I really enjoyed listening to everyone’s presentations this week on the work they are doing at their internships. In a way, it was discouraging to hear about all of the great experiences people are having, and all that they are learning from being so hands on. Since I am doing my internship here from campus, I haven’t been able to interact with the individuals the organization is serving as much as I would like. That being said, I am still learning a lot from the research I am conducting as a part of the internship, and hopefully it is all valuable information to carry with me into future volunteer and internships in the future. I really appreciated hearing about the language each of our organizations uses when addressing and talking about their clients, families, etc.. As we have learned, there can be so much shame, negative social stigma, and stereotype that can revolve around homelessness rhetoric. It is encouraging that there are individuals working in the field who are so conscious of the language they are using. It confirms their mission to serve and empower the homeless populations.

Prior to the start of spring break, the class was discussing our personal beliefs about homelessness, what we have learned, how we view the issue, etc. One issue we discussed that truly stuck out to me was how we (as people) should manage the homelessness issue properly. There is no single answer and there probably will never be one. Each individual interprets the issue differently at hand. Some may think increased welfare programs could help decrease the rate of homelessness and others may firmly believe more housing could end the crisis. The key to ending homelessness is impossible, but the second every citizen realizes they must acknowledge and address the issue is the moment when change can actually happen.

A few students presented a book where the main belief towards ending homeless derives from availability of housing. The author put into context the idea that increased housing will be the most beneficial and influential strategy to ending homelessness. Housing will be the solution to homelessness was the main point. To some extent this may be true, but it brings safety, expenses, and social status concerns. If a city decides to build affordable housing for low income workers, will the area surrounding the building social status decrease? Along with these concerns, an issue that is found common among shelters is the available living spaces within the facility. If more affordable housing is built, there is no guarantee that the facility will be able to host every homeless individual.

Another point that caught my attention was the idea that shelters and programs are only assisting the problem, not adding any factual solutions. In some sense, I agree with this statement. Some shelters are only provides living spaces, which can be seen as assisting the homeless instead of  benefiting the individual on their journey to get off the streets. This topic is something I want to discuss more and learn more about.

Reading the LA Time’s reporting on the homeless population in the LA area has made me reflect on how important it is for news organizations to act as advocates for the homeless community. Their input, investigation, and overall contribution to the national discourse about homelessness in the United States is an important and irreplaceable facet in bringing exposure to an issue that many Americans would prefer to ignore. In a recently published article about LA’s homeless problem the author wrote, “skid row is — and long has been — a national disgrace, a grim reminder of man’s ability to turn his back on his fellow man. But these days it is only the ugly epicenter of a staggering homelessness problem that radiates outward for more than 100 miles throughout Los Angeles County and beyond.” The author hits a note for me, a thought that political energy only gathers when the problem becomes unbearably visible. For the “invisible” homeless community, exposure is all-important. Skid row has always been a “national disgrace” as the LA Times put it, but I think to a majority of Americans skid row and other similar settlements are a disgrace simply for being visible.
A second thought I have had recently pertains to the book I read for our last presentation. The book was “Down and Out, on the Road: The Homeless in American History,” in which author Kenneth Kusmer argues that homeless communities have been, at times, the most progressive and accepting groupings in the country. Kusmer suggests that gay men were attracted to life on the road, and that Black men faced less persecution relative to government institutions. Gender norms were also broken down as the few women who traveled on train cars assumed masculine characteristics or facades. Personally I find this to be an ideological stretch, but there is an implicit point worth some merit. Economic class is the one thing that can unite people, and money is the most powerful of all social constructions.

After reading the article, “A Homeless Camp in Our Back Yard? Please, a University Says,” by the NY Times,” I was interested to find more articles of people living in tent cities. The article, “America’s Tent Cities for the Homeless,” by Alan Taylor, tells the stories of individuals living all over America in these encampments instead of on the streets. It gave short descriptions of the individuals and how they ended up in the camps. The article also showed pictures of these individuals and their tents. One man lived in a tent within Seattle with his young son. He stated that his son “doesn’t view this as a negative thing, I mean being a little boy and resilient he looks at it as an adventure” (Taylor, 2016). The son views their situation as fun and is basically like camping. The father continues to describe how they feel safe and it is almost like this tent city creates a sense of community.

