Alpha Phi Alpha held its first event in a series of week-long events to address the issue of homelessness Monday. According to Christopher Carter, president and senior in business management, education is the first step toward improving the homeless situation in Raleigh.

“A lot of people don’t know or don’t care [about homelessness], but if we take it upon ourselves to learn about it, people don’t have an excuse not to care,” he said.

Participants discussed their opinions on homelessness, and fraternity leaders showed statistics to put the issue into perspective, according to Carter.

“The majority of homeless are 25 [years old] and younger,” Carter said.

During the discussion, moderators asked the group what they think the primary reasons for homelessness and how they handle donating money to the homeless. Some would rather give food than money to someone on the street, as they said they were unsure where the money could go.

The fraternity volunteers at the local men’s shelter several times a month, and this experience has caused a change in their points of view, according to Jaron Hinton, liaison on All-Greek Council and senior in biological sciences.

Hinton said while they were serving food at the shelter, one man told them about his past and said he had been a brother in a different chapter of their fraternity.

“No one’s immune or bigger than the issue,” he said. “To hear the stories of people’s situations, you realize that they’re not far from your own.”

Marcus Alexander, chaplain and senior in industrial engineering, said he was “naive that people with high paying jobs can end up homeless.”

“N.C. State could make people more aware of the situation,” he said. “There’s not a lot of involvement…there’s more we could do.”

According to Hinton, while NCSU has supported Habitat for Humanity, and they recognize the homelessness issue, more hands-on work needs to be done to make sure that policies and ideas are implemented.

APA is having more events in Witherspoon all week to educate people about other issues, Carter said. Today, they’re hosting “We’ve Got to Do Better,” a forum on how African Americans can combat stereotypes. Wednesday, there is a womens’ appreciation event; Thursday, a gentleman’s workshop; and Friday, they will team up with H20 for the Fall Semester Jump-Off at the Free Expression Tunnel.