This article is talking about the minimum wage increase being discussed. After what we have learned in class about the minimum wage, we know the minimum wage now is nowhere close to what is needed to live off of. Different states are considering different numbers but it seems to be going in the right direction.
Category Archives: Poverty
Crime of Homelessness
It has been interesting to see that most people think that homeless people are in the situation they are in because they are lazy and/or have no work ethic. This being said, for my teaching project, I have been trying to find real stories of people who are trying their hardest to get out of their situation as well as break the societal cycle.
Yesterday, a social reform type blog posted an article that did just that. Shanesha Taylor is a homeless mother of 2 that was offered an interview. Because she had no one to watch or care for he children, she had me wait in the car. When she was done with the interview, her life became much more difficult. She was then arrested and her children we taken to child protective services. Since the story did not explain why she was homeless in the first place, it still shines a bright light on the issue of single mothers and their poverty level. The article says that about 1.6 million kids in America are considered homeless and that sets them up for immediate failure as it makes it much more difficult to rise out of it. After hearing this story, many people reached out to Shanesha and donated money for her to help regain her children’s custody. As this situation was not her choice, it shows that society is constructed by giving the unfair advantage to those who need it the most. Now Shanesha and many women in similar situations have to deal with systems that will cost even more money and time. It is sad to think that people get in trouble for being in a situation they have no control over.
http://socialistworker.org/2014/04/02/the-real-crime-is-homelessness
Drug Abuse and the Homeless
According to class discussions and a number of different readings we have done, substance abuse is not regarded as a high cause of homelessness. It is very prevalent in the homeless community though. I was always interested in how substance abuse effects the homeless community and decided for my blog post this week to do a bit of research into finding out some facts and information.
There are two different types of substance abuse: drugs and alcohol. 38% of homeless were dependent on alcohol with the abuse being more common in the older generation. 26% abused other drugs with it being more common for the younger generation. In addition, it is more common for substance abuse to be prevalent for the homeless population compared to the general population.
This bit of information was surprising to me because it contradicts, or at least says we should pay attention more to, how much of a factor substance abuse is becoming homeless. It sometimes may be a direct reason, or it may tag along other factors. Examples would be if someone was behind on bills, they may drink more, which cause them to fall so far behind they lose their house. There was a 2008 survey by the United States Conference of Mayors asked 25 cities for their top three causes of homelessness and Substance abuse was one of the three for single adults (reported by 68% of the cities). Another statistic is that substance abuse accounted for 12% of the cities for one of the top three reasons for homelessness for families. Lastly two-thirds of the homeless say that drugs and/or alcohol were a major reason for becoming homeless.
More times this abuse is a result of homelessness than a cause. Once becoming homeless, these people turn to alcohol and drugs to try and cope with their situation. In reality it makes it harder for them to function in society and to try to get a job to get back on their feet. If some of the homeless do become sober, there is little success remaining it while on the street. A lot of the treatment programs have an abstinence type programming which is not a very effective strategy and should focus on staying sober and the possibility of relapsing.
Paying Alcoholics in Beer? Good or Bad Idea?
Tonight, I was talking to my dad about this class, and he told me about a program he’d heard of in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This article from BBC News does a very good job of explaining the program. Basically, a company (The Rainbow Group) partially funded by the Dutch government have started a program to help homeless alcoholics in Amsterdam. The article describes how the program works: “They arrive at 09:00 and work until 15:00. They take extended breaks for beer, cigarettes and a hot lunch, all provided free of charge.” The aim of the program is not to fix these people, but to give them a better quality of life, while bettering the neighborhoods at the same time. Though this is a very controversial program that I imagine most Americans would not take seriously, I think it’s a very intriguing idea. The program seems to be helping to keep violence to a minimum and has been fairly cost effective. The people involved in the program are given a sense of dignity because they can work for their beer instead of begging for money. One of the men stated that “‘They used to treat us like garbage – and now we are picking up their garbage, we are not the garbage anymore.'” Rather than trying to change the “unchangeable reality” of alcoholism, this project is aimed at creating a better environment for alcoholics to live in.
I’m not sure about this program and its effectiveness, but I think that the change of thinking about these types of things is a good start to changing society. As the article states, why not “abandon ‘old-fashioned political correctness'” and try something “crazy” like this?
What do you think about this type of program? Do you think it would work in America? Is it making a significant difference?
Problematic Discourse
On Saturday I worked at my internship organization’s weekly food bank and observed discourse about poverty.
