We’ve looked at places like Dignity Village where tiny houses are starting to pop up as places for low-income and homeless people to live in, but now people are starting to build them for their own minimalist purposes as a new pop culture trend. Is this something that could be detrimental to the purpose of tiny houses? We don’t normally see something that is implemented to benefit the lower members of society become an aspect of pop culture, and I’m starting to think this could either help or hurt the homeless and low-income citizens. I think the introduction of tiny houses into pop culture could be beneficial by showing how higher members of society can live in them; the low cost and high impact of giving someone a place to live could sway public opinion to be in favor of using this method to help those in need of a house. On the other hand having higher members of society demonstrate the effectiveness of tiny houses could give people the opinion that tiny houses are a luxury, and possibly a luxury that homeless and low-income citizens don’t deserve. I guess what it comes down to is how this concept will be brought up to the public; obviously it is rooted in the homelessness crisis, but if others around the country are introduced to this idea as an aspect of pop culture as opposed to a way to a way of dealing with the homelessness crisis how is that going to affect the social stigma around tiny houses, homeless people, and homeless people in tiny houses?

Since I didn’t talk about my experiences in my presentation I’d like to focus on that for a portion of this blog post, for which I will not name the organization. Overall I’ve had a great experience with my organization, I’m at a point where I can walk in there on practically any day at any time and there’ll be someone I know there who I can talk to or that knows me. Watching the presentations today made me really reflect on my organization because most of the others seemed quite professional and very well structured, where as mine felt more like a group of friends trying to do what they believe to be right. When you ask who is in charge the answer you’ll get is that nobody is in charge, that everyone is there because they want to help other people. I think the lack of structure is actually a strength because it goes to show just how far compassion and care go, that all it takes to get something done is will power. That being said it feels like this group of friends is trying really hard to push themselves to the next level of being a well-structured, highly effective agency, and I look forward to seeing the progress they’ll make. I learned a lot about what it takes to manage and maintain a non-profit organization from this internship. My first time trying to volunteer there I was rejected because I hadn’t gotten their early enough, I had to fill out some paperwork about what I wanted to do there and give them personal information; it was very different and much more serious from what I was expecting, I thought I could just show up and help out. That was when I realized that volunteering is no joke, social work is no joke, and having to put up with all of negative stereotypes and seemingly mindless reasons for keeping poor people down is no joke. Most of all this internship has taught me an invaluable respect for the people who dedicate themselves to changing the lives of others as well as those who use the services of these organizations, and I believe it is this respect that will help make a significant change in the lives of millions of Americans if it can introduced to public opinion on homelessness.

Right now this organization is having relatively the same major issue of lack of staff as most other non-profits; like I stated in my presentation there are no paid staff members, and therefore if volunteers don’t show up they must close their doors to the public. In addition they’re struggling with space. A nearby school is planning on moving out in the coming months, and this organization is going to try their best to get the land for their own operations. The school would be three times the square footage of the current facility, have more buildings for more smooth, less crowded services, and would be a big step in establishing themselves as a major contributor to the alleviation of poverty.

I found an article from almost six years ago talking about a homeless encampment in Redlands. At first glance I didn’t think it was going to be of any relevance, but I found a couple useful ties to our class in it despite its length.

The main thing highlighted in this article is the idea of homeless people being pushed around (the leaf blower effect). We’ve learned about how cities don’t want their homeless people to be in public view, and I think the negative public view of homeless people is portrayed in the article with the author’s use of language; when he says “a homeless encampment set up along the train tracks in Redlands,” that doesn’t tell the reader where the homeless people are, that’s like giving directions and saying “go downtown” without actually describing how to get there. Whether or not the author intended it this way we can see the social stigma engrained in our language.

The next thing I found interesting was the police being reluctant to enforce laws forbidding homeless folks to sleep in public. I have no idea if this encampment still exists, and we’ve talked about how the Redlands Police Department hasn’t handled this issue in the most effective way so I’m curious as to whether the police are actually turning a blind eye and letting the encampment stay or if this was just for positive media attention.

