I was always scared of homeless people.

The ragged clothes. The odor. The crazed expressions. As a child, I would stare at them and pick up my pace a little.

This attitude is easy to adopt and hard to shake. On your first few days as a Penn student, the mentality is reinforced. We all know the maxims and anecdotes: Don’t wander too far past 40th. Always travel in groups. Remember, a girl got shot a few years back.

This isn’t to say that Maureen Rush and the good people at the Department of Public Safety don’t have the best intentions. We don’t live in Ithaca or Hanover. It is no coincidence that Penn has the fourth largest private police force in the nation.

However, it is wrong to assume that homeless people are our enemies (especially when our “allies” seem indistinguishable).

We, as Penn students, should occasionally climb down from our Ivory Tower and take advantage of our unique environment. West Philadelphia should serve as a constant reminder of the harsh realities of the real world. There are an estimated 25,000 homeless people in Philadelphia, roughly half from West Philly.

(more…)