To Whom It May Concern,

We, the students of DelSesto Middle School, are writing this letter to ask for your support concerning homeless awareness. Our goal is to motivate the General Assembly to officially create an Annual Homeless Awareness Day for the state of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island Homeless Awareness Day is a day that would help to inform others about homelessness, its causes, and its effects. This is important because being homeless is very hard and dangerous: when someone experiences homelessness they have to brave dangerous weather and have less access to needs like clean clothes, affordable shelter, food, and water. Because of this, the average age of death for a homeless person is 47, compared to 77 for the general population.

Homelessness is not a choice. It can be caused by many things such as losing a job, lack of affordable housing, and lack of healthcare, mental health care, and addiction treatment. No one wants to be homeless, and this day can teach those who don’t know the feeling of being homeless more about it.  

Over 4,000 people, including families and children, are homeless in RI. We would like to see the number of people experiencing homelessness in RI decrease and we believe that to make this happen, more attention and awareness needs to be brought to this issue. RI Homeless Awareness day would let those experiencing homelessness know that others care about them, can reduce the stigma and myths around homelessness, and can contribute to gathering the funds and support needed to help.

We are asking you to sign this petition to support passing a law that would make this day official. We greatly appreciate your support.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact our teacher, Ryan Connole at ryan.connole@ppsd.org or (401) 225-5636.

Thank you,

Students of DelSesto Middle School