This past week was an informative one when it came to this class. Listening to groups present about their books, as well as presenting on my own, gave a lot of different angles of the issue of homelessness. I thought the books all highlighted different aspects of the issue that occur for different people, however I would like to read more books written by actual homeless people. I know this is not a privilege that most homeless people have, and I value the contributions of anthropologists and journalists, but I think it is a little more raw when written from someone who truly went through it.

In the news I read two different stories, one promising, and one a little more humbling in terms of our society. The first story was about the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV), and how they are trying to eradicate homelessness for veterans completely. The group gets the homeless veterans registered and paired with an individual social worker, who helps them find housing. The council has been very effective in getting these people off the streets, and it was something great to read. I find it puzzling that in the U.S, a country who likes to talk about respect for the military so much, has so many homeless veterans on the streets. It seems like a true paradox, and it has always puzzled me. The second story was not so happy, as it was about the fact that the Portland Police get a call about every fifteen minutes about a homeless complaint, even though there is no crime being committed.  An issue with this lies in the fact that many of these homeless people have mental health issues, and the police are not always the best at dealing with this. Instead of calling the police, it would be better to call a mental health center or someone who could actually do something, but people don’t think that hard and just call the police because its the first thing they think of.

Being out in California, sometimes I forget about the fact that other places, like back home in Chicago, actually go through huge temperature shifts. This past week, the Midwest made the news because of the polar vortex. Friends from back home were telling me classes were cancelled (and you know that means its serious because Chicago does not cancel classes often), and I got texts from my dad with the weather report, reading a temperature that “Feels like” -50. I even got texts from friends here, asking if everyone was okay back home, which was thoughtful. Yes, everyone I knew was fine, but that is because they could stay inside. Instead, my mind went to the people who don’t have a roof to sleep under, and I believe this class played a part in that for sure.

I thought about the people that are usually lined up outside the mission near my home, and sure enough when my mom called, she told me that they were using propane tanks to stay warm, and one even exploded. I was happy to see that the homeless shelters decided to stay open 24 hours, and didn’t turn any away in this weather, as some literally froze to death. However, it was another story that truly struck me, and it came from a regular citizen. Candice Payne, without worrying about what was going to happen, payed for hotel rooms for 70 homeless people who were otherwise going to be left out in the cold. She was eventually paid back by donors and other civilians, but this single act of human kindness is the type of thing that gives me hope for society. People often think, oh someone else will handle that for sure, shoot, maybe even the government? But no, Ms. Payne took matters into her own hands, stooped into her wallet, and saved lives. It is a shame that it even had to come to that, but im glad that there are people out there who are willing to sacrifice like Ms. Payne did.

Living in a big city, homelessness is not something that is new to me. On top of that, my aunt, who is an editor the Chicago Reader, has done a lot of work for the homeless, specifically the homeless youth of Chicago. I even got to attend a LGBTQ youth homeless summit a few summers ago and hear about the issues facing this population. My aunt was a part of a project in which architects from all over tried to design tiny homes that would then be built to house homeless youth. Still, with all this, there is still so much that I am ignorant to in terms of homelessness, and poverty too, and this class is already opening my eyes more.

The issue of homelessness reminds me of a lot of other social issues in the sense that the responsibility is often passed off to the next person, and because of deflection of responsibility, the issue rages on, when it doesn’t need to be like that. It’s often said that it would be cheaper to house the homeless then to keep them on the streets, but yet, their still on the streets. It sounds like a good idea to house these people, but when it comes time to vote on a tiny housing community to come to your space, it doesn’t sound so good to most people. And so the problem continues.

In terms of the book, Nickel and Dimed, I was skeptical at first. Here was a upper middle class white woman, attempting to understand “what it’s like” to be poor. However, as she acknowledged her privilege, my skepticism left and I instead saw it for what it was. I would be interested however, to compare her writing to that of someone who is truly poor, and writes about it. I’m excited for this class, because although I may see homeless people on the street, am I actually SEEING them? I don’t think so. And almost everyone deserves to be seen.