I lead a discussion and interactive presentation on the Real Structural Causes of Homelessness with my classmate Sam in our Intentional Integral Living Learning Community on our University’s Campus.  To advertise our event we made an announcement at a community meeting which 70 people attended, a facebook event, which we invited 350 students, we made posters and we sent out 2 community emails, a week before and a reminder the day of the event. Despite this, only 3 people attended our event. This was disappointing because we worked very hard on our presentation and wanted to have a community discussion on the important real structural causes of homelessness and solutions.

Presentation Outline: 

1. Visualization living on the street homeless
2. Real Structural Causes: Neoliberal Governance, Hegemony: Dominance Model, Social Inequality: Race, Gender, Class
3. Ethnography of Systemic Inequality
4. Causes of Homelessness
5. Stereotypes
6. Discrimination and Recurring Trends throughout history
7. African American Civil War, Civil Rights
8. Women’s Liberation Movement
9. Solutions given from Homeless People
10. Public Policy Solutions
11.  Local Solutions:
12. My Internship at Homeless Youth Shelter
13. Sam’s internship at Salvation Army
14. State of CA solutions
15. National Solutions
16. What can we do? Discussion and Q/A

During the visualization one of the students was brought back to past experiences in low in come neighborhoods and on the street in DC. He shared  he remembered distinct smells, and busy business people quickly walking through the streets. Hes watched people rush past homeless people asking for money.  He also stated that most people would rather give their money to larger organizations then give money to people they meet on the street.

During our discussion one of the students shared her experience on Skid Row in LA, working with her Church to serve meals. While working there she heard a homeless person’s story.  The man she met received a college education, had a job as a computer software designer but went into severe debt from surgeries for his health conditions. This is an example of a person,  who simply needs affordable health care to survive. This is a policy issue. I believe everyone should be given free socialized health care which is similar to healthcare in countries in Europe.

After the presentation I felt frustrated no Community members attended the event.  This community when I arrived as a freshman, was very activism and social justice focused. 2 Years later their are new community members with different interests.  I am disappointed that I was not encouraged or supported my Community for this event. This was a big wake up call! As an activist I want to reach out to all people, especially as a student to other students.  Its hard to get students on campus interested and care about social justice, a lot harder than I expected.  Students would rather go to Community parties and play video games together than go to a Discussion Group on REAL ISSUES.

So far as an Intern at the Homeless Youth Shelter, I have learned a lot about how to be a positive role model, provide resources and raise awareness of the structural causes of homelessness. I have been lucky to work with diverse staff who care about the youth and see the societal issues that force youth into unhealthy and dangerous situations. All of the staff always encourage the youth and never blame them.  The youth are given a safe space where they can learn, play, have fun and fully be themselves without being judged. Many of the youth share everyday that they are grateful to be at the shelter in such a supportive community. This month the youth had the opportunity to go to Sacramento to support youth by participating in legislative visits with some of our state representatives and participate in the California Coalition for Youth Taking Action Conference for 2014. Staff come with great knowledge to share such as Just heard a great presentation by John Doe the director of FYSB. He had an inspiring story of growing up in the projects and now the director of all federal funding for homeless youth projects. Now we get to have a round table discussion to ask the hard questions.”   One of the shelter staff shared with me that some youth are “expected” to follow a certain path based upon family history, socioeconomic status, and many other factors. This does not have to be the case. One way to abate human trafficking is by having higher hopes and dreams for our youth.  There is always more to the story. We so often hear people who mindlessly judge youth for being promiscuous based upon what is on the surface. Another staff member shared with me her personal story as a survivor of human trafficking and  now travels to conferences, events and schools to educate people! The shelter staff  are continually striving to build bridges between themselves, the youth and their families which begins with basic respect and finding commonalities. It’s nice to see kids who are going through so much, just relax and be kids once in awhile. As an intern I have had the privilege to lead spoken word/poetry and art therapy groups with the youth. So far the youth have loved these groups, and have opened up their hearts with each other.  The youth have thanked me for being supportive, listening and treating them with equal respect. The youth are very creative and have a lot of inspiring wisdom and support to give each other. Through working with the youth I have learned a lot from them.  It is inspiring to hear them share their goals, dreams, values and beliefs. Recently I have been doing research for a Resource Binder that is used to provide resources to the youth after they leave the Shelter. I hope the youth continue to participate in  programs, groups and communities which will support them in following their goals and dreams. Its painful knowing that when the youth leave many of them are going back to horrible and messy situations without family support. All of the youth have case managers cell phone numbers and are encouraged to call whenever they just need someone to talk to or need help to get out a situation. All of the staff, who I have had long conversations with see the structural causes of homelessness and do not blame the youth. I feel proud to work for this organization and will continue to next year until I graduate.