Overall what struck me the most was the fact that there was an encampment in Redlands at some point. Personally I don’t see very many homeless people in parks or really at all on the street, maybe every now and then I’ll see a couple, but its rare. Nor do I see them in groups, most often they’re by themselves which made this article that much more insightful for me because  it helped solidify the reality that they are homeless people in Redlands, and they are blown around like leaves. Again this could be due to being a part of the isolated student demographic, it just resonated with me when I found an online article confirming what’s usually just comments in our class that add meaning to a bigger point.

I took the phrase “grow the middle class” from section 6 of Heise’s book and typed it into Google, and the second link that popped up was a list of the top 10 solutions for cutting poverty and growing the middle class.

Reading through the article there is definitely some overlap with Heise. Both talk about creating more jobs, raising the minimum wage, increasing earned income tax credit, reducing funding cuts to programs that help low-income families, supporting pay equity, and investing in high-quality childcare and early education. The four solutions talked about in the article that Heise doesn’t mention are: providing paid leave and sick days, establishing functioning work schedules, expanding medicaid, and reforming the criminal justice system.

Ten solutions may sound like a lot, but frankly these things aren’t that hard to do. Take supporting pay equity for example. This article believes closing the gender pay gap would cut poverty amongst working women and their families in half, and add half a trillion dollars to America’s GDP. With many of the presidential candidates focusing on economic growth it seems we can hit two birds with one stone by simply accepting gender equality. Having paid leave and sick days is something many countries have been doing for some time already and proves to be effective, most our own population disagrees with reducing government spending by cutting programs like food stamps that help low-income families, and reforming the criminal justice system can help over one million incarcerated Americans get jobs after their sentences.

Throughout our class I kept asking myself why nobody is doing anything about the issues of poverty and homelessness. But after reading section 6 of Heise and this article I ask myself HOW we haven’t made the changes needed to address these issues; its astonishing to me that we have all the information we need to make the necessary changes, we have people attempting to make those changes, yet somehow these changes are not nationally supported. I think this goes back to public awareness, if the idea that the impoverished are the scum of society can be changed I don’t think poverty would be an issue.

Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class

I was very excited after reading the post about the encampment in Portland and how successful it was, so I wanted to find out if there were any other places around the country with anything similar. What I found is a “guide to homeless encampments” created by the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing; at first I was very worried about what I would find in this guide given the skewed public view on homeless people. I was surprised to find an outline of the two sides of the homelessness debate, one saying homeless people need society’s help to recover from their situation, and the other saying they simply drain resources and harm their communities.

In the section title Harms Caused by Homeless Encampments the guide outlines a variety of issues brought on by encampments. These included spreading disease due to garbage attracting rodents coupled with an inability to properly wash utensils. Poor hygiene and lack of health insurance also lead to the spreading of sickness. The next section of problems caused by encampments is in regards to the environment, but doesn’t have any quantitative data to support the claims. The guide states inadequate disposal of human waste can be hazardous to water supplies, and the use of wood stoves and camp fires can cause wildfires that destroy infrastructure as well as natural habitats. Finally the last problem discussed was the homeless and their impact on the larger community. The guide talks about a strong relationship between homelessness and criminality, threats to business viability, illegal use of public space, and costs to society. After reading through all the categories it was clear to me that the sole factor behind all these problems was public unwillingness to interact with or even be in proximity of homeless people, and that the public does not want to pay taxes towards having them around.

What the guide fails to mention is lack of money going towards social services and aid programs is a primary reason for homelessness, developing sickness, and living in public spaces and in addition does not address the side of the argument that homeless people need society’s help. All the problem categories outlined in the guide could be addressed quite easily if more of the public was informed about the real causes of homelessness and the ways to deal with it.

