When we watched “Taylor’s Campaign” I was shocked that some people look at homeless people with such distain that they can suggest letting them starve to death. For the most part I have considered people to have some sympathy and whether or not believe that homelessness is an issue that should be helped by outside sources or not believe that those who are homeless should have the right to get out of their predicament whether by receiving help or by working their way back up. I was surprised that there are people who are willing to so callously claim that the homeless should just die and leave them without the considered burden. It reminded me of a scene from a Christmas Carol where when asked if he would like to donate to help feed hungry and starving people Scrooge inquires about the condition of work houses and prisons, when the two asking for charity saying many would rather die than go to those places Scrooge comments “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” I honestly never expected a sentiment like that to be expressed to openly, especially while on camera for everyone to see. Everyone needs a helping hand once in a while and to suggest that because some people need a lot of help they should die I find appalling. I feel it comes from a lack of awareness as to how people can become homeless and how hard it is for those with jobs at the bottom of the pay grade to maintain enough income to support themselves.

Last Thursday, Rowan and I rose before the crack of dawn to participate in the Redlands point-in time homeless count. We drove to a LDS church on Wabash Ave and were both assigned to a team of four comprised of ourselves and two Mormon men working to complete their missions. The organizers at the church designated us to a particular spot (a rectangle bounded by Lugonia Ave, Redlands Blvd, Nevada St, and Alabama St) in which we were supposed to drive around and scour the landscape for unhoused individuals. Once we were given a clipboard with a bunch of surveys, bright orange safety vests, and supply bags intended to be given to unhoused people after answering our survey questions, we were on our way, ready to locate unhoused people.

Our group ended up finding/encountering about 7 or 8 unhoused people inside the bounds of our assigned area. We located some unhoused people living beside the abandoned railroad track, and others either panhandling or walking around. Most were willing to answer the questions listed in the surveys we as volunteers asked to them, though some chose not to do so. The ones who did choose to engage with us seemed to believe that providing their information and contributing to research on unhoused people was an effort that would ultimately benefit themselves and others who were going through experiences similar to their own.

I imagine that those who chose not to engage with us did so because, in their cases, divulging information such as one’s gender, race, age, and medical history to volunteers explicitly saying that they’re interested in collected data about homeless people would feel like a blatant reminder of how their existence is unfortunate. Generally, I found the the way in which the survey stood as a reminder of people’s plight interesting, but I still enjoyed participating in the count nonetheless. I was able to engage in conversations with almost every individual we met who was living on the streets, which was really quite rewarding.

Learning about the ways in which society ignores and shuffles the homeless population has made me think a lot about how homeless people are made into an underclass. The movie we watched last Wednesday, Taylor’s Campaign, detailed very well the ways in which homeless people are disenfranchised, dehumanized, and pressured by political institutions. What struck me about the movie was the idea of a man running explicitly as an advocate for the homeless, and how there are simply no spaces for the voice of homelessness in the political sphere. Taylor’s Campaign is an effective depiction of how capitalism and American society targets homeless people and makes them subhuman. The truth is that large and powerful forces are invested in sweeping homeless people under the rug, so to speak. Policemen routinely mistreat homeless people, city governments renege on promises, and political forces slowly attack the livelihoods of homeless people. This seems to be by design. Homeless people have no economic means by which they can petition the government, and I would imagine very few homeless people vote. Additionally, society is individualistic and people have little empathy for the plight of others. Towards the end of the movie a series of people spoke about how homeless people are responsible for their own problems, how they don’t belong in public spaces, how they ruin the view. One man even said that homeless people should starve. People don’t want to be bothered by the sight of homelessness but they don’t want to deal with the root causes or subsequent issues that persist because of homelessness. People hold an image of what America should look like, and homeless people are not involved in that. Such sentiments are reflected in public policy that specifically targets the resources of homeless people.

In Monday’s class we were paired into groups and given the tasks of budgeting the scenario of a single parent household with two children working minimum wage.  The information we gathered before class contributed to what methods and strategies we implied to live off of minimum wage.  Once the groups came up with the  ways they were going to live off minimum wage and scenarios, what we came up with was presented to the class.  Throughout each presentation I noticed a pattern. Each situation the single parent was involved in, to make it, they had a helping hand, resources, or a position that just happened to work itself out in their favor without having to output finances for those services. A pattern of good circumstances or viable resources that allowed for the single parent to meet the needs or have help they other wise wouldn’t. This then made me think of two things. The first being that the amount of free resources that this single parent living on minimum wage has, will determine the level of discomfort in their already uncomfortable situation. The basis of surviving and making it in this situation can heavily rely on the loopholes, strategies, ways one finds to benefit financially, which don’t require money in exchange. It’s ridiculous but very real, how much money one has to spend if they are doing it entirely on their own. No resources, no help from grandma, no help from the school providing daycare, and no money from the other parent, trying to make it.

