Recent world news has focused on the murder of freshman Haruka Weiser at The University of Texas Austin.  A surprise to many a few days after the murder they found the murderer and he is a homeless teenager.  Although we do criminalize homeless people we usually do not associate them as murderers.  Typically the crimes we think of are theft and different petty crimes, but not murder.  So the main question many people are asking is why?  She seems to be an innocent freshman college student so what happened to end her life on that given Sunday evening.

Another surprise about Meechail, the homeless seventeen year old, is that he was new to the city of Austin.  Most of the time when we see homeless we can associate them as being a part of that given community for most of their lives and rarely are new to the city.  Sadly, the autopsy can report that there was blunt trauma.  Many are concluding that this young boy had serious mental issues.  After police looked back into his possible history they see he was an angered foster child and he said, “What I want to leave behind is my name — I want them to know who Meechaiel Criner is.”  So the big question is still why?  Unfortunately we will probably never have an answer.

While my time at my small local organization is over, I am pleased at the sheer amount of work that they do for the local low-income and homeless community. This organization started with a food pantry and has expanded to a food pantry, clothing distribution site, a medical clinic, a dental clinic, a AIDS programs, computer classes, GED classes, job preparedness classes, and even a off site women’s shelter. While this organization has seen large growth they are still continuing to grow and are currently looking for larger facility to move to. The organization is funded completely from donations, volunteers, and a small amount of grants from local businesses. They would rather not have government funding or grants due to the amount of requirements needed to get the grant and sustain it as well. For instance, if they have certain government funding for food they would need to get each recipient’s individual identification, a piece of mail from their property, and their social security number each time they went to the food pantry. By not using governmental funding they choose to put their faith in God that he will provide them with what they need. For example, just the week prior one of their delivery trucks had broken down yet the next day they unexpectedly received a three thousand dollar check in the mail from an anonymous donor. This three thousand dollar check immediately went to fixing the broken truck. Putting their faith in God to provide for the organization has helped them reach more individuals in need by not relying on restrictive governmental funding.

It is important to note that the organization would not be in existence and helping as many people as they do without their faith. I believe that their faith has brought together volunteers and the less fortunate to give and receive aid together. They have created relationships with the homeless and low-income while providing them with aid. Unfortunately, while the organization is committed to helping the community, volunteers seem to use sick talk discourse when speaking about the less fortunate. If the volunteers had more knowledge of the structural issues they would be better prepared to help the community without this discourse. While they do not have this structural knowledge, it is important to note that the service they are giving is aiding hundreds of families and homeless each week. Even with the occasional sick talk discourse among the volunteers, the organization still manages to treat the homeless and low-income with respect and dignity.

In our country, we tend to try to make a profit off of anything we can.  In terms of healthcare, we make money off of people getting sick.  Pharmaceutical companies raise the prices of drugs, making it a stretch for lower class citizens to afford the medication that they need.  Insurance companies raise premiums when they see that a client has recently been diagnosed with something.  Even with Obamacare, health insurance companies are still profiting off people being sick.   The private sector always seems to win.

A peer of mine once told me “Our country has the greatest healthcare program in the world.”  I think what he is referring to is the quality of care one CAN THEORETICALLY obtain, by forking over a large some of money.  The same goes with mental health issues.  A private psychiatrist can charge however much he or she wants for treatment.  The quality of care will likely be much better than a government funded social worker.  Both of my parents are therapists, and are in the business of help.  The homeless and other low-income individuals will never be able to afford this high quality of treatment.

Paradoxically, top tier doctors and physiatrists don’t seem to be using their skills on those who need it most.  They tend to treat minor issues of the upper class, such as minor pains and depression.  The homeless and low income individuals typically have the most severe cases, don’t they? How can we mesh top quality care with the lowest quality of living?

Lately I have been seeing a lot of remarks on social media about homeless issues, and too many times they have been negative. I wanted to discuss this one example, that recently caught my eye. I follow a page on Facebook called “Redlands Buzz 2.0” this is a public group where people can post about the on goings around Redlands and has 18,000 members following the page. The last few days I have been noticing multiple posts about homeless people on this page in particular, many people concerned about what their city is coming too, not realizing that this is an ongoing issue for many years.

This post in particular caught my eye, partially because I attend school right off this off-ramp. The post is calling for people of Redlands to call in to get the “trash” cleaned up. While they may have been only referring to the physical trash being left behind by these homeless people, I got a different vibe from this post. To me it seemed as though they were referring to these PEOPLE as trash, and that is definitely something that the city of Redlands can not stand. The reason I took it this way was how it was said and the comments following the post. But, I could just not believe that so many people had an issue about the people and the place that they go to sleep at night.

One comment said “RPD should do frequent raids on the camps to get the transients on their way.” My reaction to this is, where do these people expect them to go to next? Homeless are constantly moved from camp to camp, being kicked out of places to stay and where they have their belongings. Most people who become homeless stay in the cities that they are from, which is something not many people know, but at one point that person was someones neighbor and now they are expecting them to just leave town and move elsewhere.

