People look down on the homeless, viewing them as scum, dirty, desperate, filthy beings who stereotypically are either addicted to alcohol or some sort of hard drug and will do anything for their next fix. Having volunteered at Loaves and Fishes, I have come in contact with some homeless people and can say that they are not all what people think they are. Although there are the few who genuinely are mentally ill, the majority of homeless people are kind and grateful for the work that volunteers and other workers do. Poverty has plagued all societies in many different degrees, and yet we still seem to be unaccustomed to it. 
	When I was in the Philippines, poverty abounded, as it still does. The gap between the rich and the poor is huge, since the majority of the natives there barely get paid enough to get by, while the rich get richer, exploiting the cheap labor. Saddening as it is, there is not much we can do about it. One night, while I was in a car with my family, a boy pressed his face against our window and spoke in rapid Tagalog -- almost in a desperate tone -- begging for money. It was then that I realized the situation in the Philippines, the extreme poverty and hopelessness that seemed to be everywhere. 
	Homeless people aren't completely alone, for they can make their own communities. Though helpful in terms of shelter from the elements and violence, the trash and blatant lack of hygiene can be harmful to the environment and to other people. The makeshift houses and the tarps in addition to the other sights seen there can add to people's negative view towards homeless people.
	Why do people distance themselves from homeless people? What repulses the so-called “normal” people so much that they do whatever they can to avoid the less fortunate? When I volunteered at Loaves and Fishes, it helped me realize that homeless people weren't crazy or as strange as they are made out to be. They are normal people, like us, and some of the families I've met at Loaves and Fishes weren't even homeless, just families traveling through and looking for a free meal. Sure, there are the outcasts and the clinically insane, but from what I've experienced, the majority of homeless people are just people going through hard times. 
	It is surprising how civilization has been around for so long, yet people are still unaccustomed to seeing homeless people and experiencing poverty. Condescending and disgusted, some intolerant people would have an argument saying that if they can't support themselves then they don't deserve to be in our society. Tolerance of homeless people would lead to helping them and it would boost the “bottom” of our society, not to mention there would be less hatred towards the homeless, such as when people go around beating them for fun. Recognizing and helping fix the problem of poverty would help the societyin a huge way, as poverty seems to be one of the most malignant and debilitating “diseases” afflicting our world today.