This week in class, we will be reading, learning and discussing about the practices and methods behind homeless counts. I came upon an article published today, Monday, Feb 8, 2016 titled “New York City to Embark on Annual Count of Street Homeless.” New York City will be undergoing the HOPE count later tonight with several thousand volunteers. In recent years, the homeless problem has been a serious issue in New York City and has been a frequent topic in the news.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently launched a new program called HomeStat, a program that covers 7 blocks in the city each day, making contact with the homeless in that area. The outreach workers make efforts to encourage the homeless to gain access to the shelters and services in the area. However, many of the homeless do not believe that the services offered are affective.

The volunteers will be trained for a few hours prior to heading out on the streets to count. Last year, the count recognized about 3,200 people as homeless. However, recently, many have noted that there are probably much more homeless that have gone uncounted. I find it interesting that there are so many issues and controversy surrounding homeless counts. While I do not know much about the processes around homeless counts, it seems that it will be interesting topic to continue learning about. I am anxious to learn more about homeless counts and hear from some experts about the counts.

Here’s the link of the article if you’d like to read more. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/york-city-embark-annual-count-street-homeless-36790261

We’ve gone over and over about how there isn’t enough housing for homeless people, that there needs to be more transitional housing, and it needs to be available to those who need it. Well with L.A. County officials spending millions of dollars, and promising to spend more on transitional and permanent housing programs they’ve been able to help someone out! James Lonon was homeless for a year until Marsha Temple and her colleagues at Integrated Recovery Network were able to get him his own room in a six-bedroom apartment near USC as well as a part-time job just before the recent homeless count. He has a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Long Beach and after losing a nine-year job as a clerk became homeless in 2014 when his unemployment benefits ran out. While on the streets Lonon was a very active homeless man; when Carla Hall (author of the article) met him on a bench in November of 2015 she noticed he was quite good at meeting new people and making money for himself. He had a cellphone, an email address, and a storage unit. He spent most of his time trying to get a room because he did not want to go to a shelter, and had turned down an offer for a regimented group living arrangement. In the article he says, “All the people out here in Santa Monica – it would seem like they would have an empty room that they would offer to someone, it’s just a waiting game – waiting for the right person who will respond to that type of request.” The main thing that stood out to me in this article was Lonon’s refusal to go to a shelter and regimented living arrangement. What makes these options unattractive to homeless people? There is the factor of shame, but I think that’s just another way of saying our current solutions just aren’t good enough, nor do I think it is the only reason why people don’t want to sleep at shelters. I think answering the above question can help us determine how we can improve our shelters, and ways shelters can work with transitional housing agencies to get a steady stream of people in to the shelters, and from there in to transitional/permanent housing.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-street-journey-homelessness-20160204-story.html

In the article “Living on $2 a day: Exploring extreme poverty in America,” written by Lauren Feeney, interviewer Hari Sreenivasan, from PBS News Hour, speaks with Katherine Edin, coauthor of $2.00 A Day: Living On Almost Nothing in America to get a better grasp at the real issues of poverty that need to be uncovered. Sreenivasan poses questions at first addressing what most Americans believe is true about welfare, government policy, and poverty, then asks what the reality of people living on $2.00 a day is like. The reality, Edin, mentions, is that they are not surviving. No one can on such a low budget. To hear her explain just how these 1.5 million Americans are getting by, it is disturbing, painful, and calls for action.

In the interview, Sreenivasan asks Edin, “How do we get out of it?” Edin’s first solution is to expand work opportunity, and I think this goes without saying, but after the recession in 2010 many of the middle and lower class citizens would accept this as a foolproof solution. But she goes on to say more about these job opportunities. They cannot just be low minimum wage working jobs, they must provide a family with “a little give” she states. Low-income families often have severe unfortunate situations occur during employment, so it is necessary for an employer to have compassion or a slight allowance of slip ups to ensure that these families can continue to be provided for. Improving relationships with employees and employers in these job opportunities was another solution not only mentioned in her book but during the interview as well. There is a need for a mutual understanding between low-wage workers and their employers and I highly suggest that Americans read about the exposed reality of these relationships in $2.00 A Day.

You can find the interview here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/poverty/

Also please scroll to see the comments section of this article. Thoughts?