Another comment said “I don’t want to solve these people’s lifelong ability to make incredibly poor decisions. I just want them out of my community. I want to be able to take my 6 year old daughter out into the town without being accosted by these leeches on society. They should round them all up and drop them off at Jerry Brown’s front door. Maybe when they’re all hanging out at his house we will repeal the laws he signed into law making it easier for the to live off of the taxpayers.” This comment just goes to show some of the beliefs of the people in this city.

For me, it is frustrating to see how many people agree with this post and how many people this post reaches. This page is a pretty popular page, and while they have the power to help educate on homeless issues, they are only harming it by posting so many negatives about homeless people.

I may have no worked that long at Operation Grace but I truly appreciate the new perspective it gave me and all that I learned there. I’ve seen how Ms. Pride handles the calls that are not always so easy to listen to, I’ve learned how Jessica manages the organization with her family, and I’ve learned about more underlining issues about homelessness. This isn’t a pleasurable job to do, yet they do this work for the people they are able to help. Even months later after getting help, many women still call Operation Grace thanking them and updating them on how they are doing. I’ve also seen some cracks in the system and why it’s hard for some many homeless people to get services they need. Sometimes it’s about an organization not having enough money, funds, or resources. It’s frustrating and I believe is what needs to be changed. Non profits should definitely be getting more aid and resources than they are now because they are the ones who help the people that everyone ignores. All they want to do is improve the life of the client, and they should have the resources to achieve that.

Overall, I was most thankful to get experience working in a non profit and with social services because it is what I am interested in working in the future. I remember asking Ms. Pride if the work ever got too hard and if she ever felt burnt out from it. I’ll always remember her response because I feel like it’s how a lot of social workers must feel and what keeps them going.  Ms. Pride simply stated, “It’s hard work, but it’s work that must be done. There’s bad in this work, but there’s also good.” I truly believe this because I know it’s hard to keep a positive attitude in this kind of work, but the small rewards is what makes it worth it. I had doubts about pursuing a career as a social worker because I feared that it would be too much to handle sometimes, but after this experience I realized I truly have a passion for helping people and cannot see myself doing anything besides that. More importantly, I realized that I hope to work one day in a position where I can make real change happen for a lot of people. To me that means working possibly in the government where I can help create legislation that would aid people in need. After learning about the causes of homelessness, the services they offer to homeless, and the little legal protection they have, I realized that there needs to be more people higher up who are on their side. There needs to be more people in government who give the homeless, and any minority, a voice. This class and internship has motivated me to be a voice for the voiceless.

Listening to the police officers talk in our last class, I learned a lot about a group of people who are actively doing something to change the homelessness dynamic. These 3 men are a very small portion of the police force and do not have much help outside of their group but they are working towards a change. they are the people who are known to criminalize the homeless, yet they are working to make the lives of the homeless better.

After listening to them talk about all of the hard work and the repetition an the relentless effort they put into getting these people off the street, I began to wonder why it was just these three police men who were doing this work. if they can go out and bring people into rehabilitation centers and find them stable housing, why aren’t there more people out there doing this same work if its proving to be successful? The personal component of this tactic I think is what makes it so effective. If we say as a country that we want to eliminate homelessness, then this would be the way to do it. bringing a more personal aspect into the helping of the homeless I think would make them a lot more comfortable and willing to take help. Along those same lines, many homeless people don’t even know where to start when it comes to finding help or they’ve been rejected so many times that they don’t know where to turn or have given up hope. If we were to create and organization or even expand the HOPE team and make more people available to go up to these struggling individuals personally and offer them help, I believe we would have a higher success rate of bringing people off the streets.

Our conversation with Mike Jones had me thinking more about regulations around homelessness. The ultimate question that puzzles me is why are we trying so hard to get rid of the homeless? I think the first thing that comes to mind is the desire for cities to look clean and desirable to live in. Mike Jones told us about the divide in wealth of the Redlands community. The wealthier people that live in the hills come down to get groceries and see homeless people and are moved to correct the stigma that comes with it. This community of Redlands locals might call for laws to be set in place to criminalize the homeless and push them out of the city. This obviously doesn’t solve the problem of cost to tax payers, chronic homelessness, and affordable housing. So then what is the job of law enforcement, policy makers, and housing authorities to ensure all people in the community are satisfied living there?

I came across a blog post about “The Ten Most Ridiculous Anti-Homeless Laws” and though I would share some examples of absurdity with you. Number ten on the list is homeless meters on the street that provide a solution to panhandling by giving to an organization. This is an interesting way of addressing the problem of homelessness in certain cities and I wonder what the effectiveness of this method presents. Another more direct blow from anti-homeless laws are water sprinklers and bench removal, removing the pleasure of being comfortable outside. We have heard some of the other bans on sleeping, food sharing and panhandling and see them enforced in the local Redlands community.

