This past Saturday, I volunteered at my internship site, the Blessing Center, for the first time. It was an incredibly eye opening experience and I learned a lot just from the few short hours that I spent there helping to pack food boxes for the long line of people outside the doors.
I wanted to do a little background research on my organization and I stumbled across this article from August, 2011:
http://www.pe.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20110831-redlands-blessing-center-uses-food-to-fight-hopelessness.ece

It’s amazing to witness firsthand how far this nonprofit has come in only three years. Now, they are able to provide for even more people, have a functional medical facility, and a discounted/free clothing section that allows those who are lacking proper garments to collect the articles of clothing that they need.

While volunteering, the most significant moment that I experienced was when one of the primary leaders of the organization stopped by my section of the food box assembly line to inspect the items I was sorting through. I was in charge of stocking each box with two to three bread items. I noticed while packing the containers that some of the bags of rolls had gotten rather squashed. He noticed this and explained that even if the rolls were fresh, I was to discard any food item that looked unappetizing. He elucidated that just because someone is accepting charity, it does not mean that they should have to compromise their standards for what they consume. It is already such a belittling and tough experience to have to accept a free food box, so they shouldn’t have their dignity further compromised by being given smashed or damaged food items. I was so happy to hear that this is the Blessing Center’s perspective and that they care so much about ensuring that each person who passes through the center’s doors receives the respect and care that every human being deserves, regardless of their socioeconomic status. The Blessing Center is truly an amazing place and I look forward to my next few weeks working there.

After listening to all the presentations this past week, it occurred to me that there is some good out there among all the darkness we have seen so far in this class. The fact that stuck out to me the most was about the Sisters of the Road diner. Before this class, before knowing about this soup kitchen, it has been my career goal to open up a place where people who cannot afford things can come get food when and for what ever reason. Seeing that the customers are also the workers and there are multiple ways to exchange services or goods for food made me realize that there is a gem of good fortune out there for people who need it.

Another aspect from the presentations that stuck out to me was the sidewalk distribution of books by the homeless. This was really interesting due to the fact that people would trust the homeless, more than a bookstore, for advice on books. As such, it reminded me of the fact that that is how our world used to work as buying things used to be based small scale entreprenuership. People used to buy goods and services from other people, no questions asked. And now, because of the capitalist culture we have, this is lost as the exchange of goods or services just relies on money, not a trade.

Most of these presentations got me wondering about all the programs and resources that are out there that homeless or less fortune people could use at their disposal, yet they have no clue that they exist. Yet, the question then becomes why does are society make it difficult on the people who need the most help to find the real help that they need?

On another note, I receive emails from a site called “The Daily Good” and while some of the articles I don’t agree with, they sent out one today that kind of touches on some problems out society is facing. It basically outlines that poverty remains consistent and present due to the violence it produces. The violence is what leads people to not only live in fear, but to do nothing about it. if any of you have time it is worth looking at!

http://www.good.is/posts/if-we-want-to-overcome-extreme-poverty-we-must-change-this?utm_source=tdg&utm_medium=email&utm_content=If%2BWe%2BWant%2Bto%2BOvercome%2BExtreme%2BPoverty%2C%2BWe%2BMust%2BChange%2BThis&utm_campaign=cta`

Many Americans quickly walk past homeless people they see on the street, refusing the recognize them, to many they are invisible. Homeless people deserve the same dignity and respect  as all people. Everyone deserves to have shelter, food, and water.  Therefore it is our responsibility to make sure all people are given resources to survive. Through the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development the Hud’s Homeless Assistance program identifies and counts unsheltered homeless people with the goal of planning future services, justifying and allocating resources for programs for the many different subgroups of homeless people. The program also raises public awareness and community involvement. An unsheltered homeless person according to HUD resides in a place not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, transportation hubs, tent cities, sidewalks and abandoned buildings.  Encampments are areas where unsheltered homeless people live. people are harder to count because they are not living in emergency shelters or transitional housing. Many unsheltered homeless people still receive services such as street outreach teams, drop-in centers,  health care for homeless networks, soup kitchens and mobile van food programs.  There are a variety of approaches to collecting data on unsheltered homeless people. Approaches include direct street counts with or without interviews and data collection from service programs who may not be readily found in public places.  Applied Survey Research (ASR) has helped its partners secure additional federal and state funding through its homeless census and survey data! The 2007 San Bernardino County Homeless Census and Survey counted a total of  7,331 homeless people plus 133 persons reported in County-wide Domestic Violence shelters. The total of all unsheltered individuals and families was 6,111. This means that there are only 1,200 homeless people in shelters in San Bernardino County. Below are a variety of bar graphs taken from the study. 

