At the beginning of the week our task was to establish the cost of living on a $1600 income for a small family of three. Quickly we determined that without some form of public assistance the monthly income was impossible to live off of. Rent in the Redlands area alone averaged over $800, at least $400 for a small family to afford groceries, leaving $400 for every other category of spending. This family wouldn’t be able to afford food, clothing, health insurance, or car payments without substantially giving up another.  Our group relied entirely on getting WIC or food stamps to alleviate some of the financial burden. We learned that the current wages that the working poor are living on are much too low to be able to live somewhat comfortably.

This notion was further proven by our reading Tell Them Who I Am with multiple women in the shelters having full time jobs and still unable to afford any type of apartment in the area they lived. Many worked multiple in order to be able to save anything.

On Wednesday we watched a film in class that further gave insight to how these people live under the situation they’re under. I sympathized with these people greatly, they were treated poorly by the communities surrounding them and forced from the places they made their homes. Many weren’t considered for jobs because of their looks, and were only looked at solely because they were on camera. Even the city made propositions to criminalize them and the way they live, and many cities have. The city wasn’t trying to solve the problem, but simply push it onto someone else. I learned that it takes large communities to make change for these people, to address the issue of housing for these people. To at least get them off the street.

After watching the film Taylor’s campaign” in class, I  was able to see the lengths in which officials and cities  would go to rid of the homeless instead of addressing the problem.  So many times in the film law enforcement and city peers would misinform and mislead the homeless.  Telling them things like they can’t be in certain area’s, and giving them tickets and such for things like shopping carts & dumpster diving.  Sending them to jail to spend the night and constantly harassing them on things like open containers when they are just recycling.  The city is just as bad, they get rid of grass and all kinds of things to push the homeless out.  I would have hated to be homeless in that time, although it is still bad, treatment is a lot better because of cameras and cellular devices always recording everyones actions.  However, cities do still try and push the homeless out and with not enough space to house them, they end up getting no help and struggling to survive.  Yet we want to spend billions to build a wall that in the long run and short run do little good.  With that money we can help the homeless, mentally & physically ill, and war veterans get jobs.  Along with getting them help that would have short term and long term benefits, such as cleaning up the streets and allowing those on the streets to make lives for themselves.  As well as fixing the public educational system so that the future group can be prosperous, fixing the health care system, and fixing the roads so that there can be fewer accidents. America in general has to improve in so many ways but they limit their options and much rather build a wall then address the problems here.

While watching the film “Taylors Campaign” in the classroom, my eyes were opened to the realities of the problems surrounding homelessness. The film depicts the real-life struggles faced by the homeless and the problems they face when dealing with the public and law enforcement. In “Taylors Campaign” a situation is shown with the police being called on homeless individuals living next offices and businesses. The individuals who called claimed that their cars had been broken into and some possessions were stolen. They argued that this was due to the homeless in the encampment while the individuals apart of the encampment argued that this was unfounded and false. The individuals living in the encampment had been living in that spot for a month without incident until the law came and cited them with blocking the sidewalk. The police stated that the individuals must move their camp or face tickets or jail time. The citizens were faced with no option but to move all their belongings to the opposite side of the street.

Another aspect of the film that was moving was in a scene with a plea to a city council to fight for homeless individuals’ rights to live on the streets and being allowed assistance from individuals willing to pass out food. A woman was explaining that her husband and herself were homeless and her husband was struggling with mental illness due to his time in the service. An impactful statement she made was, “He is mentally ill and that’s not your problem, but your freedom was his problem.” This is a direct plea to humanity and to what makes us all connected. This man was so caring and so worried for the wellbeing of others that he put his life at risk, but we are not able to see him as a hero but as a burden on our economy.

