shanty towns

Did anyone see the Today Show segment on the new homeless? Over 2000, living in tents in some open space in Sacramento. Heating homemade soup in coffee cans over open flames. People who never in their wildest dreams thought they would ever be homeless. Jobs and homes lost. It's happening all over the country.

I've been around homeless people before, but this hit me in an all new way. Because they were like you and me. Regular people, who were hit hard by the economy and ran out of options. I feel completely overwhelmed.

I took this image at a recent photo shoot...we were shooting near the railroad tracks (I'm sure we were trespassing) and I looked over, and there was some one's home. I snapped the shot, feeling a bit guilty...not wanting to invade some one's privacy...but wanting to get a picture of this person's tent. I wondered if the people at the building the tent was near helped him at all. I wondered if he would be insulted if I dropped off a blanket the next time I was doing a shoot there.

And now I'm wondering, are there tent towns in Denver? What can I do? What can I give? How can I get it through our kids that people are hurting...that not getting a Happy Meal or a book at the school's book fair might not be the worst thing that could happen?

I have no answers this morning. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm not doing enough.