1,000 Words: The homeless

Today’s 1,000 Words comes with words.

It’s the voice of Jae Hong, a photographer for the Associated Press, whose assignment was to document the homeless crisis in the West.

“I saw so much of people in their rawest moments that I couldn’t bring myself to take photos of some of it,” he says in a first-person account on the Associated Press blog.

Watch the eyes.

I wish I understood the problem of homelessness better than before. Truth is I’m more confused than ever. I can’t see a solution.

I made plenty of mistakes growing up. We all did. But my parents loved me and supported me. My mother even gave up her job as a school teacher in South Korea so my brother and I could study in the U.S. How many on Skid Row had that luxury?

I now live in a two-bedroom condo in a gated community. The refrigerator is full of food. There’s a hot shower and comfortable bed.