Homeless Solutions is a non-profit in Morristown New Jersey which develops and provides emergency shelter, transitional and affordable housing.  They also provide services for families,  people with mental disabilities, single men and women.  They also have a furniture resale store which provides low priced furniture for people in need.   Volunteers can prepare meals,  assist with shopping provide childcare, and  share knowledge through teaching workshops on reading comprehension, budgeting and stress management.  Youth Leaders of Homeless Solutions  educate, fundraise and network to  raise awareness about homelessness and affordable housing. This is a diverse non-profit which provides affordable housing, furniture, resources, services, meals, and childcare. Homeless Solutions is effectively providing a variety of help for people and  is in tern combating the structural causes of homelessness. I am grateful that organizations like Homeless Solutions exist. I believe there needs to be more organizations and developers that provide affordable housing  across the U.S. This organization inspired me to look for similar organizations in CA, that I could potentially volunteer and work for! Through my research I found  Non-Profit Housing  Association of Northern California. NPH is a collective voice of those who spuuport, build and finance affordable housing. This includes The Bay Area Quality of Life Initiative aims to put a ballot measure on the nine-county Bay Area ballot (by November 2016) that will raise dedicated funds for parks and open space, transportation and transit, climate adaptation and affordable housing of %750 million to $1 billion. annually.The housing element is a long-term plan for how a local jurisdiction plans to adequately meet the existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments of the community.

It is clear that the current capitalist model is failing, creating radical income inequality.  What will our new strategy be? “Only a real social movement can bring about the social, cultural, market and political shifts needed to create an equitable and inclusive economy.” (Heise 186). It is imperative that we develop a sustainable model that is embraces changing demographics and future generation needs.  People of color who are unjustly discriminated against, are continuously oppressed and disadvantaged despite the fact they make up the majority of our world. The only way to solve world problems is through people collaborating with  diverse perspectives, creativity and innovation.  Everyone must be provided with equal opportunity to education that is empowering, culturally relevant and promotes secular ethics regardless of race, religion gender, class or orientation.  We must be an open-minded multi-cultural society that strengthens local community development.  We need sustained advocacy and diverse leadership that fosters  awareness and education of social and environmental justice. Lets leave our comfort zones, of planned obsolescence, a take-make-waste society that puts profit over people, generating oppression and environmental degradation.  “We must act -now-to prepare for the future. It is the path to prosperity-for all.”  ( Heise 187).  These traditions are a lie and are creating  animal conditioning,  a  complacent social purgatory, which is killing our freedom.  We must just get out of this social bodage.  Knowing our condition; WE MUST CHANGE.

Heise, Kenan. The Book of the Poor Who They Are, What They Say, and How To End Their Poverty.. Chicago: Marion Street Press, LLC, 2012. Print.

Currently and throughout history there has been immense poverty, and homelessness due to a  a variety of structural causes including a shortage of affordable, health care, housing units in the US,  cutting of social services and etc . Common responses to homelessness combine punitive legislation with support for what Lyon Callo calls “normalization” efforts. Why has social inequality been accepted as  a normal part of society?  He explains how our society is governed a domination model and a hegemonic process. He explains that shelter language and practices produce, and maintain homelessness.  Widely accepted discourses  include self-help and biomedicalization.  Efforts to solve the homelessness problem include a variety of techniques for detecting, diagnosing and treating disorders within individual homeless people. “Self blaming and self-governing people can, scarcely be expected to spend time developing strategies for collectively resisting systemic inequalities.” (Lyon-Callo 154) Not all homeless people give into these self-reform methods, and instead resist all efforts to be treated.  People who resist are deemed “difficult”  simply because they are not complacent and obedient with their treatment plan.  Shelter staff though they may want to end homelessness they are often condition to think it is a individual not structural issue.  As a result they respond by functioning within the neoliberal continuum of care discourses. Shelter staff are taught to govern and manage homeless people.  Failing to  address systemic and discursive inequalities  and instead devoting efforts to detecting deviancy and instead training homeless people remains ineffective in decreasing homelessness.  He explains that to eliminate poverty, we need social movements aimed at denaturalizing current dominant discourses about the rights of capital and redistributing the nations wealth in a more equitable fashion. We need collective political movements making existing jobs pay living wages, with just workers rights and environmental protection laws.

Lyon-Callo, Vincent. Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2004. Print.