While living in the tent cities, these people still live in uncertainty, but have stability within the camps. As a child, I always enjoyed camping trips with my family, but I could not imagine doing it for months at a time. I question how this will affect the children in these situations, and what will happen to them if they are forced to relocate their camps?

Even though these individuals are in terrible situations, it is reassuring for me that each of them describe this community “like a big family.” I would hope that these people can help and support one another.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/02/americas-tent-cities-for-the-homeless/462450/

While having this time over break to reflect on the firs half of the semester I found myself discussing the homeless issue with my parents. My mom is part of a charity league (Assistance League if anyone has heard of it), and the day I came home for break she was not home because she was out volunteering. She was at a local Target, with several other members, awaiting the arrival of 50 homeless people to come and shop. They were giving out gift cards worth $120 to help them purchase basic necessities. Target also took away taxes and gave them a slight discount, so they were really allowed to buy $138 worth of items. They only had 38 people show up, but for those 38 people I am sure it helped them a lot. It is simple acts and partnering like this that helps us take little steps toward helping someone back on their feet. Yes, there are the ones who did not come, but the ones who did are showing that they are trying to get back on their feet. I also spoke with my dad about the “tent city” along the 57 freeway and how those who lived there were now being put into hotels. This is not too far from where I live so I have been seeing several angry post from people that I know because it is their tax dollar providing this lodging until the city knows what to do with them. This issue just shows that no one is ever going to be happy with whatever current situation is going on – it is a part of life. It is not just directed at the homeless population, it is every issue we face. There is no possible way to please EVERY SINGLE PERSON, but that is why compromise is a key factor to living with other people. My dad and I tried to spit ball a few ideas back and forth about a possible solution, but we recognize at the end of the day it would take a lot of people to agree. We said that creating a tent city in the high desert where resources are available to help those who want to get back on their feet do so would be a good idea, but it is the matter of getting it started.

Over this first half of the course, I realized I have learned so much and have been enlightened into a world that I have had the privilege not to experience. However, I think it is a world everyone needs to know about because; the world of homelessness comes with many different covers. I see those on the streets and realize it exists however, I also know friends at this small, private, liberal college who are also homeless. There is no poster example of homeless except the one that the social stigmas have created. Homelessness comes in all different grades of extremes and in completely different situations. An article that caught my attention this week was on the way Disneyland employees have been living. “According to a survey of thousands of low-wage employees at the park, nearly three-quarters of workers who responded said they do not earn enough money to pay for their basic monthly expenses, and one in 10 said they had been homeless in the past two years.”

When I think of Disneyland, I picture happily ever after’s, fireworks, laughing kids, because that is what they advertise, and yes it is true people have amazing memories from the park, including me. But what you don’t see is the behind the scenes that a lot of resorts and parks tend to have. Although, Disneyland offers so many job opportunities their employees still don’t make enough to live at the needed budget for the state of California not to mention Orange County. ““Every time we get to the end of the month, I have to choose what bills to pay,” she said. “We want kids, but there’s no way we’re going to do that when we can barely afford to feed ourselves.””- Grace Torres. Employee’s sleep in cars, shower at work, and brush their teeth at the nearest Starbucks. Employees want a family, or to grant their current families a good and happy life, but to the extent that they must fake to the world their true struggles to keep out of the stigmatized homeless representation. “I do my job with a smile on my face,” she said. “Most people don’t know what I’m doing. It’s not exactly the most lovely thing to hear about, that I can’t even take care of myself.”- Rebekah Pederson. For me this semester I am learning to look beyond the first face of a person I see, to not judge a book by its cover, if you might say. Someone can be happy yet they have their struggles, and someone can be at their all time low and still have hope. Homeless to me is no longer something I simply see it is not an identity I give to someone it is a situation I look into.

Medina, Jennifer. “By Day, a Sunny Smile for Disney Visitors. By Night, an Uneasy Sleep in a Car.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/disneyland-employees-wages.html?smid=pl-share.

It was so nice to be able to sit all together last week and reflect on what we have learned so far this semester. It was neat to hear that everyone has learned and valued different things in the course, and is using that knowledge to apply it to what we are observing outside of the classroom. Keeping these conversations in mind as I left for spring break, I was curious to see how I would encounter homelessness while away from Redlands. I travelled back to my home in Oregon for the week, and was really affected by the images of hunger and homelessness I came across on my various trips into the city of Portland. More than ever, I was very conscious of the individuals I observed who were very visible homeless. They got me thinking about the services being provided to them, or lack thereof. While walking through the city, I came across a variety of different job search centers, soup kitchens, and shelters.. But on the weekend, when I was seeing all of this, everything was closed. We have obviously learned that shelters do most of their work at night, but it really struck me that the multitude of people out on the streets did not have any access to services on Saturdays or Sundays. I don’t know how effective  opening these places seven days a week would be, but sure seems unfair to only address issues of homelessness during the work week.

