Some of you may know that the new Starbucks on Redlands Boulevard took the place of a Mexican restaurant called La Rosita.  Being a Redlands native I have never gotten food at La Rosita but I never really saw anyone there anyways.  I am assuming that La Rosita was going out of business because they weren’t receiving any customers or revenue.  However, recently writing a paper about the new Starbucks and it’s clientele I found an article from the Redlands Daily Facts that makes me think otherwise.

The article said that The Planning Commission of Redlands approved the plan of building a Starbucks there because they thought it would be a great addition to Redlands and that the property will be nice to have in the city.  This property was actually a landmark of Highway 99 built in 1960.  One of the commissioners says, “‘I did find it a little sad that this last vestige to historic 99 through our community is going down with the replacement of yet another corporate franchise that’s indistinguishable from any other of its outlets anywhere else’” (http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/government-and-politics/20140515/la-rosita-building-to-be-demolished-for-new-starbucks-in-redlands).  He continues however by saying that the recognition of the franchise is an “award winner.” Meaning that since people are familiar with the area and that there is now a popular franchise there, the clientele and revenue will be great.

Although I have to agree that it has brought in numerous amounts of people, I don’t think that the Starbucks was built entirely on the fact that it would be just a great addition.  Having a Starbucks in this area of Redlands brings in a certain type of person.  As in, upper and middle class people.  Growing up going to Redlands High School down the street, it was no secret that homeless people hung out around those fast food places where Starbucks has now been thrown into.  Thus, with the type of people that Starbucks usually attracts, I think that one of the aims of this new development was to weed out some of those homeless people.  They don’t want Redlands to look run down and unsafe, especially downtown where people go to socialize.

I think that this is a great first hand look about how cities keep their homeless numbers under wraps as well as how they try to hide their homeless people.  I never thought of building a “high-end” store as a way to kick out the homeless but it sadly makes sense.

My internship was at Redlands Family Services.  Their mission is to alleviate poverty, encourage self-sufficiency, and promote the dignity of all.  In my first progress report I mentioned that I was supposed to be working with case management.  However, my job consisted mainly of busy work at the front desk.  For example, I would make copies, information packets, flyers, stamp folders, alphabetize folders/name cards, and file documents.  I never actually got to case management.  I continued to do the little tasks that were busy work nobody actually wanted to do.  I think that the closest thing I did that involved case management was when one of the newest case managers wanted to show me how to input a new family into their system.  Using a particular database, she showed me what to look for in the new family’s file and where to submit it on the computer.  She explained to me that this was done for every person/family.  I assume that these are updated at least every year considering people have children or their conditions get better or worse.

Although I mostly did busy work while being at the front desk, I was also able to help clients sign in.  I also recorded on paper when people needed to get clothing.  When clients go to get clothing we have to write down their case number (assigned to them when they join Redlands Family Services), their ethnicity, what city they reside in, the number of people in their family, and the ages of each person in their family.  I actually don’t know why this is recorded instead of services like food and what not, but I think it is because the agency is a non-profit that receives funding from the government.

One thing that I noticed that Redlands Family Services was good at was that no matter what their client’s condition was, they were always willing to find a solution.  For example, a family came in looking to receive services from the agency.  They did not know how to go about receiving services so we called one of the case managers up to the front desk.  One of the things that Redlands Family Services requires in order to receive help is proof of income.  The family looking for help was a woman who did not speak English and her daughter who was about 15 years old.  The 15 year old explained that everything her dad receives is in cash so figuring out what kind of document to bring in as proof of income was hard to find.  However, the case manager was able to find out that she could bring in a phone bill and that would count as proof of insurance.  I found it fascinating that they would accept this.  I thought it was really cool that they helped this family in any way that they could.  I don’t think that many agencies would have taken the time or have had the patience to help a 15 year old find proof of insurance for her family.

As stated in class, I had not yet been able to work at my assigned non-profit agency because my internship didn’t start until today (Tuesday 3/8).  However, after today it became clear to me that this agency was serious about what they do.  The mission of the non-profit agency is to alleviate poverty, encourage self-sufficiency, and promote the dignity of all.  They provide numerous services; a few of which are classes for basic life skills, clothing, food, and housing assistance.  In order to access such resources at this agency, a person must be assigned to a case manager.  The case manager helps the individual with bills, housing, budgeting, time management, etc.  Clients are also to come in for appointments that follow up on their progress and make sure that they are staying up to date and on the right track.  Case managers really work with helping those towards self-sufficiency.

My job was to work in case management.  However, when I got there, the volunteer coordinator was not available to greet me and tell me where to go.  In fact, I was told to arrive at 8:00 in the morning but the agency did not open until 9:00.  I was a little bothered by this since it was my first day but luckily I met with the program director who was able to show me around the entire agency.  Afterwards, we finally got a hold on the volunteer coordinator and he put me to work at the front desk of the main lobby.  Here I shadowed an older woman who has been working there for over thirty years.

