For our class project centered around teaching a broader audience about the challenges and hardships facing those who are homeless in our society today, I chose to hold a film screening with a discussion to follow. The film I decided to show is called “Dark Days” and is a documentary film that was made in the year 2000. This film follows the lives of 11 people living underneath Penn Station in New York City, and exposes the causes, both structural and personal, that led them to be living in the tunnels below the city. The film itself won several awards at different film festivals, including the Independent Spirit Awards and SXSW, and made a huge impact on many people, because it was one of the first of its kind. A true documentary, the film relies almost exclusively on the voices and stories of the people it follows. Little to no background information is provided throughout the film, and the viewer is given a firsthand look into the lives of those living under Penn Station. I chose this film because I thought that it had all of the elements of what we have learned so far in our class, especially the first hand account of what it’s like to be homeless, and it was interesting enough to hold the attention of people who may have little interest in the subject matter. I presented the film to a group of women in my sorority, and after the film was finished we had an open discussion about the causes behind the conditions that brought these people to that situation. Since there was a lack of information about broader causes of homelessness throughout the film, I prepared a quick synopsis of some facts and figures about homelessness to share with my friends after the film had finished. This proved to be a helpful technique because many of them had only a little knowledge of the structural causes and real facts about homelessness.

One thing we talked about for a long time during the discussion time after the film was the negative stereotypes almost always associated with homeless people, especially panhandlers. Nearly everyone there shared a story that had to do with the guilt and confusion that came with denying a homeless person money or food when they were asked. Many of my sisters talked about how they’d been taught by their parents as little girls not to give money to homeless people because “they were just going to use it for drugs”, and that placed in them a deep seeded mistrust for people asking for money on the street. One girl in particular told a story about a woman she sees nearly every day outside of a coffee shop where she works. This woman almost always comes up to my friend asking for money so that she can buy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sometimes my friend gives her money or offers to buy her a coffee or food, but the more she sees her the angrier she gets by her presence. My friend talked about how she couldn’t understand why this woman couldn’t just “get a job” or go somewhere else in order to make ends meet. Obviously, I didn’t have an answer for her, but we talked about the things we can do to help this woman, the main thing being that we should have compassion for everyone we meet, and that we have to change our gut reactions to homeless people. The discussion turned into a really intense talk about how we treat the people we encounter, and how we need to be truly aware of those around us, and to abide by the golden rule, to treat others how you would want to be treated.

The organization that I volunteered at this semester is a non-profit organization centered in the city of Redlands and caters to a variety of people in the city and provides a number of successful and vital resources for these people. I volunteered there all semester and found a great depth of care for those that they were helping and a firm structural foundation on which the organization was built. The volunteers at this organization are dedicated, kind, and caring individuals who are really trying to do the best for these families, but are operating within a structural system that doesn’t always allow them to reach everyone or help in the best ways possible. There are certainly failings on behalf of the organization itself, but these people and this group is really doing what they can for those they are trying to help, but seem to be met with obstacles at many points.

The organization I volunteered with feels the controls of our structural system in a variety of ways, but mainly in dealing with getting families in need into low-income housing. As we discovered pretty early on in the semester, it is not easy to live on a minimum wage budget in our city, and there are little to no options for quality, low cost apartments for those in need. In my time at this organization I have observed the frustration most of the workers feel that there is only a limited amount of services that they can provide for these families, and sometimes there isn’t anything they can do to keep them in quality housing. I think that if they could, and if they were supported by the city, they would be building low-income housing all over the city, because as I’ve observed and talked to different volunteers about, they see this as one of the biggest issues facing their clients today.

I know that the this organization does everything in their power to help families throughout the Inland Empire get back on their feet and helps them in any and every way that they can, but sometimes it felt like it wasn’t enough, especially after talking to an employee from an organization that builds low income housing and hearing everything he was able to do in his state for homeless and borderline homeless families and individuals. One of the most glaring problems with my volunteer site is that they are stuck in a small town where the majority of the citizens are conservative and focused on maintaining a certain image about the city and those that run the organization cannot really move in any direction to enact change on a larger scale. I think it’s hard to criticize this organization for this issue, as it is not something that anyone can really control. I know that if they could, this organization would be building low-income housing all over the place and lobbying congress to change the laws, regulations and “red tape” policies that keep people in poverty throughout the country, but they are a small organization trying their best to help the people in their community, and they are doing the best they can under these circumstances.