The book The Value of Homelessness Managing Surplus Life in the United States was a very interesting book to read. My favorite part of the book was the understanding of the river analogy. Are people creating the issue or only helping the problem. You have to ask yourself that question. I also liked in the book when they talked about mental health and chronic homelessness. Creg in the book stated that the homeless mental health just becomes another body in the government system. That made me sad because everyone’s  mental health is very important. When the media shows the homeless they show them as crazy and that is some but not all. Showing this side to it only makes the issue grow instead they should be trying to fix the issue.  Chronic homelessness is when an individual with a disabling condition who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more, or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.  I was very happy to see that these numbers are decreasing at a slow but steady rate. The stats that I found were on any given night around 123,790 people are chronically homeless and about 70% of them were living in unfit areas. When the unfit part was added it means that they could not receive help If they needed it or were living next to hazardous areas. Overall the underlining issue to homelessness and how to move forward with it is to build more affordable low income housing. This is a housing issue and could be moving in a positive direction but steps have to be made first. 

While viewing an online lecture for another class, the following quote by American economist Dora Costa came up: “In France, at the start of the Industrial Revolution, one-fifth of the population only had sufficient energy to beg.” As of 2012, there were 141,500 homeless people in France comprising .214% of the total population that year (66 million). Now, in comparing the 25% of people before the Industrial Revolution to the slim fraction of the population in France that is homeless these days, we run into some problems concerning definitions of homelessness. Should we assume that people who have to beg for their food are homeless? I would guess that, generally speaking, the answer is yes, but there are undoubtedly exceptions to such a generalization.
Regardless of definitional issues, .214% of a population is much smaller than that of .25%. What do you all make of this statistic? In the aforementioned lecture, the professor went on to talk about how industrialization has mostly alleviated poverty worldwide. He referenced another quotation that read “The rich became richer, true. But millions more have gas heating, cars, smallpox vaccinations, indoor plumbing, cheap travel, rights for women, lower child mortality…” from Deirdre McCloskey, a professor of economics at the University of Illinois. Our study of homelessness has caused us to, understandably, adopt a rather grim outlook on the condition of the poor and homeless in contemporary life. However, are we really justified in possessing such a perspective, considering how the suffering experienced by poor and homeless people is nothing new, and that modern amenities have perhaps improved such conditions? I mean, peasants in medieval times lived in disease-ridden mud pits! Am I on to something or is the lecture I’ve referenced laced with neoclassical economic brainwashing fluid?
P.S. USC professor of urban economics and public policy Peter Gordon made the online lecture I referenced. The lecture is accessible from Planetizen Courses on planetizen.com, but you need an account to access them… If any of you are interested in watching it, I can provide you with my account info.

It was nice to be able to sit down in class last Wednesday to reflect on what we’ve learned already in this semester. I think it’s so important that we come together and share our opinions, what we think is the most important piece of information we’ve learned, and what to do moving forward. A lot of my classmates stated they felt kind of sad to have learned the intricacies of homelessness and how there isn’t one quick fix. Maybe I’m desensitized to social inequality from my sociology major, but I have found myself feeling quite happy about the information we are learning. There are so many injustices in the United States that seem to have no solutions or even quick fixes. With homelessness, it’s nice to see that the main problem seems to be that there is not enough low-income housing to house everyone and that, in the meantime, the social service work is doing its best. Some of us also reflected on how we can continue the conversation around homelessness. I think we’ve learned that there are enough stereotypes out there that can really damage the homeless population. Now that we’ve learned that they’re not all drug addicts and alcoholics with mental health problems, it’s up to us to step up when we hear people make these generalizations. We will always be uncomfortable with things that seem out of place, and it is understandable why certain people don’t want to see homelessness. However, I think humanizing these people is a step in the right direction. I am looking forward to what the rest of the semester holds and what we will learn next.

P.S. Hope everyone is having a nice Spring Break!