“Hud’s Homeless Assistance Program.” A Guide to Counting Unsheltered Homeless People. Office of Community Planning and Development Us Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1 Oct. 2004. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. <https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/UnshelteredCountsGuide.pdf>.

 “Homelessness – Applied Survey Research.”  Homelessness – Applied Survey Research. ASR Applied Survey Research , n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. <http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/homeless/>.

“Community Action Partnership of San Bernadino County.” San Bernadino County 2007 Homeless Census and Survey. Community Action Partnership America’s Poverty Fighting Network, n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.<http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/storage/database/homelessness/sanbernardino/San_Bernardino_2007_homeless.pdf>.

After reading Deborah Connolly’s book Homeless Mothers I developed a better understanding of the jobs of social workers. This particular book was from the viewpoint of Connolly who did fieldwork as a social worker. Connolly worked at multiple organizations that housed homeless mothers and often their children. She came across many heart-wrenching stories of homeless mothers, their children, and their families.

To give these homeless mothers answers, suggestions and help is not simple and is not always possible. We can see from Connolly’s point of view that these jobs can take a toll on the social workers. Social workers are working closely with families who are trying to make better lives for themselves. Social workers are expected to have answers for all of these homeless people. In reality it is not always the social workers jobs to give these families a better life, it is up to the families to do that. However, these families are very unstable and they need guidance from the social workers.

I did not realize how hard it would be to have to hear these stories that were often hopeless. Many of the homeless women described in the book had no hope of making a better life for themselves. Sometimes social workers would have no solutions for these people. Even if there were solutions, often times the homeless mothers could not follow through with them because of the circumstances they were in.  It was particularly hard for Connolly when she got close to the character Kristy in the book. Connolly felt that she wanted to take Kristy and her children into her own care because there were not any better options for them. However, she was constantly reminded by her coworkers, “We are not here to save families- we are here to serve them” (Connolly 131). This saying was almost like their motto. Social work is not easy and they have to remember that they are doing what they can to serve these families. There is only so much the social workers can do to get the homeless into shelters; the rest is up to them. Social workers cannot be held accountable for saving these families.

Our society is uncomfortable with homelessness and the idea that thousands of people live on the street as a result of societal causes. We enjoy the skewed version of the truth that tells us that people are homeless because of addictions, lack of drive and inability to “work hard like the rest of us”. Statistics like the ones presented in Tina Kelley’s “Almost Home” tell us that “As many as 2,000,000 people in the United States face episodes of homelessness” and that “Forty percent of homeless people are under the age of 18.” Society has failed youth and offers no credible soluitions on how to ameliorate or repair the homeless youth dilemma.

One of the main reasons youth homelessnes statistics are high is because a large number of youth age out of the system every year. Once a youth turns 18, they are left to fend for themselves and can no longer rely on government programs like Child Protective Services to assist them. Tina Kelley states, “Forty percent of youth who age out of foster care at eighteen become homeless before their mid-twenties”. This alarming statistic highlights a major flaw in our system. What solutions do we offer for people who age out of foster care with nowhere to go and only a dime to their name? Do we push them out onto the street and allow them to join the adult statistics of homelessness? Are there solutions that prepare “aging out youth” for life after foster care? What happens if homeless youth continue to go unnoticed?

I have been noticing more and more as the course progresses, that everyone, homeless or not wants similar things from life.  As listed in Grand Central Winter by Lee Stringer, love, respect, happiness, a sense of fairness and justice, a sense of well-being, a sense of purpose and value, and the feeling of being connected to something substantial, lasting, and secure.  When I recognize the truth in this for me personally, and for most everyone I know, it allows for a feeling of solidarity, that all of us no matter what race, creed, gender, or walk of life, want pretty much the same thing.  I then feel part of a greater whole, and a compassion towards my fellow humans, as they are trying to do the same.

In starting to understand how lucky and fortunate I am to have the things I do (food, shelter, entertainment, social relations, money, educational opportunities etc.) and the circumstance into which I was born, I appreciate it more.   I realize that many others do not have such resources and beneficial circumstances.  This dawning forces me to look critically at our society, and ask questions regarding the world and country I live in, and why it is the way it is, and what I can do about it.

