Homelessness is really hard to overcome without help from someone else. Even with a job, some people struggle to find a shelter to regain their sense of peace. Their are so many causes of homelessness that are common in many people's lives. Being unemployed for an extended period of time is one of the most dominant causes for homelessness. As we all experienced during the covid pandemic three missed paychecks can lead to anyone with good job to be subject to losing their home.

 

We also learned from the recent pandemic that we do not have to be the cause of us losing our jobs.Your job can close down without advanced notice and now you have to find work. Seasoned in your craft you have to start over accepting lower pay or being passed over as being over qualified. With that being said, we must admit that as we age find a job becomes more and more difficult. Anyone who has looked for a job has spent months looking for a job with no success. Throughout this time we are expected to still maintain proper hygiene even if we do not have access to clean water.

 

I know what you are thinking, why not go to a shelter? There are way less homeless shelters than you think. Where there are shelters more homeless people exist than the available space in each of those shelters combined. This forces shelters to take people in on a first come first serve basis. What you may not know is that most shelters only take people in overnight. If a homeless person worked until after check in time at the homeless shelter or had a night job that ended after checkout time at the homeless shelter that person could not reside in a homeless shelter.

 

Our Ascendance Thru Grace has a mission dedicated to the campaign against homelessness in states like Florida that need additional support in tackling the causes of homelessness. We believe the success of our plans would lead to reduced homelessness, crime rate, violence, beggars e.t.c. The desire to carry out this project was born out of the love and compassion we share for everyone around us, it's about giving someone hope, help, and support in finding a way out of a situation that seemed impossible. To do this, we would be providing temporary shelter for these distressed individuals and or families, while we help them acquire skills, tools, confidence e.t.c to become self-sustainable so they can acquire their own permanent shelters.

 

According to the U.S Census Bureau, the percentage of people in poverty in

Hillsborough Florida as of April 2021 is 28.1%. A 2021 estimate has the

the population of Hillsborough County at 1,512,070 people with a yearly growth rate of 1.34%, which itself is greater than the populations of 12 states according to their 2019 population estimates and about 9.10% of families and 12.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.20% of those under the age of 18 and 10.00% of those age 65 or over.

 

An additional restraint in the lives of the impoverished is, that despite having one of the largest school districts in Florida, U.S, the percentage of people able to attain a college degree is 29.0%. This implies that a larger percentage of families and individuals in communities similar to this one may not be able to cater to themselves, afford a decent housing plan, maintain good self-esteem, and have stable mental health. 

​

Data from the U.S Department Of Housing and Urban Development in 2022 shows that about 28,328 homeless persons are living in Florida and out of these, 2,294 were family households, 2,472 were veterans, and 1,450 were unaccompanied young adults and 5,182 were individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. The Homeless Shelter Directory in 2019 reported that about 1,650 homeless people are able to be temporarily housed overnight only in Hillsborough County Florida. This accounts for 5.8% of the total homeless population in Florida. Currently, some cities in Florida are policing the homeless including Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Ocala. 

 

The “life-sustaining activities” ordinance prevents homeless people from sleeping, lying down, and living in vehicles in public spaces. Violating this ordinance results in incarceration. Similarly, a study shows that poverty and unemployment increase the prevalence of common mental disorders by maintaining episodes rather than by precipitating their onset. As a consequence, this may cause homelessness, and limited opportunities for those with little or no education at all, some people (especially the younger individuals) indulge in illegal activities such as drug trafficking, theft, and gang activity.

 

Besides the stated problems above, after proper investigations, Our Ascendance Thru Grace Corporation discovered firsthand other problems affecting the Hillsborough community area which is: loss of one's identity or having it stolen or the expiration of one's identification cards makes identifying yourself nearly impossible, thus making it difficult to acquire resources and gain new employment.

 

People that stopped working after a long career can end up homeless for a number of reasons and not having access to their pension or any retirement benefits due to lack of identity or lack of a physical address prevents access to their retirement Benefits. Likewise, a number of veterans who valiantly served our country currently remain homeless after they no longer serve. Some of the veterans maintain homelessness due to the inability to provide proof of identity or proof of physical residency to begin receiving their veteran compensation.

 

Another one of the most common problems with finding housing is if you ever had a problem in your past. Criminal history prevents criminal Rehabilitation where felonies and misdemeanors prevent qualifying for adequate housing. A criminal history can negatively affect non-convicted criminals in addition to evictions, bankruptcy, identity theft, and other financial issues disqualifying reputable hard-working people from getting housing for up to ten (10) years from the date of impact. 

 

Urgent approaches are needed to further curb these constraining issues and

empower people with skills(regardless of their background), motivate them to

perform better, provide affordable housing opportunities, build homes for the

homeless, train people to be able to identify opportunities they qualify for, and help people with lost identities recover their identities. Generally, we seek to lend a helping hand to majority genuinely in need, organizing programs to train/empower them hence creating a pathway for them to be well reintegrated into society.

 

Some of the major challenges these people are facing will be our goals to address while they are in our temporary shelters including Loss of Identity, Extended Unemployment, Disqualified Rental Status, Inability to sustain proper hygiene, and Negative Impacts by the Criminal Justice System.

​

If people like you were to donate as little as $30.00USD per person per month to Ascendance we could permanently change someone's life. We cannot prevent homelessness from starting in some people's lives, but we can end homelessness that exists in the lives of those we try to save. When you donate money to Our Ascendance Thru Grace, you are committing your donations to the solutions to homelessness instead of just treating the symptoms of homelessness.

 

The old saying, "Give a man a fish feed em for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for life" is the reason why the efforts of Our Ascendance Thru Grace will last the lifetime of the people we help. Because unlike a shelter we will not just give them a place to sleep overnight we will provide them with temporary shelter that will last them until they are self-sustainable. By getting the able-bodied homeless people back to work they become reintegrated back into our economic society.

 

By taking someone from the pits of disaster we provide them with hope and the opportunity to go back to a normal life. No one can do it alone. "It takes a village to raise a child but it takes a nation to raise a fallen man". Let's come together as a nation and help Our Ascendance Thru Grace regains their humanity, by facilitating the way out of the existence of homelessness.