On November 21, my poverty group interviewed Peter Brest. He told us a lot about job opportunities for the homeless. He told us that it’s not about the job opportunities, it’s the skills that they have. The jobs that anyone can get aren’t paid very well. If you don’t have any skills, you cannot earn enough to have a family and a house. There used to be a lot more jobs but now that computers can do so much, they barely need people. For example, there used to be 5 people working at the cash register and now there is 1 person and 4 computers. He also told us that most of the people that come to his organization also have poverty issues like drugs and alcohol. There are about 50,000 people homeless and 22,000 children. The most rewarding part of his job is seeing people get out of poverty and get basic needs. Since so many wealthy people live in NYC, prices go up a lot which makes of hard for homeless people to get food and clothing. Although, clothing has come down because of that fact that much of it is being made in China. The solution to poverty isn’t just the money, it’s finding skills that people in poverty have and using those skills to earn money. This interview really impacted our group. We hope to meet with him again and get more information.
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