Category Archives: About being poor

Paying Alcoholics in Beer? Good or Bad Idea?

About being poor, Government programs, Homelessness, News link, Organizations, People, Poverty, Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Hunger

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?

“Keep your coins, I want change”

About being poor, Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

“Keep your coins, I want change”. This is something that truly stuck out to me during one of the presentations last week. This statement speaks great volumes about the needs of the homeless. Coins do not do anything, but change does. Between this and our conversations in class, I was able to recognize the resources that would benefit the homeless. Through various organizations, help centers are offered to teach life skills to those who are homeless. There resources are aiming to provided life lessons, skills, and goals to make a lasting impact.  It related to the metaphor: “If you give a man a fish you feed him once, but if you teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a life time”. This is the kind of action that needs to be taken.

Having resources such as resume building, job skill training, and educational classes we are offering needy people the chance to have a life that they are in need of. I feel this needs to go beyond local non profit organizations and have a bigger impact within the government. A great population of our country is homeless, and sometimes it seems like many options are not put into full force to make a lasting impact. We have learned a lot about how one person can make a difference with their voice, but actions are louder than words. I hope to find out more information, especially from my internship, and see exactly what they are doing within these resources and seeing the lasting impact that they have on people finding jobs and getting off of the streets.

Problematic Discourse

About being poor, How we should treat each other, Local organizations, Organizations, People, Poverty, Reflections on our Reading

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

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.”

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.

Promoting Dignity

About being poor, How we should treat each other, Local organizations, Organizations, Solutions to Homelessness

            I have been interning a Family Services center, an agency dedicated to offering support to low-income and homeless families with the end goal of leading them towards self-sufficiency. Family services depends on the support of organizations and leaders to improve the lives of those at or below the poverty line, which in turn strengthens the community as a whole.

             I began my work in the distribution center. The labor of this work can be grueling at times but it made me appreciate the care that’s put into this process. Staff members believe in giving clients items that they would be proud to own. Items are cleaned, disinfected, and made presentable. Goods that don’t meet these expectations are put into bags and placed where individuals can grab them. Absolutely nothing donated is wasted.

            I’ve spent time in the clothing center. Clients come in to this room and are given fifteen minutes to browse clothing options. It’s an opportunity for them to receive any special needs items such as blankets, pillows, towels, or cooking utensils. Clothes are folded, counted, recorded, and bagged in regular shopping bags. Clients are able to come in, gain access to clean clothes and choose what fits their needs, including work appropriate attire that will enable them to search for employment.

            The food pantry is set up very similarly to a grocery store, with aisles of foods. Families are given access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and good sources of protein and vitamins. They fill grocery bags with food items to meet the family’s needs. When they leave, the items are in grocery bags so there would be no way to detect that they had gotten these food items from anywhere but the grocery store. This is another way that they are treated with dignity.

            I have been volunteering in the child care center which is a very important feature of Family Services. It allows parents the time to go to classes and counseling while knowing that their children are safely being cared for. On a usual day, children are dropped off and signed in by parents and they begin their school homework projects that they have. The volunteers in this area spend a lot of time and efforts helping the children understand and complete their homework and any special projects that they have to prevent them from falling behind in school.

            Going forward, I hope to gain much more insight into some of the services that I am less familiar with. I am aware that this organization offers a wide variety of services such as resume building, job assistance, and computer skills training, I’m not fully knowledgeable of the specifics of these services. I hope to gain insight in these classes and the feedback of the clients.

          The overall message of this organization is to promote the dignity of all people, a concept that we have identified in class as imperative. While it’s overwhelming to consider the status of homelessness, this experience has made me see the great impact that a single person can make. Family Services was established over one hundred years ago and was built on the importance of community members volunteering by donating time, money, and resources. Each and every individual who has volunteered here has played a role in ensuring that it is able to keep going.

What Not To Buy: Dictating the Choices of Low Income Families

About being poor, Food stamps (SNAP), Government programs, Harrassment, Hunger, People, Poverty, Solutions to Hunger, Solutions to Poverty, Working poor

As the debate over Food Stamps receives media attention, once again conservatives, the gullible, and the ignorant do not understand what Food Stamps themselves provide. Whenever this government program is brought up, like welfare, conservative media enjoys reporting on instances of misuse and abuse of the system–except unlike welfare, people cannot purchase anything but FOOD with Food Stamps. Fox News analysts in particular report on instances of people using Food Stamps to buy movie tickets, toys, electronics, cigarettes, even tickets to Disneyland, and the simple truth is that none of these statements are true. Jon Stewart essentially equates this kind of “rumor reporting” to be no better than believing chain emails threatening bad luck if one doesn’t  continue the chain.Food Stamps can only provide those who receive them with food. However, as everyone knows, people need more than food to survive day to day, and from many comments I’ve read on tumblr regarding this debate, it often takes scrambling in order to make up money to pay for the inedible necessities. Thus, the prospect of cutting Food Stamps even further only hurts those who need this program in order to survive because it ruins an already strict budget.