Why is homelessness considered a normal part of our society? Why have many people learned to comply with social inequality? Why is providing housing to poor people seen as increasing their dependence on the government and decreasing their drive to become self-reliant individuals able to compete in the global market?  Why in  America  today families make too much money to qualify for federal assistance but not enough to pay their bills? Its important to look at the systemic oppression that has perpetuated throughout American history. It is no mystery that the same stereotypes of the deviant homeless are repeated each decade.   The US can be currently characterized by issues of systemic inequalities such as increasing class exploitation economic restructuring and declining relatives wages. Racial injustice, unequal educational opportunities, and gendered inequality are components of homelessness.Racial injustice, unequal educational opportunities, and gendered inequality are components of homelessnses. Recent American history demonstrates that people who speak out and politically resist social inequalities risk being punished and putting their economic position in jeopardy. We live in a system where people are afraid to put themselves at risk of loosing any of their relative privilege.  Lyon -Callo hypothesizes that the hegemony of deviant homeless establishes “naturalness” of current economic and social relations to prevent homeless people and shelter staff from challenging structural inequality which creates homelessness.  He argues Neoliberal governance creates common sense through its hegemony  of compliance with the conditions creating homelessness. He argues, Neoliberal development of government institutions, trained experts, and professional reformers like social workers, urban planners, teachers, health services and police are created to “manage” and “regulate” the lives of the poor in the interest of normalizing them. Therefore he explains that practices intended to resolve homelessness contribute to its maintenance. As students what can we do to challenge the system, “common sense” and systemic social inequality? I want to become a social worker who does not participate and contribute to the maintanance of  this oppression.  Currently, while working  at a homeless youth shelter, I want to participate in Lyon-Callo’s discourse and observe any social inequality that may be unconsciously perpetuated. I want to be an activist in bringing this discourse to light, educate others and participate in a non-profit organization which counters this social inequality.

Callo, Vincent. Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2004. Print.

The youth in crisis homeless/runaway shelter  is nurturing, supportive and operates as a family. While working with the staff and youth, I see how safe and cared for the youth feel. Every meal the youth share what they are grateful for, many of them sharing their gratitude of living at this shelter, and some even call it being part of the family.  The youth have a strict schedule, but this provides stability and consistency for them, which is very important because it helps the youth feel secure because  many of them have an unstable family life back home.   The youth enjoy eating together, hanging out, doing art projects and playing sports outside. So far the current group of youth at this shelter have been very respectful, honest and supportive of each other. The youth have accepted me as an intern and a few of them told me on my first day that I was a great fit  and that they liked me being there. I actively listen to the youth, give them help with hw, activities, chore assignments and field trips to the farmers market. It is obvious to me that this group of youth want to be at this shelter, chose to be there and are doing there best at communicating and participating in the program.  I was trained as a general and child abuse  mandated reporter  which gave me a lot of knowledge and skills for approaching situations when youth share information with me. I feel grateful to be in a supportive working environment. My bosses, and all the staff are warm-hearted, friendly and transparent. They answer all my questions and provide organized structure and resources. So far I recommend this internship.

As the poor continue to become poorer, health care is seen as a privilege, social services are cut,  millions can’t find jobs,  no one can healthily live on minimum wage: WHAT ARE WE YOUTH DOING ABOUT IT? It is obvious that we have been conditioned to be obedient, complacent and passive. I see many people my age numbing out, focusing on pop culture issues over current events, unconscious of there consumer choice impacts and general apathy towards the government.  How much confidence are they going to have about pulling off a democratic movement below the radar of authorities?  Psychologist Levine explains in his article 8 Reasons Young American’s don’t fight back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance including 1) student loan debt, 2)psychopatholigizing and medicating noncompliance, 3) schools that educate for compliance and not for democracy, 4) “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top, 5) shaman g young people who take education but not their schooling seriously, 6) normalization of surveillance 7) television and 8) fundamentalist religion and fundamentalist consumerism.

Excerpts I found extremely  interesting:

1)During the time in one’s life when it should be easiest to resist authority because one does not yet have family responsibilities, many young people worry about the cost of bucking authority, losing their job, and being unable to pay an ever-increasing debt.  

2)Heavily tranquilizing antipsychotic drugs (e.g. Zyprexa and Risperdal) are now the highest grossing class of medication in the United States ($16 billion in 2010); a major reason for this, according to theJournal of the American Medical Association in 2010, is that many children receiving antipsychotic drugs have nonpsychotic diagnoses such as ODD (oppositional defiant disorder).

3) The nature of most classrooms (very unlike ours), regardless of the subject matter, socializes students to be passive and directed by others, to follow orders, to take seriously the rewards and punishments of authorities, to pretend to care about things they don’t care about, and that they are impotent to affect their situation.

4)  In a more democratic and less authoritarian society, one would evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher not by corporatocracy-sanctioned standardized tests but by asking students, parents, and a community if a teacher is inspiring students to be more curious, to read more, to learn independently, to enjoy thinking critically, to question authorities, and to challenge illegitimate authorities.

5)  (NSA) has received publicity for monitoring American citizen’s email and phone conversations, and while employer surveillance has become increasingly common in the United States, young Americans have become increasingly acquiescent to corporatocracy surveillance because, beginning at a young age, surveillance is routine in their lives.