For class this week, I and my classmates were asked to investigate how much money a single parent of two children would need to survive in a month, and to compare this budget to their income if they were working full time at a minimum wage job. While I was not surprised to find that a basic estimate exceeded this income, I was shocked by how much higher even conservative estimates on the sources I found were. Before I began to renegotiate what I felt the family could do without, the budget I planned exceeded the income by over $700.
Even worse, I found that there were costs I had note even considered, or others I had assumed would not exist. While I, and my classmates, were eventually able to develop a plan to survive on minimum wage, for each of us, success depended on support from organizations or theorized friends and family which in actuality could not be counted on. My answer for far too many necessities was “I will get that free from [insert organization here]”, but in real life the level of support from nonprofits and other agencies cannot be guaranteed. Personally, I find the fact that an individual could not survive on a minimum wage budget without a great deal of luck and sacrificing of what the more fortunate would consider necessities to be unfair. While I acknowledge that there are some legitimate concerns about raising minimum wage, the entire point of its existence is to ensure that everyone who works can survive, and at this point, I believe that the experiment we conducted proves that the current minimum wage does not meet that standard.

Our class began this week by looking at the cost of living in our own communities. In groups, we were tasked with seeing if the numbers “added up”. Working full time (40/hr/wk) at minimum wage gave us about $1600. After subtracting all of our expenses from this number, we found it was nearly impossible to “make it” with this wage. Housing alone costs around $800-900 per month. Food costs close to $400. Transportation (bus or car) ends up costing $50-100 a month. This isn’t even taking clothes, entertainment, childcare, etc. into account. This really is no way to live, with barely getting by. This exercise kind of put things into perspective for me.

On Thursday, we watched a film titled, “Taylor’s Campaign”. I found this film very interesting because it allowed an outsider to see what it’s really like to live on the street. Sometimes I feel bad for the lack of resources these individuals have; the fact that they have no place to call home, but then sometimes I think that some of them want to live on the streets and continue to do drugs and the like, and it just kind of ruins it for those who want a better life. It is not okay to be living on the streets. Maybe it’s my ignorance or maybe the fact that I want society as a whole to grow and improve and prosper, but you can’t help everyone and sometimes people are just too stuck in their ways to ever change their circumstances. The sad reality is that the homeless issues that we see today aren’t likely to change anytime soon.

I grew up in a small town called Big Bear Lake, in Southern California, where I wasn’t relatively surrounded by almost any people who were homeless, at least as far as I could tell. I grew up in a very sheltered lifestyle, not needing to pay attention or give thought of the importance of paying attention to certain political issues such as the working class, homelessness, and some other subjects. Coming to college did however, change many of my beliefs as I became much more knowledgeable about issues, and surrounded by so many different mindsets. However, back to the main point, I did grow up with my grandmother being heavily involved with helping those who ask for help. She would sit and hold conversations with homeless people, creating hours and hours of connection. She would bring them food, give them money without second thought, and bring clothes. Really, she would do anything to help. I wanted to try to grow up to be like that, but in such a small town where homelessness isn’t too apparent, it’s difficult to be sought after. After even just a few days of this class where we talk about the different means of what it means to be homeless, and the policies surrounding homelessness, I understand so much more why it was so difficult for me to see these instances growing up in my hometown.

After reading “Nickle and Dime,” I realize how difficult it is to even just exist in that sort of lifestyle trying to get by. I feel people, myself in the past admittedly, all too often express how it’s hard work that gets you through life. Once you put in the work, the rest will follow. However, after reading these articles giving different perspectives on working in the underclass, I feel it gives a whole completely new idea on what it means to be in the underclass, and how it works almost like a trap. I would also like to bring up something that stood out to me in an article. It stated how we tend to focus on the lower class as the middle class going into the lower class. Not the people who have been in the lower class for much of their lives. I found that to be a claim in which changed the way I look at class, and how it stands with people peering in on it to observe it as it is. Coming from a perspective on not knowing what an underclass was until a few weeks ago, I feel excited to continue learning what these next few weeks will bring for myself and my peers to learn and experience.

This week we read  Ehrenreich, It was very eye opening to me. She speaks on the working poor. The treatment of these people is bad. The people who own these restaurants, stores, and little businesses know these people need these jobs and money so little pay is offered. Within these jobs Ehrenreich worked  especially the maid job. That one surprised me the most. She was suppose to be invisible and when seen it was usually because she was in trouble. Which just reminded of women in society this is typically a women’s job and most times in personal life this is rules for them, especially during earlier times. I could only imagine going to work and dealing with the same thing you go through at home. This can cause major psychological problems. She speaks on how she felt herself changing and she was becoming meaner.

