Category Archives: Homelessness

“City Demands Church Stop Sheltering the Homeless”

Homelessness, News link

The article,“City Demands Church Stop Sheltering the Homeless” addresses a nationwide trend of cracking down on both those trying to help the homeless and those who are homeless.  One worker from a church that served the homeless comments how the homeless people have feelings and basic needs just like all people. This relates to the common theme of treating homeless people with dignity and respect.

Politics must be involved that prompted the conclusion that the church has inadequate zoning permits. People in power have access to resources and the ability to enact laws and pass legislation. In my home town members generally agreed that there was a need for another homeless shelter, yet the disagreement resided in where. Nobody wanted the homeless shelter by them.  Perhaps a large reason why is because of the negative untrue stigmas attached with being homeless.  I wonder if people knew more about homelessness if their perception would change. Maybe some of the people living around the church were upset and did not want the church to act as a warming shelter for homeless people and voiced their concerns to public officials.

Not allowing the church to help homeless people also prevents non homeless people from interacting with homeless people. While interacting with homeless people the housed population will be able to witness the humanity in homeless individuals which can help combat with negative stigmas. The relationships and interactions that develop might be shared with community members and facilitate in developing a more accurate perception of homeless individuals which will be beneficial in challenging existing structural inequalities.

 

The Real Causes of Homelessness

About being poor, Causes of Homelessness, Government programs, Homelessness, People, Portraits of Homeless, Poverty, Solutions to Homelessness

I found this story written by Mollie Lowery that hit on many of the points we have been making in class about what truly causes homelessness. Lowery writes the story of a chronically homeless woman named Lourdes. This story is powerful in pointing out the many different flaws of our current system and the ways in which we treat the homeless. I see a lot of the arguments Vincent Lyon-Callo makes in his book  Inequality, Poverty, And Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry (purchase on Amazon) within Lourdes’ story. One of these arguments is that our society medicalizes homelessness. The best way I can describe this is by pulling a quote from Lowery’s story of getting Lourdes back into housing: “I began each day with reassurances that if Lourdes got in the car with me, I wouldn’t take her to a mental hospital. Such fear and distrust do not emanate from some genetic pathology. It comes from years of being marginalized, excluded, exposed and traumatized.” Both Lyon-Callo and Lowery emphasize the very important fact that the systems that we have in place to “help” homeless people place the blame on personal attributes, rather than acknowledging that the problem comes from these systems that create inequalities.  Though we have many systems in place to try to help the ever-growing number of homeless, Lowery stresses that “a far more humane, effective — and cheaper — strategy would be to prevent people like Lourdes from winding up homeless in the first place.” Rather than putting a band-aid on the problem, we need to focus on preventing the problem from ever happening. And this involves seeing the true cause of homelessness instead of focusing on “individual pathologies and solutions.”

“Homeless Seen as Deviant”

Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading

Vincent Lyon-Callo’s, Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance, discusses some of the structural issues that cause homelessness. One particular issue that stuck out to me was the second chapter discussing “Medicalizing Homelessness”. Medicalizing homelessness basically means that homelessness is a disease that cannot be cured and that it is the individual’s fault that they are homeless. We often think that shelters are constructed to reduce homelessness; however, some of the times the shelters are perpetuating homelessness.

For example, shelters often create step by step programs for homeless who are drug or alcohol addicts. As helpful as they are to get people off these substances, they are not getting them away from the main source of distribution, which are the streets. These step by step programs are not helping these addicts get off the streets so that they can get away from the easy accessible drugs on the streets.

In addition, shelters individualize homeless by telling them that they are homeless because of something that has happened in their lives, whether it was by choice or not. For example, some homeless are being told that they are homeless because they were sexually abused. This is not something that they chose, also it is not the reason they are homeless. These shelters are saying to the homeless that they are trying to fix them.

Lyon-Callo writes, “These practices produce “the homeless” as deviant” (Lyon-Callo 59). The homeless are being individualized to the point where they are considered deviant from the rest of society. This is partially caused by the ways in which shelters are running their services.

Increasing Animosity Towards Homeless Population

Causes of Homelessness, Causes of Poverty, Harrassment, Homelessness

Looking for recent news articles relating to homelessness, I stumbled upon one published by Diane Turbyfill in the Gaston Gazette online site entitled “Is Something Bringing Down our Downtown?”. The article focused on Gaston North Carolina where a reported increase in homeless population has been negatively impacting dining and entertainment areas by decreasing business according to the business owners. Being fed up with this, one owner reportedly created t-shirts saying “Throw the bums out, Gastonia, N.C.”, creating a media frenzy around this business. The article went on to say that while some people have formed an increasingly negative view towards the homeless as a result of this, the majority of the population in this area expressed embarrassment by the actions of this business.