Over the course of this semester we have analyzed different causes for homelessness and the variety of ways people become homeless. Moving into the last part of our class, however, we are beginning to look at some strategies for reducing or eradicating homelessness within our society. One story I came across this week was focused on how creating low income housing for homeless and poor people within cities actually leads to a decrease in tax-payer money spent, and eliminated many different problems related to homelessness. The story was focused in North Carolina and this quote provides an overview of the type of person who would benefit from the low income housing:  “Moore Place accommodates men and women who represent the millions of Americans affected by stubborn housing and employment problems that took hold during the Great Recession in 2007. They are folks who were living paycheck to paycheck, got laid off, couldn’t find another position, and so lost their home. There are also residents who struggle with mental illness or drug and alcohol addictions.” One quote from the article says that “providing housing at an 85-unit facility called Moore Place resulted in 447 fewer visits to emergency rooms and 372 fewer days spent in hospitals, The Charlotte Observer reported. That alone saved the city $1.8 million” (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2014/0331/If-homeless-people-had-a-safe-place-to-live-taxpayers-could-save-millions). This quote provides evidence that building housing for those who are living in shelters or on the streets is actually beneficial for cities and people living there. I know that many of my blog posts seem to be about building more low income housing, but once the funds are allocated and given to those looking to build these structures, there seem to be no downsides. Having places for homeless people to live provides a long list of benefits for those living in those homes, and for those in the communities where they are built.

Most of my research for this week was focused on my second book report and the internship progress reports that were done last Thursday. While doing work for both of these projects I noticed that the most important thing people can do for homeless people is to give them a hand up, not just a hand out (which is actually one of the motto’s of my internship organization). I focused a lot on this during the last week but now that those are mostly finished I have looked deeper into one of the topics that interested me about a month ago.

One thing that I found to be really interesting from a couple class sessions ago was the video we watched about homeless “villages” where people either live in tents or have erected low-cost structures for a large number of people to live in as a type of community. I was doing more research into this when I came across an article published by the New York Times called “Small World, Big Idea”. It was published very recently, about a month ago, and focused on a place called “Quixote Village” in Olympia, Washington. The idea behind Quixote Village is that small one bedroom, one bath “cottages” were erected as a community for homeless and unemployed residents of Washington State would have a place to live. The structures are modestly built, but have provided shelter and living space for these people for months now.

Quixote Village is an anomaly. There are almost no other villages like this one, espeically in Western Washington. Many of the homeless camps in that area are tent villages erected in the woods or on the sides of train tracks. Michael Tortorello, the author of the article says, “Beyond its recent good fortune, the settlement was — and is — exceptional.Quixote Village, as it is now called, practices self-governance, with elected leadership and membership rules. While a nonprofit board called Panza funds and guides the project, needing help is not the same thing as being helpless. As Mr. Johnson likes to say, ‘I’m homeless, not stupid.'” This statement definitely makes one think about the fact that there are no other places like this for people who just need a way to get back on their feet.

A quote from the article gives a good snap shot of the community that makes up Quixote Village. The writer describes the community, saying, “Most of that demographic, an estimated 450 souls, is unemployed. While the residents of Quixote Village are expected to pay 30 percent of their income toward rent, 15 of the 29 individuals reported a sum of zero. Ms. Segel added that the average annual income for the rest of the residents — including wages, pensions and Social Security payments — is about $3,100 each.” (Tortorello, 2014)

Overall, I am very intrigued by the ideas behind places like Quixote Village and want to know if anyone else thinks that this is a viable option for changing the way homeless people are living.