For those of you that weren’t able to make it to Relay for Life on Saturday it was an extraordinary experience. Seeing so many people standing up and being united for one cause was truly remarkable to witness, and it got me thinking if we can do this for cancer, why not homelessness? So far Relay for Life has raised around $43,000 (correct me if I’m wrong Emily) and fundraising will continue for a next couple months. I honestly think having an event structured the way Relay for Life was, and having people spend 24 hours walking the track, having guest speakers and those who have had experience with homelessness throughout the day could and would be a major step towards raising public awareness and putting a more positive spin on public opinion while raising money. Getting other non-profits involved would help immensely; there could be one target organization that all donations would go towards, or there could be multiple organizations that split the donations. Either way I think the organizations would greatly appreciate the assistance. This would definitely take a lot of planning, time, and effort, but with hard work and dedication the University of Redlands could be one of the first schools in the country to do something like this; who knows, maybe there’d be media coverage of the event if it were advertised enough, that would expand public awareness way past the boundaries of our community. I really like this idea and see no reason why something like Relay for Life can’t be replicated for other causes. Let me know what you guys think, maybe we can start working with admin on it.

I’ve been doing some research on the presidential candidates because I wanted to find out what each of them plans to do about the homelessness crisis. I found www.ontheissue.org which is a great way to find out candidate’s policies for a variety of different issues, so I selected four candidates (Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on the democratic side, and Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on the Republican side) clicked the Welfare and Poverty link and learned some pretty interesting stuff.

The first thing I noticed, which didn’t really surprise me, was that under welfare and poverty for Ted Cruz there was one line, “government checks create dependency.” So we know Ted Cruz isn’t going to do much to help those in need.

Next let’s move on to Trump, who does a little bit better than Cruz. He wants to apply Welfare-to-work to 76 other welfare programs, not just AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children). However, he thinks “benefits should have strings attached. After all, if it’s our money the recipients are getting, we the people should have a say in how it’s spent.” That quote pretty much shows that his real concerns are where the tax-payer dollars are going. Furthermore he believes teenage mothers shouldn’t get public assistance unless they jump through some small hoops, and that they can receive assistance from “saints” who help them out of the goodness of their hearts.

We now come to Hillary Clinton who has some good ideas, but still seems a bit shaky. First off she opposes criminalizing the homeless and doesn’t see how it helps the problem at all. Secondly she advocates equal access to jobs and capital for all citizens, and thirdly believes banks and mortgage companies need to allow people to renegotiate their loans in order to stem the flow of foreclosures resulting in people ending up on the streets.

And finally, Bernie Sanders, who advocates for public assistance programs such as: social security, pension benefits, childcare and education, affordable housing, and nutrition programs. Not only is he opposed to cutting the food stamps program, but he co-sponsored the Head Start Program which provides early childhood services, as well as Job Corps – which he looks to expand – and a supplemental food program for women, infants and children.

I tried to stay within the word count while still giving you guys a good idea of the policies so I apologize for such a lengthy post. I’ll paste the links for you guys to check out because I didn’t get to all the policies, and I did have trouble interpreting the information on Hillary’s page so feel free to go more in depth on her policies in the comments! Also this is all from one website so some fact-checking may be necessary.

http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Bernie_Sanders_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Hillary_Clinton_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Ted_Cruz.htm#Welfare_+_Poverty

http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Donald_Trump_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm

I’ve begun thinking about homelessness back in my home county because despite living there for 21 years I haven’t really put in to perspective my past experiences with homeless people as well as the mentally ill. With all that we’ve learned so far I figured what better place to look at and see what steps are being taken to aid the homeless. On the county’s Human Services website I found a 10-year plan to end homelessness in San Mateo County called Housing Our People Effectively (HOPE) that appears to have been implemented in 2013, and intends to bring together businesses, nonprofits, and public sector agencies to address the core causes of homelessness in a coordinated and cost-effective manner. The plan is built around the two key ideas of housing and prevention, and lists four recommendations for ending homelessness. These are: increasing housing opportunities for the homeless as well as those in serious risk of becoming homeless, providing aid in a timely fashion to support independence and stability, create standards to track progress made towards ending homelessness, and in turn reporting progress to the community and stakeholders, and lastly, developing long-term leadership in the community to sustain the efforts being made to end homelessness. The cost of this plan is estimated at approximately $1.56 billion over the course of ten years to create, maintain, and operate 7,900 units of permanent and supportive housing, and is to be primarily funded by state and federal resources.