The super bowl is a very big thing in our culture, it is a time were people get together and bring food and have fun sitting around watching Americas favorite sport. We never think about the people that are homeless and how they have to move their belongings and stuff around when super bowl or some big event is is their city. For instance in USA today they wrote an article about a man named Otto that lived in the bay area and was forced to move from his corner because of super bowl Sunday and the city and police didn’t want homeless people around festivities. Otto told the reporters his life story and how he lived in the spot were he was told to leave for over a year. They interviewed a group of homeless people about how they celebrate the super bowl and majority of them said its just another Sunday to them other than the crowds of people nothing really changes. The article goes on to interview the homeless population around the super bowl of the memories and thoughts about super bowl and all the ones interviewed said they remember the barbecues, having fun and the gathering of people, majority of the people said that they would watch the super bowl because they had no television but were going to stay in high hopes and not get down to much. When having a home and a roof over your head we sort of take things for granted, like instead of figuring out were your going to go for super bowl you could be trying to find your new home!

As a native from San Francisco I was thrilled to hear that Super Bowl 50 would be held in the Bay Area. This meant that the city would be bustling with Super Bowl events, hundreds of people flooding into the city, and celebrities visiting. However, for the immense homeless population of the city, this would not be good news.

The homeless wander all over the city, including the popular Downtown area of the city, which does not look nice for the hundreds of celebrities and people visiting and staying in the city. The mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, has sent a message to the homeless people camping out in the Embarcadero (a popular area of the city) that, “They are going to have to leave.” According to Mayor Lee, “…[they] are going to have to leave. Not just because it’s illegal but because it’s dangerous.”

My question is who is it dangerous for? I love my city, but I am truly disappointed in the fact that they are kicking the homeless off the street when they have nowhere else to go. Mayor Lee has announced that he has started building housing that should be done by the end of this year, but that can be too late. It’s unfair to force these people to leave and not have a place to move them to. This reminds me of the documentary we watched in class about the homeless in Santa Monica. Once again, the police try to move the homeless away, but make no effort in  resolving the actual problem. I hope after the Super Bowl craze dies down, my city legislators begin enabling a plan to improve the homelessness in the city rather than hide it.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-mayor-Homeless-have-to-leave-the-6465209.php

When we tell people we are taking a course called “Hunger and Homelessness in America,” what do they think? Signing up to take this course, I thought about the very poor, the people that are invisible and cast out of society. I think our initial reactions to discussing poverty we think about people that are the most disadvantaged.

When do we talk about the working poor? This week we are reading about the working poor- people that may or may not qualify for social services, may or may not have a minimum wage job, may or may not feel stuck.

This weekend I read an article titled “Job Market Leaves Fed in Limbo” in the Wall Street Journal and investigated its contents to reveal some hidden truths about the United State’s recent job growth. Last month, there were 151,000 jobs added to the labor market with the unemployment rate at 4.9%, the lowest since 2008. Wal-Mart says they’re giving their hourly employees a raise in February. This sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

On the flip side, I think there are some factors we should consider and unpack as sociologists. The jobs that added in January are in the two lowest paying sectors- retail trade and leisure and hospitality. This creates potentially more part-time work and gaps in skill to be able to have a higher paying job.

So while there might be more availability with low paying jobs, the opportunity in the long run is not looking up for people closer to the bottom of society like the working poor.

How else do you think this effects our economy and the working poor?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-january-nonfarm-payrolls-up-by-151-000-jobless-rate-4-9-1454679110

Help. We all need it at some point in our lives and hopefully we all have received it in some form in our moment of need. But for those in poverty or living on the streets, help is most always needed but can be difficult to come by. In a world where we pride ourselves in helping others, why is it when our own people need help that we have a hard time providing that help? Why has welfare, food stamps, safe housing, or even a shelter become so hard to come by in so many places?

This struggle for help from those in poverty has been a common theme in so many of the books and articles that I have read so far. From the removal of funding for welfare, to the lack of affordable housing available for those living on barely anything it seems as though those in charge of our country, the ones with all money and power, don’t want to provide for those in need. Now this is obviously a vast generalization of our money holders, but after reading so many stories about the lack of help and the lack of funding in so many areas it makes me question the integrity of our people of power.

There is a belief that floats around among those who are not aware of what goes on underneath the surface of those in poverty, that poverty is a self-fixing problem. That if the people got themselves into it then they can get themselves out of it just as easily. But it’s not that simple. Once someone falls into the cycle of poverty it is almost impossible for him or her to get out, and our government is the one who makes it that way. For example, food stamps are the most popular form of aid from the government, but these can only buy food, nothing else. So when kids need clothes, or cars need gas, or rent needs to be paid, food stamps get you nowhere. And there are millions of people out there who food stamps are there only form of income and who will probably never break out of the poverty circle because of this restriction. To break out one needs some form of cash flow, and welfare use to be a provider of such help. So why did the government stop funding such a program? Why did help stop being provided to those in need?