We also read an article on a women who was actually lived in the working poor class. She explained how hard it was for her to get a job the basics to get a home, phone, etc, things necessary. It was described as you need one for the other. You must look a certain way, very approachable and nice, especially for jobs where you communicate with customers. Addiction was a big theme throughout the articles. Almost each person had something they did that helped take the load off.   Also how dependent everyone had to be on some else. No one could do it by themselves.

This week we were set to discuss the question: What is life like for the hungry, the homeless, and the near-homeless? Since the start of the course watching through videos of faces of the homeless and through the readings such as Nickel and Dimed, I feel as though so many of the stigmas I have had about homelessness have been proven wrong. I have listened to stories of people who have gone to school, have degrees, have families, have had jobs, and after a series of unfortunate events find themselves homeless. Through this I have learned homeless does not mean sleeping on the streets, or being an addict. Homelessness can be living out of your car, or even holding a job but it does not cover the never ending increased expenses life faces us with.

Nickel and Dimed showed me how near impossible it is to live on a minimum wage job. Many of the people that she worked with split apartments or rooms with two to three other people that may not even be family. They relied on these people to help them pay rent and keep a roof over their heads. Others let their coworkers shower at their apartments, or sleep on a couch if they needed to. The whole section talking about this is only referring to housing. You have to consider food, medical care and transportation. It is truly eye opening to actually look into specific cases of homelessness. I think it is something that is so widely generalized that it is difficult for people to see some of the true impacts our society has on people in the lower classes.

After reading and discussing Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, titled Nickel and Dimed: on Not Getting By In America, I had a new found sympathy for the people going through these types of situations every day. Similarly, I grew up poor, we couldn’t afford name brand shoes and everything I owned was used and from a swap meet, essentially a flea market. Being under the poverty line requires a different mindset, and a different form of surviving. Looking back, I never questioned why our family couldn’t afford certain things. My father was unable to take any days off work, in order to make ends meet. And although we have managed to escape it, I don’t take the privilege I’ve gained for granted. He couldn’t leave work early, it was money we desperately needed to pay the mortgage, and we were lucky enough to afford the one we have. These people who are stuck in the “trap” that is poverty rarely escape. We are stuck without the best that the world has to offer because of financial struggle. I understood the struggle these people went though, and although I was a child during that time, I remember what my parents went through every day to make we ate every day. Like I said, I couldn’t sympathize before, because all I ever thought about was how nice it was to not be them anymore. But I had to sit back and realize that it might as well been. If one decision wasn’t made my family could have stayed in the situation we were in, and that the one we didn’t have it as bad. Because at least we had healthcare, and a stable home environment. Working 40 hours a week won’t get you anywhere, especially out of poverty.  

Living in a big city, homelessness is not something that is new to me. On top of that, my aunt, who is an editor the Chicago Reader, has done a lot of work for the homeless, specifically the homeless youth of Chicago. I even got to attend a LGBTQ youth homeless summit a few summers ago and hear about the issues facing this population. My aunt was a part of a project in which architects from all over tried to design tiny homes that would then be built to house homeless youth. Still, with all this, there is still so much that I am ignorant to in terms of homelessness, and poverty too, and this class is already opening my eyes more.

The issue of homelessness reminds me of a lot of other social issues in the sense that the responsibility is often passed off to the next person, and because of deflection of responsibility, the issue rages on, when it doesn’t need to be like that. It’s often said that it would be cheaper to house the homeless then to keep them on the streets, but yet, their still on the streets. It sounds like a good idea to house these people, but when it comes time to vote on a tiny housing community to come to your space, it doesn’t sound so good to most people. And so the problem continues.

In terms of the book, Nickel and Dimed, I was skeptical at first. Here was a upper middle class white woman, attempting to understand “what it’s like” to be poor. However, as she acknowledged her privilege, my skepticism left and I instead saw it for what it was. I would be interested however, to compare her writing to that of someone who is truly poor, and writes about it. I’m excited for this class, because although I may see homeless people on the street, am I actually SEEING them? I don’t think so. And almost everyone deserves to be seen.