart. I took one more step past the man, then stopped abruptly. I burst into tears.

As I cried uncontrollably, I searched my bag for all the cash I had left. Handing it to my friend, she returned to the man and gave him the money for me, as I was too unstable to do so myself. I could not stop crying, and I had no idea why. I lived just thirty minutes from Portland, and came into the city often. Therefore, I had seen plenty of people suffering from homelessness before. I was also not one to cry very often, let alone in public. But something about that man was especially devastating. Perhaps it was how heartbreakingly thin he was, or how kind, yet tired his eyes looked. Perhaps it was the way he reached out to me.

It made me wonder: Why? Why did I get to live in a warm, comfortable home, while he slept on the stone cold sidewalk? Why had I been blessed with a family that provides for all my needs, and he, not? Why was I surrounded by people who always looked after me, yet he was all alone out here? To this day, I still don’t know the answer to these questions. I don’t think I ever will.

If I were to start a nonprofit organization, it would benefit the homeless community in Portland. It pains me to see so many people suffering from homelessness in this city, especially because Portland is so close to my own home. Everyone deserves to have a warm place to sleep and a roof over their head. I would love to open more housing facilities for the homeless, and make existing facilities more accessible. My goal would be to give shelter to as many as I could, and feed as many as possible. I would also hope to start a program to help people experiencing homelessness find work; to help them start fresh. After all, I believe one of the best gifts you could give a person is the opportunity to start over.