The controversy about Food Stamps continues because some conservatives believe that the government should regulate what people should be purchasing. As Jon Stewart jokes, in his segment What Not To Buy: What Would Jesus Soil, poor people shouldn’t purchase junk food because that’s bad for their health, but they’re also looked down upon if they purchase higher quality luxury foods (they’re abusing the system, they don’t really aren’t poor if they can afford those foods). Thus, low income families are being ripped apart by the media with classism, thus perpetuating stereotypes and classist discourse about poverty.

Taking Action

About being poor, Government programs, News link, Solutions to Homelessness

As we transition into the part of the semester in which the underlying theme is about what  the government is doing about the homeless population, I found an article which shows how taking one step can make a huge impact. On March 8th, The Los Angeles Times published an article about having a safe space for homeless people. In Sonoma County, supervisors lifted the ban of people sleeping in their cars. They realized that for some people, living in their cars is their only option. They made a Safe Parking Program that allowed homeless people the opportunity to park their car in a designated lot and could keep their cars there overnight.

This program provides a safe space for homeless people. One man described it as “heavenly” and was grateful for this safe space. While reading, I was asking myself why is this just happening now? This is a great program that should have been brought about sooner. One woman states “A man walked up to me and his entire face and beard was covered in frost”. This just shows how action needed to be taken. It is said that four men died from freezing to death, which is another situation that should not have happened. By lifting this ban and allowing this safe space program, homeless people not only feel safe, they also being taken out of bad weather conditions that they would have to face if they were sleeping outdoors.

After reading this article, I am confident in some of the steps our government is taking towards helping homeless people. If more ideas and solutions like this were put into action, homeless people would be given a better outcome.

Safe Space Program provided these people with a place to park their car and sleep overnight

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-santa-rosa-homeless-parking-20140309,0,3081428.story#ixzz2vbYjWG6y

 

Somewhere to Sleep

About being poor, Homelessness, News link

In recent news an online article was published by the local Los Angeles Times entitled “In Sonoma County, a heartwarming safe-parking program for the homeless” which described the unique response of this affluent county to both the freezing temperatures and the spike in homeless persons sleeping in their cars. This article was unique in the fact that it described all kinds of people who have found themselves needing to utilize these safe parking spaces at night for a place to sleep. With the waiting lists for shelters growing increasingly long and the temperatures continuing to drop, the homeless were out of options besides sleeping in their cars, which is against the law in Sonoma County as well as many other places. As Supervisor Shirlee Zane is quoted in this article, she states “It was just stupid to say it’s illegal to sleep in your car. For some people, all they own is their car.” This is why several other counties including nearby San Diego County, have began adopting this idea of safe parking spaces that allow people to sleep in their vehicles without being hassled by police.
As the article also stated “in Santa Clara County, four homeless men had frozen to death on the streets”. This was a huge catalyst for people like Shirlee Zane to get these safe parking spaces going. This quote was very powerful to me because despite this tragedy, there are still policymakers and community members who are advocating for anti-camping ordinances to ban homeless from sleeping in vehicles which could be their only way of survival. While this article was describing the recent situation in Sonoma County, it is obvious from our recent coursework in homeless counts around the nation that this is not an isolated occurrence and  that this is going to continue to happen in many areas. Because of this, anti-camping ordinances need to be reconsidered and altered as a temporary bandage to the problem while long-term solutions are formed.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-santa-rosa-homeless-parking-20140309,0,3081428.story?page=1#axzz2vbNk21a0

 

Raising the Minimum Wage

About being poor, Causes of Homelessness, Causes of Hunger, Causes of Poverty, Government programs, News link, Poverty, Solutions to Poverty

Image Detail

I saw this image on an Upworthy article, which can be found here. This map shows how many hours a minimum wage worker in each state would have to work per week simply to afford a 2 bedroom apartment, without paying more than 30% of their income. Not a single state’s minimum wage is high enough to adequately cover the costs of housing without working at least 65 hours a week. This means that housed minimum wage workers are either having to sacrifice other necessities for life such as food, child care, transportation, etc., or they are having to work two or more low wage jobs. Most likely, many low wage workers are doing both of these things just to survive.

We have seen several examples throughout this course (and on this blog) that show that a huge cause of homelessness is the imbalance of housing costs and wages in America. It seems so obvious that the current state this nation is in is not sustaining so many of its members. Raising the minimum wage is one way we can start addressing this issue. Gov. Peter Shumlin (Vermont) and Gov. Dan Malloy (Connecticut) wrote a piece on CNN’s Opinion section called “No brainer: Three reasons why a $10.10 minimum wage is good for America.” Their third reason was that “it’s the right thing to do. No American working 40 hours or more a week deserves to live in poverty.” The governors go on to debunk the bogus arguments many make against raising the national minimum wage: “Republican governors across the country have also stood in the way of progress. Some have pandered to stereotype, suggesting that a raise in the minimum wage should be rejected because it would only help young workers rather than acknowledging that 88% of workers who would be affected by moving the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour are over the age of 20, and more are over the age of 55 than are teenagers.”

There is no logical reason that the minimum wage shouldn’t be raised. It is clear that this would be a good start to counteracting the cost of housing and to abolishing homelessness.