We could go back and look at all of the politics and all of the bills past over the past 50 years and could probably find many reasons why government aid slowly decreased. But in my mind I think there has been a shift in society, a shift in the heart and the care that we have for others. Of course it is not fair to say that everyone has lost their heart, but I feel that a good majority of society feels that they are better than those living on 2 dollars a day and that this self fixing problem of poverty is not their problem. This mind set angers me because it shows me how naive so much of society is to what is happening around them. What about compassion? What happened to helping others? Have all of these virtues died with the changing of our society?

Superbowl Sunday is something sports fans across the United States have been looking forward to all season. However, as reported by Travis Waldron of the Huffington Post, the Superbowl 50 has stirred up conflict in the San Francisco Bay Area in terms of the city’s budgeting. As footballs fans sit in front of their televisions at home, on the couch, at the bar, the homeless community in the San Francisco Bay Area struggles to find a new place to call home. With Panthers and Broncos fanatics flooding the streets of Santa Clara and San Francisco to tailgate and watch their teams religiously, the homeless community is being displaced. Due to the Superbowl celebrations, homeless advocates believe that law-enforcement has made efforts to relocate homeless. While there is no actual evidence of these claims, the article homeless community in San Francisco feel targeted.

Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, says “the money San Francisco is spending on Super Bowl City could cover a year of housing subsidies for 500 homeless people.” With San Francisco having “more anti-homeless laws than any other California-city” the fight to alleviate homelessness in the Bay Area is seen as less of a priority to the city than the Superbowl. Those in favor of the Superbowl claim that the celebration will create enough traffic and revenue to cover San Francisco’s costs.

Ultimately, this is not only an issue prioritizing spending also of residents’ attitudes towards homelessness. Being one of the largest issues in San Francisco, homelessness ironically fails to prioritized.

Is the size of the celebration justifiable for the mistreatment of the homeless community? In what event is it appropriate to prioritize the issue of homelessness in the city of San Francisco?  What must be sacrificed to address the issue of homeless in the city? As many football fans lock their eyes on the screen, worrying about the $20 bet they are about to lose, many homeless San Franciscans are desperately searching for the new sidewalk they can call home, until they are forced to relocate once again.

Waldron, Travis. “How Super Bowl 50 Became Ground Zero For The Fight Over Homelessness.” The Huffington Post. N.p., 06 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/san-francisco-homeless-protests-super-bowl-50_us_56b625c6e4b01d80b2468235>.

In an article written by author Sohpie Cockie, the plans of Hawaii’s state legislature to combat homelessness in tourist hub, Waikiki, is outlined. The article explains that the state has initiated a campaign to help the homeless population of Waikiki either, return to their home states, or into local shelters. It was also mentioned that majority of the homeless living in Waikiki are transplants and came to Hawaii with the intention of being homeless- or became homeless after they arrived and found that the cost of living is excessive. In order to discourage transplants from moving to Hawaii the initiative will also take the time for a PR campaign getting rid of blogs and false media that encourage the thought that Hawaii is a homeless friendly state.

The initiative has been funded privately, by the local mainstream hotels, and publicly. The private funders had similar views abut the homeless situation as most (think about the views of those in the documentary we watched on homelessness in Santa Monica- its unsightly and bad for tourism. It is interesting to note how our greed for money cloud our judgments and numbs us, allowing us to forget to treat humans as humans no matter their circumstance.

Though the program is also focusing on relocation they are worried about the system being overly abused. They predict that there is a possibility that people will flow into Hawaii in mass numbers with plans to get there, and none to leave, with the assumption that the government will present them with a free ticket home.

Homelessness is an issue everywhere,

Including paradise.

Click for article

For my first group book project in class, I read the book “Tell Them Who I Am, The Lives of Homeless Women” by Elliot Liebow. Liebow spent two years getting to know women in homeless shelters in the Washington DC area. He worked alongside them and gained their trust during this time. Many of these women had sad, and to me, unimaginable pasts. Many of these same women hoped for change, and fought for change in their own lives every day. They fought for change by working several jobs, maintaining some dignity, and attempting to receive services. While some women had mental or health problems, addiction issues or were not attempting to work, many were not. Many of these women worked hard, on a daily basis, because they had several jobs and lives to upkeep.

One of the most striking things I read was when one woman claimed that she wasn’t “homeless,” rather she was “famililess.” This idea to me is a new one, and such an interesting idea. The woman repeatedly said that she didn’t lack a home, she simply lacked a family. Her claim was that if she had family to lean on for support, she would not be out on the streets and forced to live in shelters. Many of the women agreed with her, saying that if they had a family that they were still in contact with, they would be able to have a home to return to as well. An interesting idea to me, that having a family would supposedly fix their situation.