To begin, I watched how the woman at the front desk handed out numbers to everyone who came to the front desk.  Since it was very busy, people had to wait for their number to be called in order to be helped.  I thought that this was a nice system.  Then I started to help the woman sign people in.  For example, if a person needed food they needed to sign in and get a food ticket.  If a person needed clothing however (and most of them did), then they needed to sign in and I needed to write down their information on their recording sheet.  What I recorded included their name, case number, number of family members, their gender, ethnicity, and ages.  After that was on file, then that person could receive their clothing ticket.  The woman from the front desk explained that every detail needs to be recorded for government purposes since their funding comes from government money.

During my time working at the front desk, I was expected to just do whatever task the woman I was shadowing wanted.  I felt very disorganized since I was not told where anything was or what anything really meant.  I was very much thrown into my job.  It was also hectic because of the multiple things I was trying to do while making sure each person who came in got what they needed.  However, I am curious to see what this job has in store for me and what I continue to get out of it!

I went to the nail salon a few weeks ago and I noticed a man sitting in the corner of the parking lot so I decided to donate some money to him.  He was friendly and thanked me.  He tried to hold a conversation with me as well.  However, I was running on a tight schedule that day so our conversation wasn’t very long.  I went inside the nail salon and was able to sit down at a pedicure station right away.  About 20 minutes had passed when all of a sudden the homeless man I gave money to earlier, walked into the nail salon that I was in.  The workers asked why he was there and they seemed startled that a homeless man was walking into their business.  The homeless man reassured them that he was waiting for the “pretty girl” and pointed at me.  This made me very uncomfortable and honestly, a little worried.  The workers didn’t think anything of it and offered him a seat.  My nails were now done and I went to pay for them.  The homeless man was nowhere to be seen.  However, as I was walking to my car I hear a man call out “hey!”  I looked and it was the homeless man waiting for me.  He started walking towards me and making small talk again.  However, he began to ask personal questions like what my last name was and where I was going.  He even asked for my number.  At this point I decided to cut him off and get in my car and drive away.

This entire experience was actually very nerve racking to me.  Being a female and alone, I didn’t feel very safe talking to this man.  However, I did give him money and I understand why he wanted to talk (I don’t mind being polite and making a little small talk) but it gave me a negative experience with the homeless.  It’s somewhat disheartening that these kind of homeless people are the ones who give the homeless communities bad reps but it was something I won’t forget.

In class today we touched on the topic of the types of jobs that organizations were helping the homeless obtain in order to get back on their feet.  We learned that the type of skills that are taught to the homeless were mainly skills for low-wage jobs like working at a fast food restaurant.  Mr. Spickard brought to our attention that organizations weren’t trying to teach skills such as computer engineering to the homeless, which would be a much more stable career/future.  However, I can see why organizations don’t teach these skills.

According to Chris Jenck’s analysis, homelessness is correlated with the use of cocaine.  Jenck’s calls it the “crack epidemic”.  In a shelter study, Jenck’s finds that 66% of homeless had crack in their urine.  This is more than half.  With statistics showing that a majority of people who are homeless, also use cocaine, probably means that these people aren’t able to learn computer engineering.  Or at least not in a significant amount of time.  Especially if a person becomes addicted to cocaine, which most of them do, it’s hard to get off the streets let alone keep a job.

Trying to teach anyone such skills for computer engineering-type jobs takes time and a lot of schooling.  Most people don’t just take a few classes and become whatever they want to be.  I don’t think that organizations have the funding or the time to really be able to fully teach anyone skills like that either.  I mean, isn’t that what schools are for?

Overall, with the high use of drugs and the limited amount of resources and time, I can see why organizations can’t/don’t want to teach homeless people such skills.

In one of the books read this past week, it talked a little about “truly poor” versus “allegedly poor.”  I didn’t know what this meant and I guess I don’t know exactly what makes someone truly poor.  Where does one draw the line between allegedly poor and truly poor?  After the in-class activity of trying to create a budget under about $1,485, I saw how difficult it really is to choose what you want to use your money for and how you can go about saving it.  My group was not able to save any of our money.  Growing up very privileged it was hard to think of the most efficient ways to live our “poor” lives month to month.

I thought that this budget was insane to work with.  I would consider it truly poor but maybe its not.  There are people with even less.  I just cannot imagine the time it takes to be poor.  There is so much thought and effort put into it that I had no clue about.

I understand better that people can lose a lot (if not all) hope in themselves given the circumstances.  I would be tired of all that effort everyday, too.  As discussed in class, I think that hope is a big thing to have.  Without hope they may never see a glimpse of light.  It’s sad to think that they don’t want to see that light.  However, I do not blame the poor for not wanting to see the light, especially after learning about the Hurricane Katrina event.  The fact that the rescue team didn’t bother to check every nook and cranny makes me sick.  I am beginning to think that maybe society needs to show hope.

I wonder what could happen if society stopped separating being poor into two categories; if they recognized that poor is just poor; that we show that there is hope for them, they would have more hope in themselves.  Maybe even strive to get out of poverty and create an upwards spiral, instead of downwards one.