7) Private-enterprise prisons have recognized that providing inmates with cable television can be a more economical method to keep them quiet and subdued than it would be to hire more guards.

8) A fundamentalist consumer culture legitimizes advertising, propaganda, and all kinds of manipulations, including lies; and when a society gives legitimacy to this it destroys the capacity of people to trust one another and form democratic movements

Heise, Kenan. The Book of the Poor Who They Are, What They Say, and How To End Their Poverty.. Chicago: Marion Street Press, LLC, 2012. Print.

I have heard the argument that homeless people are lazy, that they should just get a job and stop wasting their time and then begging for money. Clearly this is an irrational argument given the current rates of unemployment, the many types of people who are homeless and reasons why they are homeless. What many people are unaware of is that one of the types of homeless people are those with mental illnesses.  Jencks states in his book The Homeless “Clinicians who examine the homeless today usually conclude that about a third have ‘severe’ mental disorders. Since the homeless were often hospitalized in the 1950s…, well over a third of today’s homeless might have been locked up at that time. Recreating the mental-health system of the 1950s would therefore cut today’s homeless population dramatically.” Reviewer Reeve Vanneman asks readers where they stand on this issue.  After researching and hearing about Mental Health programs in the 1950s, I do not agree with the methods that were in place at the time. Many people were admitted into hospitals that did’nt need to be and were also given wrong diagnoses, and medications that increased their problems. I am a strong supporter of progressive interactive therapy programs for people who suffer from a variety of mental illnesses.   My father is a Psychiatric RN and works with homeless people that are admitted in the hospital all the time. He has told me that 70% of the homeless people in Marin County, CA have some form of mental illness. What I want to know is if homelessness causes mental illness or intensifies it.  Homeless people are under constant stress for survival, safety, access to food, bathrooms, and a place where they can sleep.   I believe that traumatic experiences such as fighting in war, poverty, gangs membership,  physical and sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse,  which all cause post traumatic stress also increase mental illness. At my Dad’s hospital, on the crisis unit and both in and out patient, he  does therapeutic work  that is interactive, participatory and activity based. He integrates, meditation, yoga, movement, art and music therapy in group sessions.   The Odyssey Program for the Homeless and Mentally Ill, help them get housing,  first they find a  shelter then  help them move into low income housing apartments. They also help the clients get  to appointments, access to meals and groceries.   The Bucklew Nonprofit partners with Marin General Hospital as well. They guarantee to find them a job and provide training.  The Ritter House for the homeless has their own psychiatrist at the Ritter center and makes sure that their clients are getting there needs met.  Social Services are always the first to be cut from County, State and Federal funding.  All these programs need more funding for their services and to have more paid positions within the organization to provide services.

Many Americans quickly walk past homeless people they see on the street, refusing the recognize them, to many they are invisible. Homeless people deserve the same dignity and respect  as all people. Everyone deserves to have shelter, food, and water.  Therefore it is our responsibility to make sure all people are given resources to survive. Through the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development the Hud’s Homeless Assistance program identifies and counts unsheltered homeless people with the goal of planning future services, justifying and allocating resources for programs for the many different subgroups of homeless people. The program also raises public awareness and community involvement. An unsheltered homeless person according to HUD resides in a place not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, transportation hubs, tent cities, sidewalks and abandoned buildings.  Encampments are areas where unsheltered homeless people live. people are harder to count because they are not living in emergency shelters or transitional housing. Many unsheltered homeless people still receive services such as street outreach teams, drop-in centers,  health care for homeless networks, soup kitchens and mobile van food programs.  There are a variety of approaches to collecting data on unsheltered homeless people. Approaches include direct street counts with or without interviews and data collection from service programs who may not be readily found in public places.  Applied Survey Research (ASR) has helped its partners secure additional federal and state funding through its homeless census and survey data! The 2007 San Bernardino County Homeless Census and Survey counted a total of  7,331 homeless people plus 133 persons reported in County-wide Domestic Violence shelters. The total of all unsheltered individuals and families was 6,111. This means that there are only 1,200 homeless people in shelters in San Bernardino County. Below are a variety of bar graphs taken from the study. 

“Hud’s Homeless Assistance Program.” A Guide to Counting Unsheltered Homeless People. Office of Community Planning and Development Us Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1 Oct. 2004. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. <https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/UnshelteredCountsGuide.pdf>.

 “Homelessness – Applied Survey Research.”  Homelessness – Applied Survey Research. ASR Applied Survey Research , n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. <http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/homeless/>.

“Community Action Partnership of San Bernadino County.” San Bernadino County 2007 Homeless Census and Survey. Community Action Partnership America’s Poverty Fighting Network, n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.<http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/storage/database/homelessness/sanbernardino/San_Bernardino_2007_homeless.pdf>.