The organization that I am volunteering with this semester has been one of the most fulfilling and interesting experiences I’ve ever had. I have a slight background in working at places that provide services to families and individuals in need, but this opportunity has taken that to another level. The organization that I chose is a center that provides so many different types of services to families that are in need; some are families that are close to being on the streets, having trouble meeting their payments, or just generally need some support to help them keep afloat. I think that this is so important because I’ve learned through my time there that these situations could happen to anyone. Families that were solidly middle class have come to this organizations offices for assistance with paying their electrical bills that they can no longer meet or for help putting food on the table for their families. I think that this aspect of the class is the most important because so many people in our country and our world are living on the financial edge like this.

This organization is run extremely effectively and is centered on helping families in need in the city of Redlands. There are many different options that families can take in order to benefit from this organization, including: Family Support, Housing Advocacy Program, Emergency and Surplus Food Distribution, Clothing and Warm Coats, Rental and Utility Assistance, Budgeting, Basic Life Skills Training, Good Samaritan Loans, Information and Referral, Christmas Shop, Adopt-A-Family, Holiday Food Baskets, Teens Helping Teens, and Parenting Classes. These classes and services are all effective programs that both help these families and make them independent of the organization. They are focused on maintaining the dignity of each and every person that comes into the organization and they are focused on helping in any way they can.

I tend to volunteer at slightly odd hours during the daytime on Wednesdays and Fridays, so most of the people I see are the other volunteers and those who come in to drop off goods in the donation center attached to the main offices. Even though I’ve talked to plenty of administrators and coordinators at this organization, I have learned so much and been most affected through the people I volunteer alongside. Many of them are people in the community who have either received help from the organization in the past or are currently receiving aid of some kind. Their stories are so important to hear because they are almost ordinary during this recession and economic climate; many of them never thought they would need assistance of any kind and would not be where they are today without the help of the center and they are giving back to the organization through their volunteer hours. Although the program does not require its clients to volunteer in exchange for help, many people who have received assistance decide to do so on their own.

While doing some extra research during Spring break I came across an article from 2011 that was titled “15 Facts about U.S. Income Inequality That Everyone Should Know” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/05/us-inequality-infographic_n_845042.html?utm_hp_ref=homelessness#s261400&title=Wealth_Inequality). The article went through a series of charts that detailed the growing and pressing issue of income inequality in America and gave some important facts and figures that many people in America probably didn’t know at the time. It is interesting to read this article from the Spring of 2011, because that is around the time of the very beginnings of the “Occupy” movement. This article may have sprung from the knowledge that people were beginning to gain about the issues of income inequality and class stratification within American society or even have been an influencing factor in the growth of the movement. Reading through the article I was reminded of many of the things we’ve learned in class and been given lectures on, and even though this article is outdated by a few years now, it is interesting to see that not much has really changed.

The Occupy Movement was such a big deal in the fall of 2011 and protests all over the country were broadcast on national television, and it seemed like all of America was poised to see a real change happen. Unfortunately, the movement died out without any real changes being made to the issues they were addressing. Today, people still talk about the income disparity in America, but there have been no efforts made like the Occupy Movement to do much of anything about these issues. It seems like there is a constant narrative about how these things are bad and we should do something about it, but no one has any solutions on how to fix these issues. In 1917 (the last time the income inequality in America was this high) it took a full on Economic Depression to get the country back to a more even stratification, but this latest recession seems like it hasn’t had any effect on the differences in income and wealth.

This class has taught me so much about the issues that our country and our world are facing these days, but I’m still looking for ways to combat the issues that we are learning so much about. It seems to me that there should be a change made in the income inequality in our society so that there could be more good will between classes and a greater way of living for many in our country. My question here is: what can we do about this issue? Is it simply a matter of taxing the rich and getting them to put their disproportionate amount of money to good use? Or is it a structural problem that needs to be addressed as well? Perhaps we need to overhaul everything and start again, or should we just wait for the natural ebb and flow of economic societies to balance everything out? Is there an “easy fix”? Is there any real fix at all? I’m not sure if there is at this point, but I know that there need to be changes made in order to make life better for a large number of people in our country.