Because in this city the shelters that are available to homeless populations are nearby the busy downtown area, the homeless have no other option but to walk by this part of town when going from one shelter to the other. While the people in this city have an awareness that there exists a homeless population, they don’t want these individuals to be visible in areas of high traffic business because of the simple fact that the homeless make the rest of the population uncomfortable.

In the article, the author mentioned an interview with Capt. Mark Hunter with the Salvation Army of Gastonia who described the homeless population by stating “That’s why they’re on the street. They don’t like structure. Those people are always going to remain homeless”. I found this to be extremely shocking due to the fact that this man works with the homeless population for a living. It is clear that he sees them as those who have placed themselves on the outskirts of society purposely by not adhering to social rules. In this way, he is making generalizations towards the entire homeless population when in reality the cause of homelessness cannot be summed up in this way because there are endless amounts of reasons for ending up on the street. However, his statement further illustrates the ways in which homelessness has been socially constructed to be thought of as an individual issue and not a larger structural issue.

While Hunter shows a point of view suggesting that the homeless are responsible for thier situation, when speaking about the apparent increase of homelessness in the area he stated “Ignoring it is the worst thing we can do. There’s a problem, and we just need to come together.” I think thta this is the correct way of looking at tackling the issue of homelessness that should be encouraged in this town and everywhere. The problem with this is that members of society are so far removed from the homeless population. Just like these business owners who wanted something done about the increase of homeless in front of their businesses, people generally want to pretend homelessness does not exist by keeping themselves far removed from it. Out of sight, out of mind.

Derelict Paradise

Books and Films, Homelessness

These last couple of weeks I read a book that had a very interesting view about how there is more to homelessness than just these people having a hard time living and surviving in absolute poverty. The book I read was Derelict Paradise and it explained how there are people in higher up positions in society who are benefitting off the people who are struggling. The author Daniel Kerr has conducted interviews with close to 200 homeless individuals and researched through the city’s local archives to find research on charities, politicians, newspapers, etc. to find out about how the city of Cleveland works and has changed. His informational study looks back from the last 130 years of the 1870s to present day.

Back in the day the city of Cleveland there was a “time [where] downtown Cleveland was a haven, almost a utopia, for lower income people” (Karr pg. 5). Back then housing was more affordable and available for the low-income population. But throughout the years the city was growing and wanting to look good to tourists and for its citizens, so this housing was destroyed and resulting in slums popping up. The slums were also eventually taken down and the homeless now were displaced.

There were a variety of people who benefited off the homeless with examples of the law enforcement, landlords, and the social shelters. They did not care for the homeless and were getting paid to “help” them live in these horrible conditions. When the migrant workers that came in to work for low labor threatened employer’s jobs, they banded together to remove the public services that helped out these workers.

There was a lot of work done to make sure that the homeless problem never improved so that profits were still able to be made off the homeless. There were a number of riots that occurred because of this, but nothing ever change. This seemed to occur every twenty to thirty years up until the present.

Homeless with a Home

Homelessness, People, Reflections on our Reading

After reading At Home on the Street, by Jason Wasserman and Jeffery Clair, I was shocked and impressed by the measures they took within their experience with the homeless.  In this book, authors tell the story of their journey and methodologies they used. They lived among the homeless on the streets and were able to form relationships with them. One leading question was why did they choose to live on the streets and not in a shelter. They chose the streets because they were able to choose where they slept and were able to get the full effect of what it truly is like to be homeless living on the streets.

I found this to be commendable of Wasserman and Clair and believe they took the right approach in their research. In addition, they were able to build relationships/friendships with fellow people on the streets and hear their stories. Also, they felt that living on the streets was safer than living in shelters which I thought was unexpected. May people think that sleeping in the shelter is the safer option but in reality there are a lot problems with crime and violence within shelters making it an unsafe environment.  In addition, you may not get to choose were you sleep in the shelter, unlike the streets. In the book, it was explained that people who were living on the streets did have a home, it just did not seem like a home to outsiders.  Many had a constant resting spot that they would go to every night and that was their home. I found his to be very powerful and eye-opening.

Here is a look to purchase the book:

http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Street-Poverty-Homelessness/dp/1588267016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395134115&sr=8-1&keywords=at+home+on+the+street

Homelessness and Respect

Books and Films, Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading

In Jason Adam Wasserman and Jeffrey Michael Clair’s book At Home on the Street: People, Poverty, and a Hidden Culture of Homelessness, they provide a thorough recount of their ethnographic methodology and findings. In their second chapter, Accessing a Hidden Population,  it is discussed how important it was for Wasserman and Clair to be accepted into the homelessness community’s “private property” of Birmingham, Alabama’s, Catchout Corner. Although Catchout Corner is the city’s public property, this was the first time I had ever heard of a homeless community referred to as having private property. How can they have private property of they cannot afford it? Yet, the researchers had this understanding that this space did, in fact, belong to their homeless participants and they had to be accepted into their homes.

