With homelessness in Ann Arbor still on the rise, stereotypes abound and misconceptions run rampant. A senior project by two recent University graduates challenges popular notions of homelessness and what it means to the homeless. "Listen," a documentary by Residential College alumni Elisha Wolfe and John Mathias, will be screened locally several times this month. University students should heed the lesson of this documentary and not fall into stereotyping the homeless.

There are no clear problems or solutions to the homeless situation in Ann Arbor, but there are many ways to help.

A wide variety of organizations that offer services to the homeless in the Ann Arbor and Yspilanti area. Food Gatherers and the Ann Arbor Hunger Coalition run food pantries and soup kitchens. SOS Community Services offers basic emergency services, emergency food pantries, a twenty-four hour help-line, housing crisis and homeless prevention services, job and education training and after school child care.

Dawn Farms, a non-profit organization assisting people with substance abuse problems and offering housing assistance, instituted the "Loose Change for Real Change" program last fall. Instead of giving money to panhandlers, Dawn Farms encouraged to donate loose change into specified containers at local merchants. The program pools the money of concerned parties and channels it toward services for homeless people who choose to take advantage of it.

In addition to the service provided by various non-profit organizations and homeless shelters, the county should explore other avenues to address the homelessness. In Chicago, homeless people can sell StreetWise, which is the most successful selling homeless newspaper in the country with the largest circulation of about 60,000 copies every two weeks. Creative strategies for addressing a burgeoning problem in Ann Arbor may prove to be the most effective.

Students should be aware of the many reasons people are homeless - drug addictions, job scarcity, lack of educational opportunity or even personal choice - and not to allow themselves embrace or perpetuate common stereotypes. While students concerned about this problem should contribute in any way they can to help alleviate it, it is important that they do so with an attitude of tolerance and respect. Perhaps the best place to start is to become educated on the situation here in Ann Arbor by attending one of the screenings of "Listen."