This seems like a great step forward, though as I read further in to the plan it goes on to say that the usage of emergency and social services by homeless people can cost upwards of $70,000 per person, per day; this could result in the 10-year plan costing around $2 billion over the course of its duration simply to continue providing homeless people with current services that for the most part don’t end homelessness.

Another thing warning flag in my head was the number of housing units proposed in this plan compared to the number of homeless I found in San Mateo County for my data exercise. The census I found for the 2015 homeless count in San Mateo County reported 1,722 homeless people compared to the 7,900 units of housing proposed by the HOPE plan. I’m unsure as to why the numbers are so different, but I suspect there couple be a number of reasons behind it. I’ll post a link to the Human Services website for you guys to check out.

http://hsa.smcgov.org/center-homelessness

We’ve been focusing a lot on homelessness in urban areas such as New York City and various parts of L.A. County, so I wanted to look more at rural areas and see how homelessness is affecting people. What I did found is that many who find themselves homeless in a rural area often try their best to make it to an urban setting with the idea that more people equals more job opportunities and more places to sleep. I stumbled across this interactive map that ranks each state’s homelessness per 100 thousand residents for the last five to six years, and I was surprised to see first off that Hawaii ranks number one in the country for most homeless people per 100 thousand residents. I could have guessed that California and New York have very large homeless populations, but I had no idea how prevalent homelessness is in between the two coasts. Places like Montana, Minnesota, and North Dakota have much more homelessness than I would have first anticipated (North Dakota went from 46th in 2012 to 6th in 2013), and Mississippi really threw me off when I saw it’s ranked 50th in the country with only 94 homeless people per 100 thousand residents; I guess those are my uneducated biases coming in to play.

Another thing I saw that I think is worth noting is that there are only four states on the map that have more unsheltered homeless than sheltered homeless. I get a couple different feelings from this data, the first being that maybe we are doing a decently good job dealing with homelessness and the lack of affordable housing if there is a vastly greater sheltered homeless population than unsheltered homeless population. Secondly, how many of those people (sheltered and unsheltered) are getting any other aid they need to survive. And lastly if there is potential for the unsheltered to get in to shelters, and the sheltered to get jobs and affordable housing, or are people just doubling up and moving around? From what I saw on the maps from years past the numbers in California have stayed pretty consistent; maybe this just looks like good news and we actually haven’t done that much to improve the situations of homeless people.

http://www.movoto.com/blog/opinions/homelessness-in-america-maps/

We’ve gone over and over about how there isn’t enough housing for homeless people, that there needs to be more transitional housing, and it needs to be available to those who need it. Well with L.A. County officials spending millions of dollars, and promising to spend more on transitional and permanent housing programs they’ve been able to help someone out! James Lonon was homeless for a year until Marsha Temple and her colleagues at Integrated Recovery Network were able to get him his own room in a six-bedroom apartment near USC as well as a part-time job just before the recent homeless count. He has a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Long Beach and after losing a nine-year job as a clerk became homeless in 2014 when his unemployment benefits ran out. While on the streets Lonon was a very active homeless man; when Carla Hall (author of the article) met him on a bench in November of 2015 she noticed he was quite good at meeting new people and making money for himself. He had a cellphone, an email address, and a storage unit. He spent most of his time trying to get a room because he did not want to go to a shelter, and had turned down an offer for a regimented group living arrangement. In the article he says, “All the people out here in Santa Monica – it would seem like they would have an empty room that they would offer to someone, it’s just a waiting game – waiting for the right person who will respond to that type of request.” The main thing that stood out to me in this article was Lonon’s refusal to go to a shelter and regimented living arrangement. What makes these options unattractive to homeless people? There is the factor of shame, but I think that’s just another way of saying our current solutions just aren’t good enough, nor do I think it is the only reason why people don’t want to sleep at shelters. I think answering the above question can help us determine how we can improve our shelters, and ways shelters can work with transitional housing agencies to get a steady stream of people in to the shelters, and from there in to transitional/permanent housing.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-street-journey-homelessness-20160204-story.html