Local opinion: Two ideas on how to help the homeless

Every time I drive to school or into town, I see people sitting by the streetlights. We don’t know their names, where they are from or their situation. We don’t know their life before we see them nor how they got to where they are now. We assume that drugs are what got them there and bad choices, but do we know that as a fact?

Homelessness has become a major problem in Tucson and has been spreading to other cities. Two to three years ago, I moved to Vail, Arizona. As my mom drove me to school, I noticed that our town had fewer unsheltered people than Tucson. Now, in 2025, I see multiple homeless men and women struggling to take care of themselves, and I saw this change in just under a year.

We do things to help in little ways, yes, but have we done enough? Have we put forth the effort to help these people have better lives? We make various programs throughout our city to help with this problem. For example, in the Salvation Army, people donate old clothes and toys to help families get what they need. We need to do more than donate clothes and toys, though.

In my government class at my high school, we wrote a letter to a Senator or Representative of Arizona, addressing a problem that we believe has to be solved soon. I addressed mine to Senator Mark Kelly, I sent him a letter describing the problem, and a way to solve it.

In my letter to Senator Kelly, I came up with two programs that I thought would be beneficial to our community as a whole:

— The Helping Hands program would be like the Salvation Army, but it would provide so much more opportunities for people. Every month a notice will be sent out on social media describing what the program is and what employees and volunteers would be doing. This program would provide all kinds of clothes, shoes, and even portable salons and showers. Every month, this program would set up stands and tents at local parks and people would come from all over town to be able to get what they need. We would also provide various healthy foods and drinks to help them gain their strength again. Local churches, businesses, and other organizations would be welcome to help as well. Every month, the people of Tucson who are living on the streets or don’t have enough money to provide for their families will have someplace to go to help take care of themselves.

— The Job-Finding Program would provide schooling and experience for people sixteen or older to get jobs of their own to help themselves. Those working with the program would look for open jobs that pay minimum wage as well as look at the strengths and weaknesses of the people who join the program. They would find matches with the job and person and ask if they would want to apply for the job. Although, this program would need outside help from local businesses to provide those jobs. This could be janitorial services to washing dishes in a restaurant. With the help of our community, we could make these two programs benefit our city.

Homelessness has become a large problem in our community, and it is our responsibility to help solve that problem. We are the ones that live in this city, so we should be the ones to do something about it. I believe that creating ideas for programs like these would create a better lifestyle, as well as a better environment for everyone.