There are over 3.5 million homeless people in the United States alone (National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness). Within this population there are challenges beyond homelessness that most citizens with homes do not face. These include: thinking about appearance, quality and source of food, living space and source of money. Those mentioned are just a few of the things that non-homeless people might overlook when thinking about the challenges of homelessness. As a nation, how we perceive others around us comes into play here. Whether intentionally or not, homeless people are often judged based on their situation, rather than who they are. This may exist because of the communication barrier between homeless and non-homeless people. To move away from judgments and stereotypes, education on the topic of homelessness is vital. The first time the problem of homelessness was recognized in the United States was as early as 1640. Homelessness was seen as a moral problem and character was questioned. One of the major religions of the time was the Christian faith. It was believed that God would take care of a good Christian and that all needs would be met. If one did not behave like a “good Christian,” his needs were not met. Therefore, because the homeless did not have their needs met, they were seen as bad people. (Center Congregations to End Homelessness) Robert Fischer, author of the article The History of Homelessness 1640 to the Present, pointed out: Today, those who experience homelessness have nothing to do with the intrinsic worth of a person. Homelessness is a complex social issue with many variables. Unfortunately, for those who are homeless, the impact of the 1640 values ​​is still pervasive… middle of paper… website. I thought he had an interesting idea and it was helpful to my article that he was able to teach his church the lesson of not judging based on appearance. “Overview of Homelessness in America.” National student campaign against hunger and homelessness. National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, n.d. Web. March 15, 2014. The site provides many statistics on hunger in the United States. The website examines who is homeless and why. This source is credible because this is a national student campaign to end homelessness. It is also a .gov website. The website was helpful and gave me lots of statistics. I ended up not using many of them, but they allowed me to understand who the homeless are and the actual number of homeless people in the United States. I used the statistic that there are approximately 3.5 million homeless people in the world.