Blog #2

After watching the documentary, “Taylor’s Campaign,” I was disturbed from the views and opinions that the people in power and the authorities had about the homeless population in that area. Even though this film took place in 1994, it worries me that the people in power still feel this way about the homeless. The people in city council were making all the decisions for the homeless. I felt that they were making it impossible for them to survive. For example, the city was telling them that they had to move away or that they could not receive food donations. I had a hard time coming up with a reason why they would take this away from them? These people in power are leaders, but are they doing what is best for the people? The horrible phrases that they used to describe the homeless were “they should not exists” and “they should be put to sleep.”

One of the core values that police departments believe in is: respect. Despite this fact, the authorities had nothing but disrespect for the homeless. I found that the authorities were quick to judge them and oppressed them. One of the most important things I have learned so far in this course is that there are a number of factors in these individuals’ lives that have caused them to be homeless, and that all people should take that into account.

I feel that a responsibility of the authorities is to protect the people, but the film shows them doing the opposite for the homeless. I am curious how the authorities view the homeless, today.

This past Wednesday in class we watched an interesting film, “Taylor’s Campaign”, about a man who was running for City Council in Santa Monica, CA advocating for the homeless. He wanted to advocate for the homeless because Santa Monica’s policies were beginning to change in a way that were degrading the homeless, plus he had spent some time being homeless before. There was a lot of things that stuck out to me in this video or that shocked me or made me sad. One of the big things that surprised me was the amount of things someone can find just by dumpster diving. At first I acted really surprised at how much Americans were throwing away in their trash, but when I really thought about it I knew I was guilty of throwing things away that I could have donated before. However, the biggest thing that struck out at me was the amount of times the homeless people said, “We are just being treated this way because of the cameras.” There were several accounts throughout the film when they were not harassed by the police because they were on film, so we were unable to see how they really act. Another time was when a man offered one of the homeless guy’s a job to help him back on his feet, but as soon as he called him it was a scam. He said that he was only doing it because he was on camera because everyone wants to look better on camera. People want to be perceived as “good” so when we are put on film we more often then not change our persona, it is something everyone is guilty of. For example, my generation is hyper focused on social media and showing the world what they are doing 24/7 – SnapChat helps us do this a lot. When we are out with friends or doing something we want to show the world we are having a great time. If I am out with friends I know I can begin filming them and I guarantee they will act like they are having a great time even if they are not. Some people, before they start filming, will tell their friends to look happy because they are going to take a SnapChat video. This is the same idea as filming the interactions with the homeless because the police and any other stranger filmed are acting in a way that they want the audience to perceive them. We are only seeing the interactions in a controlled way.  It goes from a man pretending to offer a job to make himself look good or the cops pretending to help relocate the homeless who could no longer stay where they were currently residing. Filming things is not always a true reality because a film is a record and NO ONE wants to be caught on camera looking “bad.”

This week we viewed a film on homeless life in Santa Monica. I have been to Santa Monica before and know it as one of the most expensive places to live. I did see several homeless people there during my visits, but did not understand how big of an issue it is in this city. In the film, one of the members of the homeless community tried running for city council. The city board had been making little to no efforts to help the homeless, including promising shelter but not being able to provide it and attempting to stop civilians from giving out free meals by the beach. When a group had settled down in a park or outside of a building, the police would come through and tell them to move somewhere else. These people were not given information on where they could stay or alternative solutions, so it was one big game of move-around that the police were playing with the homeless. The police would also cite someone they saw using a shopping cart to push around their things, or if they removed objects from a dumpster (which I do not understand since I thought trash was public domain). Receivers of a citation opted to wait until a warrant was put on them, since that would only mean one night in jail. It is sad to see these people getting in trouble with the law for things that are not a huge deal, such as taking things out of a trash can, when there are much bigger issues the police could be spending their time on. Lastly, a comment that bothered me came from a tourist riding her bicycle, talking about how she was staying at a 5 star hotel down the street, and close by were all these homeless people. She said she wished there was a better sight for tourists to see. 2 young males also mentioned how they did not want to “see” the homeless, as if it’s ok for it to exist, so long as it’s not in front of them. I believe this mindset is the roadblock to solutions.