Stringer states when talking about the human condition that, “The characteristic of absolute, unwavering devotion to something-common in those whom we might in error consider “lowlifes”-may well be, when directed toward spiritual growth, the essential element we readily assume drunks and druggies are by nature missing. ”

He talks further about the natural inclination and drive toward a spiritual path and how this has been replaced by the ever-present belief that material and physical things are more important and take precedence over the spiritual.   He goes on to say “…religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for those who have already been there.” as stated in AA rooms.  This illustrates the clear division and disparity evident in the U.S. among those who have and those who do not.  Stringer also states that “Policy is never the real issue, the real issue is in the hearts of men.”  I find this to be a poignant reminder that we have failed in helping our own , and in search for success and happiness,  we have ignored and marginalized others.  We do such things blindly and often without concern for others, and all they can do is hope to simply survive.  Clearly the invisible hand of free market capitalism has its preference on whom to assist, and who benefits. I am not aware of anything that seems to ‘trickle down’ to those who need it most.  Stringer discusses policy and affirmative action, saying “concepts like affirmative action, while benefitting others, are essentially driven by our own desire to elevate ourselves.”  This I agree with strongly, and in my experience have known to be true.

One of the powerful things stringer also states is “I’m sure most Americans take comfort in the fact that racism has been abolished in this country.  Not the practice, of course, bus as a topic for public discussion…their response was not so much a true denunciation of racism as it was a response to the appearance of racism. The object being not to disturb the picture of America as we imagine it to be. ”  I find this very powerful and true, because he touches on the elephant in the room that many try not to notice, let alone talk about. Racism.  It makes people uncomfortable and the unfortunate response is to not create conversation and to quickly hurdle or whisk the topic away.  Instead of dealing with the highly conspicuous issue, we rationalize the current situation, and quiet any inquiry into the true nature and status of the issue as to maintain the ideal of America.

“…before we can put bigotry to bed, we must clear away the great confusion about what are the proper parameters for interracial coexistence.  And for that to happen, the subject of race itself, ugly, dispiriting, and prone to occasional blunder though it can be, must be taken back out of the closet. The current trend is to dismiss any and all dialogue concerning differing experiences among different racial/ethnic groups as liberal blather. ”

He goes on to say that anything that doesn’t support our one-nation version of cultural harmony is diverted, then allowing for the intolerance to be further implanted into our society.

We are all in this together so long as we are living on this earth, and to spend life ignoring the conditions in which so many live in order to protect one’s own sense of identity and comfort is to support the perpetuation of the endemic inequality, intolerance, and preventable suffering of so many.  If we are truly the nation that so many believe, we will take action and start to face our demons head on, together.

In a study commissioned by the Department of Labor Dube states in “The Minimum We Can Do” that he reviewed data from the past two decades and found clear evidence that minimum wage raises have helped lift family incomes at the bottom: a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage reduces poverty by around 2%. I am glad that Obama stated in his State of the Union address that he would increase the Federal minimum wage for all workers from $7.25 to $10.10 via a bill from Democrats Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Rep. George Miller of California. This is great for all federal employed workers but what about all the state and city employed workers which continue to have low minimum wages? Dube explains that state and city minimum wages are essential in guaranteeing that geographic areas that have a high cost of living also have matching minimum wage standards. When my Mom (age 57) was my age (21) and moved to San Francisco she was paid secretarial and office intern jobs at $12 an hour in the Financial District, today the same kind of internships pay the same or less, are more competitive to get because they require higher levels of education, more professional experience and there are more people applying for them. It is almost impossible to get by and survive living on minimum wage, yet so many people are forced to do so. This is unjust and must change!

Dube, Arinjatit. “The Minimum We Can Do.” Opinionator The Minimum We Can Do Comments. The New York Times , 30 Nov. 2013. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.

<http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/the-minimum-we-can-do/?_php=true&_type=blogs&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131202&_r=0>.

Berman, Dan. “State of the Union 2014: Obama to raise minimum wage for federal workers.” POLITICO. POLITICO, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2014.

<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/obama-minimum-pay-federal-contracts-102712.html>.

I was utterly impressed with the ignorance of individuals. The film we watched last class got me thinking of how our society is built. Where do people get certain beliefs and stereotypes of homelessness? The film got me really upset. I saw the faces of many of my peers. The film opened my eyes greatly. How does America, or more specifically Santa Monica expect to decrease the number of homeless people when they refuse to help. What really triggered my thoughts and opinions was the political side of homelessness. I was truly surprised that a homeless person can run for mayor. I think I have been brain washed about things of that sort. This got me thinking about how people make assumptions of who can have leadership roles in America. I was sad that the guy didn’t win the elections but he proved a point. Many of the stories of the homeless people were in fact of stories of people that had jobs and unfortunately lost their belongings. Santa Monica to me is so different now. The way I perceive the city. I found it ridiculous that they want to arrest those people who are helping those who are suffering from hunger and homelessness. The city should be glad that there are people that are trying to help those homeless get out of the streets and simply try to survive. If they ever pass the law of considering that a felony I would be extremely surprised and upset. People should extend their hand and help fellow citizens. We are all humans and evening thinking that homeless people should die is inhumane. What makes me or anyone else superior to others. NOTHING.