"Homelessness has become more than just those underneath the bridge, those that hold signs and that we typically see, more often than not," says Andrew Stevens of Love and Care Ministries.
Many former blue collar workers are now struggling to make ends meet because many have been laid off during the ongoing economic crisis. Though unemployment rates are seeing a slight drop, in 2010 nearly 4.5 million people in Texas were living below the poverty line.
"The working poor are now struggling to pay rent and maybe they're living in motels. Those are the families that we see more often than we used to," says Stevens.
In the last three years, Stevens says he's seen about a 40 to 60 percent increase in people regularly coming in to get food. There was a time when the poor may have been more easily distinguishable from others, but now the line is starting to blur.
"There's no qualification. If someone's hungry, we're gonna feed them. If someone needs clothes, we're gonna clothe them."
He says the most difficult part of the process is breaking the cycle, but he's willing to do whatever it takes to make sure those in need can look forward to another day.