Being homeless is a much more difficult situation to get out of than I previously thought. Often times, you hear someone dismiss a homeless person’s possible causes for their situation, and they proclaim it could be solved by “going out and getting a job”. What I have not heard discussed often is how many of these people actually do have jobs and how those jobs barely keep them off the streets or from going hungry. Society turns to the easy route of blaming others for their misfortunes before trying to fully understand the circumstances. Minimum wage is in fact impossible to live off of, and was proved through Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed, where she tested out a life of poverty. In this book, what I noticed most is that one minimum wage job is not enough to live, but sometimes getting two (or even three) jobs is impossible. When working at Wal-Mart, she had no control over her hours, and that lack of continuity in a schedule makes it next to impossible to hold a job elsewhere. Rent cannot be made on checks like that, and cohabitation was a main point in her article Too Poor to Make the News. Overcrowding was discussed, and how we do not have firm numbers regarding this issue because “no one likes to acknowledge it to census-takers, journalists, or anyone else who might be remotely connected to the authorities” (1). It does not get accurately reported because people do not want to risk getting evicted, being left with nowhere to go. What I realized this week is the less fortunate do not get the credit or reputation they deserve, since many of them are hard workers who give their all to try and make ends meet. The economy makes it so hard for low-wage workers to secure housing.

1.         Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Too Poor to Make the News.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 June 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14ehrenreich.html?_r=0.

2.         Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. Metropolitan, 2001.

I often question my role in social services and wonder if my wanting to do good and help others actually inhibits those disadvantaged from getting ahead. After reading The Positive Functions of Poverty, these questions reentered my mind but met resistance. Gans tells us that poverty has to exist, otherwise, no one would do the “dirty work” that needs to be completed. He also tells us that “poverty creates jobs for a number of occupations and professions which serve the poor…”. With thirteen other reasons, he playfully explains that poverty is necessary for our society.

The resistance that met these fifteen positive functions of poverty was one of curiosity. Am I profiting off of poverty by wanting to become a social worker? Does my love for tutoring the incarcerated boys that I see weekly make me intrinsically feel better about myself? My initial reactions were defensive and guilty, which only reminded me to check myself and question why I was feeling that way. After reflecting on my intentions of working in social services, I reminded myself that I agree with Gans, in a sense. People will always fall to the bottom of a hierarchy or social status, and there will always be people who come along to do the dirty work. As for the more fortunate, it is up to them to live their lives, so long as they are not intentionally benefitting from poverty. The worker who only does their job because it makes themselves feel better about their own self does not deserve their spot in social service. The worker who dedicates their life to helping others succeed while fully understanding the inequalities society does deserve their spot in social service. It all comes down to empathy and understanding.

I recently came across an article where it provides an insight into how 200 people were paid to be decoy homeless people during New York City’s annual census of unsheltered homeless people. The decoys were responsible for testing the accuracy of a survey done by volunteers who are sometimes uneasy about approaching homeless people or who are unable to spot them.  The count conducted determines annual federal grants and the city uses the percentage of decoys not found as a margin of error.  This program is known as the “shadow count” and the people who sign up aren’t necessarily doing it for the $85 but see it as a form of civic duty.  In the past year, the number of homelessness in the street increased by 40% but advocates for the homeless feel like the population is higher.  This annual survey does not count for the squatters who may be off the street but aren’t necessarily in a shelter or a home.  The decoys themselves went through a training at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.  The decoys were told that they must work in pairs and stand or sit at least 10 to 15 feet apart on a street, train, or subway platform.  The volunteers could not be faulted for being unable to find the decoys. The decoys, also, could not draw attention to themselves with signs or signals.  On average about 90% of the decoys are found most within two hours.  What the decoys found during this count was that there were racial and societal issues.  Racially, a few of the white volunteers appeared afraid to approach the homeless and blamed racism.  Societally, the decoys blamed partner’s outfits for volunteers passing them by and not realizing that they were homeless.  This article was unclear to me in the sense of what they were trying to get across.  Personally, I could not tell if they were doing this to point out that people truly don’t know who exactly is homeless or to increase federal grant money given to the homeless people. 

Citation: Stewart , Nikita. “Why New York Hires 200 People to Pretend They’re Homeless.” January 19, 2018. Accessed January 20, 2018 . https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/new-york-city-hope-homeless-count-decoys.html.