How can we educate others about alternatives to these rights being taken away from the homeless? I think we can be involved in understanding our local laws as well as homeless services and be active in educating others. A step further would be to volunteer or work with agencies and promote affordable housing. I hope that more cities adopt Housing First models and strengthen their understanding about homelessness through organizations that are helping these populations.

http://nationalhomeless.org/WordPress/2011/07/the-10-most-ridiculous-anti-homeless-laws-part-ii/

Some of you may know that the new Starbucks on Redlands Boulevard took the place of a Mexican restaurant called La Rosita.  Being a Redlands native I have never gotten food at La Rosita but I never really saw anyone there anyways.  I am assuming that La Rosita was going out of business because they weren’t receiving any customers or revenue.  However, recently writing a paper about the new Starbucks and it’s clientele I found an article from the Redlands Daily Facts that makes me think otherwise.

The article said that The Planning Commission of Redlands approved the plan of building a Starbucks there because they thought it would be a great addition to Redlands and that the property will be nice to have in the city.  This property was actually a landmark of Highway 99 built in 1960.  One of the commissioners says, “‘I did find it a little sad that this last vestige to historic 99 through our community is going down with the replacement of yet another corporate franchise that’s indistinguishable from any other of its outlets anywhere else’” (http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/government-and-politics/20140515/la-rosita-building-to-be-demolished-for-new-starbucks-in-redlands).  He continues however by saying that the recognition of the franchise is an “award winner.” Meaning that since people are familiar with the area and that there is now a popular franchise there, the clientele and revenue will be great.

Although I have to agree that it has brought in numerous amounts of people, I don’t think that the Starbucks was built entirely on the fact that it would be just a great addition.  Having a Starbucks in this area of Redlands brings in a certain type of person.  As in, upper and middle class people.  Growing up going to Redlands High School down the street, it was no secret that homeless people hung out around those fast food places where Starbucks has now been thrown into.  Thus, with the type of people that Starbucks usually attracts, I think that one of the aims of this new development was to weed out some of those homeless people.  They don’t want Redlands to look run down and unsafe, especially downtown where people go to socialize.

I think that this is a great first hand look about how cities keep their homeless numbers under wraps as well as how they try to hide their homeless people.  I never thought of building a “high-end” store as a way to kick out the homeless but it sadly makes sense.

According to the Huffington Post, a study reveals the number one cause of youth homelessness. Paula Braitstein is the researcher behind the study. Braitstein has affiliation with the University of Toronto and is based in Kenya. The data was collected from “49 studies with a total of 13,559 participants from 24 countries, including 21 developing countries. No one was older than 24.”

Of the data collected, poverty was reported to be the largest factor of homelessness. About thirty-nine percent of participants in the sample claimed poverty as their reasoning for being homeless. The runner up reason for homelessness was family conflict, at thirty-two percent. The third highest reasoning for homelessness was abuse, at twenty-six percent.

Now that a study has been conducted to highlight the factors associated with homelessness, the next step is setting forth solutions. While this study is useful in terms of numbers and statistics, it is not essential. Poverty, family conflict, and abuse are not surprising. When I first read the title of the article, I immediately thought I would be surprised by the “number one cause.” This post serves as a resource to those who may follow the Huffington Post and happen to come across this article. This article highlights the issue of youth homelessness briefly, but fails to offer a clear purpose or solution. The few solutions the post offers are underdeveloped. However, the article claims that because there are a lack of youth homelessness data reviews, this is its essential purpose.

Citation

Seaman, Andrew M. “Study Reveals No. 1 Cause Of Youth Homelessness.” Huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/study-reveals-no-1-cause-of-youth-homelessness_us_57057deee4b053766188a3a5>.

When i first started my internship i did not really know what to expect and i was a little scared to even go. I thought that i would just be sitting around and talking to the homeless men at the shelter and not really learn anything  about the agency and just listen to the personal stories of the men at the shelter. Not only was i scared i was nervous that everyone in the agency would look at me like why are you here you and that i was just a no good kid from a college that had to be there and did not really care about them. When i first got there i took a tour of the facility and was shown were everything was and how a regular day was conducted around the office. The first person i met was Stephanie she was in charge of the scheduling of my hours. I worked a lot with Rick and Ziggy they are both case managers of the men at the agency, Rick is the case manager that is there during the day and is charge of the intakes and meetings that the men have to go through before they can start their programs, Ziggy is the case manger that is there during the nights and stays with the men through the night as they stay there. The shelter is open from 7PM unitl 7AM they are served 2 meals which are breakfast  and dinner but if they want they can come back during the day and get lunch if they want, but they cannot stay at the shelter all day they need to leave when the shelter closes. This shelter can have a total of 75 men staying at a time and they are allowed to keep a bag at the shelter during the day which has their personal belongings in it. One thing that i thought was really cool and interesting about this shelter is that when the men do their first intake and assesment they are ask what their goals are and most of them say they want employment, but for most of the men their first goal should really be getting help if they have mental disorders and other medical things like that  and thats what CCLM helps them do it helps them with their fist goal and helps them get the proper help they need. After my experiences at the agency it really made me think about my life and how i take a lot of things for granted when there are men like the ones in the shelter that have nothing and are trying to survive everyday on the streets. By working at the shelter it really it close to home and hit a soft spot because no one should have to live the way they live and i just wanted to make a change in their lives and i feel like i did that by just the little things that i did in my time there.