At my organization, there are “food box runners” who carry out the boxes to the clients’ cars or wherever they wish. These runners are usually male volunteers who can lift a decent amount. I recognized the some of the same people doing it as last week, but there were new volunteers doing this job. One of the senior volunteers (or one of the pastors, I’m not exactly sure) within the organization was explaining what these runners needed to do. I overheard parts of the explanation, and there were one huge red flag. The volunteer, Bob*, said what I expected him to say, smile and be respectful, but then I heard him say “These people come here with low self-esteem and depression. They don’t want to be taking these boxes but they have to.” Bob already had preconceived notions about these people, and it made me think about the discourses of Lyon-Callo’s book Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance and other discourses that we’ve been discussing in class. My organization proclaims to be giving people a sense of dignity, but this struck me as problematic because you don’t give dignity to people by assuming that they have low self-esteem and depression; it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I think it skews the way you view the clients. Those runners likely behaved differently toward the clients than if they hadn’t been told that. If I had been in Bob’s position, I would have just told the runners to be respectful and kind like I would tell any other person working at my organization. I wouldn’t add the problematic discourse additionally.
The Real Causes of 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.”
Increasing Animosity Towards Homeless Population
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.
Panhandlers in Redlands
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.
Internship Progress
For my internship I volenteered at a mission in San Bernardino. This mission is a community-based organization that was established in 1994 by five Lutheran churches. The original churches are still supporting the mission today alongside many more community partners. They have special assistance to those in special situations of youths at risk, HIV+ homeless, and homeless men.
The main method of helping the less fortunate is that there is a shelter that is open to homeless men. The shelter is open from the months of November to April. At one time there is the capacity of housing 70 men at a time. Through the six months of operation, there are 200 to 300 unduplicated men that come to the shelter for housing. There are also a variety of other classes that are offered to the public and to the people in need. The classes that they offer are aerobics, computer instruction, sewing and home arts class, English as a second language, and arts and crafts (with a $15 monthly fee).
The mission has an after school program that is provided daily from 3:30 to 6:00 pm. This is available to the neighborhood children and is free of charge. At the moment there are 32 children enrolled in the afterschool program. This program is offered in both Spanish and English. There are volunteers that help out with snacks that are offered at the beginning of the program. At 5:30 to 6:00 the neighborhood children eat a dinner provided by the mission. Through the time that the after school program is in session there are a variety of educational and recreational activities. Some of the special activities that the mission puts on for the kids are field trips, holiday parties, backpacks with school supplies, and gifts provided by donors.
Everyday volunteers prepare a free meal with food donated and grown in the community garden. This meal is distributed from the hours of 12 to 1. Students from the University of Redlands and other volunteers established the community garden. There are 19 boxes that grow a variety of plants. 10 of the boxes are for families in the neighborhood, 7 boxes are for the mission and the free meals that they provide, and 2 boxes are planted and maintained by the after school program. There is a food pantry that on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month, bags of groceries are given out free of charge to people who are in need of food. There are 96 bags that are assembled to be given out. At the back of the property there is a clinic that provides comprehensive primary care services to the community. It accepts a variety of health insurance, but to those that do not have insurances fees start as low as $20. Lastly there is a thrift store where people can purchase donated items. If there are people in need of clothing they can choose clothes for free by contacting the missions office.
Internship Progress Report
Since 1898, the service association I have been interning at has relied on donations and a system of volunteers to provide services to low income and homeless families, disabled adults, and impoverished seniors of the East Valley. Today, there are 14 paid staff members and several volunteers.
Families that receive support from this location are either homeless or on the brink of homelessness. The many services provided by the organization are aimed at helping families in danger of becoming homeless pull themselves out of the rut that many get stuck in. The organization uses a case management-based approach that makes their care more compassionate and personal. Parents can take free classes on budgeting, parenting, anger management, computer skills, etc. and get job training or help with job searching. Housing assistance is provided through the Home Again program, which helps families move from homelessness to permanent housing through several different programs.
Food, clothing, furniture, and many other supplies needed for living are provided to clients through the distribution center. The distribution center contains the food pantry and the clothing room, where volunteers work daily to sort and organize donations. Families can “shop” for clothes and bedding in the clothing room each month. Volunteers in the food pantry put bags of food together for families of different sizes. Giving families the food in grocery bags makes it look as though they are just taking food home from the store like any other person, saving them from judgment.
The childcare center provides a place for children to go while their parents are in class or counseling or any other service they receive. There are plenty of board games, toys, puzzles, books, and crafts available to keep the children busy while they wait for their parents. On certain days, tutoring and homework help is available to the children as needed, to help them keep up with school. This is a very important aspect of the childcare center, as many of the families have a hard time keeping up with school with so many other things to deal with.
Meals are provided to families every night at 5:30 p.m. The dining room is set up with each family at their own table. Parents go to the kitchen to get the food and bring it back to the rest of the family, rather than every person waiting in line, as is done at many charity services. This makes the dining experience more relaxed, dignified, and comfortable for the entire family.
This service organization also puts on holiday programs including Christmas gift giving, in which the parents can pick out and wrap presents for their children, Thanksgiving and Easter meals, Easter baskets, and Easter egg hunts. These are fun experiences that every child deserves to have, and which could not be possible without the volunteer help and donations from the community.
All of these services have helped families in need immensely over the 100+ years that the volunteer-based organization has been around. It is clear that this association understands that everyone deserves respect and dignity and treats its clients with compassion and care.