“Seven hundred people experiencing or at risk of homelessness are killed from hypothermia annually in the United States. Forty-four percent of the nation’s homeless are unsheltered. From the urban streets of our populated cities to the remote back-country of rural America, hypothermia – or subnormal temperature in the body – remains a leading, critical and preventable cause of injury and death among those experiencing homelessness.” (National Coalition for the Homeless, Winter Homeless Services: Bringing Our Neighbors in from the Cold, 2010)
The above quote was one of the first things I read while researching the affects and conditions that homeless people around the nation are facing during these long and cold winter months. The extreme weather conditions we have been experiencing lately all over the country are bound to affect those who are living on the streets or do not have access to permanent residences. I wanted to know what organizations are doing to combat the risks faced by the homeless during weather like this and how homeless people find shelter and warmth during the winter. After exploring the website for the National Coalition for the Homeless I came across their “winter report”. This report gave data and graphs showing how different organizations respond to the inclement weather and also gave tips on how to spot and avoid different types of illnesses and medical conditions that can come during the winter months.

I thought it was worth looking at this report since our entire nation has been experiencing worse weather than usual this winter, especially the east coast, Midwest and south. I looked at states with different winter shelters and how low the temperatures had to be for those shelters to open and across the board the shelters would have to be open by now and be providing extra care for the homeless during these extremely cold winter months. My findings were not terribly positive, and in many states the care for the homeless during these months left much to be desired. This quote from the website for the National Coalition for the Homeless explains these findings further, saying “In rural areas, shelters often have no outside resources to help them cope with the increased demand caused by cold weather conditions. Many shelters or cities offer expanded winter services only during certain months or only when the temperature falls below a pre-determined and arbitrary cut-off temperature. Above those cut-offs (hypothermia can occur in weather as warm as 50 degrees Fahrenheit) many cities do not offer resources to help the homeless people escape from the cold.”

Over the past few weeks we’ve been talking more and more about the harsh realities of life on the streets and what it really looks like to be a homeless person in today’s society. We’ve read books and seen movies and collected data about how hard it is to live even on minimum wage, and how it seems like at times there is no way out for those living below the poverty line. Our in class discussions have been centered around what we’ve witnessed at our internship sites and our own personal stories of economic pressure. And it all feels very hopeless. There seems to be a disturbing lack of focus on what we can really do to help these people. I want to start figuring out ways to change these realities and begin to focus on what we can do within our societies to make a change.

Reading my assigned book “Sidewalk” by Mitchell Duneier was an eye opener, to say the least, and it provided me with a whole new perspective on those who sell goods on the streets. While I was reading the book I couldn’t help but think of how just simply having a job to do, a task to complete, and a sense of independence positively affected the men who were interviewed. This got me thinking: we should be focusing on how to improve these peoples lives, not just analyzing the factors and events that got them there. Understanding their situations is an incredibly important aspect of improving homelessness, but we cannot simply leave it there. There needs to be follow through, and helping others achieve some sort of economic independence could be the deciding factor between hope and hopelessness for someone.

In the readings, videos, and articles we have seen and read for class within the first two weeks of the semester, there has been one clear theme that has stuck out to me: struggle. There is nothing comfortable, relaxing, or remotely easy about the lives of those who fall below the so called “poverty line”. Those living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet are never given any time to rest or relax or enjoy the money they worked so hard to earn. It’s a cruelly unfair life that most of these people lead and there seems to be no way out. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America” (http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681) Ehrenreich goes on an experimental journey to find out first hand what it is like to live on minimum wage in America. She works three different jobs (waitress, cleaning lady, and WalMart employee) and comes to the conclusion that it is nearly impossible to subsist entirely on minimum wage pay, no matter how hard she worked. Ehrenreich’s study is a one of a kind look at how the majority of people in our country live, and gives clear insight into the struggles of so many among us. To me, the most disturbing part of the book comes from when she is working at WalMart, and observes that many of her coworkers cannot even afford to buy the shoes at WalMart, because they are being paid so little.
The amount of disparity in income and wealth in our country both captivates and horrifies me. I have long understood the concept of class stratification in our society, but these last two weeks have really opened my eyes to what it all means. The activity we did last class was especially formative for me, because I truly realized that I had so much more to learn and how much I will need to expand my definition of what it means to be a working class American in today’s economy.