This was almost threatened by the drug dealers that provided and employed some of the homeless participants. Not only did the dealers believe that the researchers would harm their business, but the homeless participants also advised for them to leave the Corner. Luckily, Wasserman and Clair were not intimidated and decided to return to the homeless community. That is how they gained the participants’ respect. I felt that this bit of information about their approach and experience represents the way they went about their entire project. It was interesting to see the homeless participants in a position of respect, instead of pity or other negative emotions that are usually seen. It made me wonder if people viewed the homeless as worthy of respect, how much of a difference that would make in decisions that are made for them.

Women and Children

Homelessness

In the book our group has been reading, “Beside the Golden Door: Policy, Politics, and the Homeless,” by James D. Wright, Beth A. Rubin, and Joel A. Devine there is a section pertaining to who is in the homeless category.  It  talks about the new homeless population having a lot of women and children.  Women and children are the largest growing population within the homeless community.  I feel this is an important thing to look at because it shows that it isn’t one group of people going through this.  With women and children growing in number son the streets, it causes more people to actually notice.  The children on the street have a lot of risks that produce a lot of negative effects.  The main effect that needs to be looked at is the health of these children and youth.  Their development is being affected by their homeless state whether it be from the shelters or actually being on the streets.  This is something that needs to be focused on because if their homeless status starts this young, it can cause a lot of problems for the rest of their lives.

http://www.amazon.com/Beside-Golden-Door-Politics-Institutions/dp/0202306143

 

Panhandlers in Redlands

About being poor, Homelessness, How we should treat each other, Local organizations, News link, People, Poverty

I picked up a copy of the Redlands Daily Facts (our local newspaper) today and saw that the front page headline was “POPULAR WITH PANHANDLERS: Redlands’ reputation for giving lures locals, out-of-towners seeking handouts.” Of course, the “handout” stereotype caught my eye, and I proceeded to read the article (which can be found online, here.) Just the way the entire article is set up and written bothers me. It is full of negative stereotypes and stigmas against panhandlers and focuses completely on the police’s and the businesses’ side rather than taking a deeper look into the lives of the panhandlers. The article points out the way people spend the money they receive while panhandling, pulling quotes from interviews with the panhandlers such as, “You’ve got to survive out here. You’ve got to do it to make money to buy your food, beer and tobacco.” The article emphasizes the fact that many panhandlers have drug/alcohol addictions, posing addiction as a cause of the homeless problem rather than an outcome and stereotyping these people as lazy drug-addicts who spend the “handouts” they receive on booze and dope. The article lacks empathy for the people who apparently are “coming from outside city limits to come to Redlands to panhandle because it’s more profitable” due to Redlands citizens’ “big hearts.” The article emphasizes the fact that “one out of three panhandlers are not homeless,” as if to persuade people that the housed people are even more unworthy of donated money. It goes on to explain different tactics panhandlers use to get money, characterizing these people as liars. The police and the newspaper article encourage people to donate to organizations that help the homeless in the area instead of giving directly to homeless people. This is a recurring theme we have seen throughout history. The authorities encourage people to funnel their money through the institutions that help homeless, but there are not enough truly helpful organizations to solve the problem.  Overall, this article was frustrating, but not surprising. It lacked an understanding of the homeless problem and brushed over the backgrounds of panhandlers, stigmatizing them as lazy and evil.

Reflection on Martha Burt’s “Strategies for Reducing Street Homelessness”

Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

After reading Strategies for Reducing Chronic Street Homelessness by Martha Burt I have a better understanding of what we, as a community should do to lower the number of homeless.  This report goes through and thoroughly discusses steps to take in order to reduce homelessness. Some questions asked to make sure that communities are trying to reduce their number of homeless. For example, does the community have a long-term plan, is there an approach implemented, how is the approach funded, does implementation include efforts of community members? These questions enhance the information that the HUD is attempting to understand.

The HUD believes that if they can receive information to these questions they will better understand what needs to be done in each community to reduce chronic homelessness. The answer to each of these questions will determine what the community can do to lower their number of homeless people. If a community is serious about these steps and focuses on these questions they will most likely reduce their community’s chronic homelessness.

There were seven communities studied in this project where many community members were interviewed. During this study they found five key elements that were prevalent in each community, which explained their chronic street homelessness. One key element was that across the board there was a shift in the goals of homeless assistance programs. I believe this should be the main concern of the HUD. The old goals of the assistance programs were to provide transitional housing and emergency shelters, with no real intention of ending homelessness. The paradigm shift has happened in several of the communities studied, which is more of a focus on ending homelessness by getting others involved to help such as businesses and public agencies.

This report helps us to see what needs to be accomplished to get closer to ending chronic street homelessness. It displays communities who are working in the right direction and also communities that need to put in more effort.

Link to reading : http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1000775.pdf