After the last presentations, the class and material covered from the books stayed fresh in my mind. With this I returned home from Redlands for the weekend and ran into an old coach and grabbed something to eat. We began to talk about college and my courses and everything along with that. I began to explain to him how we were assigned books and did the presentations on those books. Conversation followed and he began to express certain points and questions based on his perception and experiences with homelessness. I was able to inform him directly about Skid Row, being that it was what was in my book, and the history of it involving policies, ordinances, mega missions, etc.  I was effectively able to break down and explain the reason that his perception of homelessness on Skid Row was the way it was, and answered his questions. In result he was more understanding of the people in a way, and as I progressed in explaining things he seemed to understand the view from the bottom up and vice versa.

Through the presentations that my peers shared I was also able to explain different stories and point of views, expressed in the books they were assigned. I talked about the mothers, newspaper vendors, etc. In this conversation my coach was intrigued and even asked for book titles. Never did I see myself being able to simply explain and put learned text into words with everyday people , and engage in discourse. I am excited for the rest of the semester and what knowledge is to be gained, understood, and shared.

            This week I read “Voices”, with sometimes chilling but also wondering stories, about the lives of the homeless and their perspective. I have had friends that were homeless for an extended period and yet I never truly took in what it took to get back on their feet. I think one of the most chilling chapters was the barriers to work and the health of homeless. Their stories frustrated me. So much depends on appearances in order to get any type of help from society.

            Getting a job, getting medical treatment, simply being assisted in a store or hanging around on a park bench all depends on how “civilized” you look. Do you have raggedy clothes? Do you have clean teeth? Do you have a decent haircut? Not only do these small things help with being assisted they can also give a person the can-do-attitude that many of the homeless struggle to keep every day. If there were more outlets and availability for the homeless to obtain any of these appearances, they may have a better chance of getting back on their feet.

An Insider’s video demonstrated a celebrity hairdresser going around the streets of LA giving free haircuts to the homeless. Jason Schneidman, the hairdresser says, “So what I find in helping homeless people with haircuts is their appearance changes and their attitude changes and then also the people around them see these people differently.” One of the homeless men that Schneidman cut hair for looked sad but happy, and while looking into the mirror says, “Damn, yeah, that took about 10 years off of huh” then smiles at Schneidman. “I think if we all do a little, we can help out a lot.” Little things do help a concept not only emphasized in the video but throughout “Voices”.

Today the LA Times published an article on the increasing number of arrests in the homeless community of LA over the past 5 years. While overall LAPD arrests decreased by 15% between 2011 and 2016, arrests of homeless people have jumped by 31% in the same time period. LA has more than a dozen “quality of life” laws, and the overwhelming majority of these arrests have been for minor offenses under within the purview of such laws, such as sleeping on the sidewalk, living in a car, and the like. To be arrested, fined, and otherwise penalized for simply existing is horribly dehumanizing and illustrates a city attempting to balance the limits of “humane” treatment and the desires of wealthy residents and business owners who overwhelmingly support such measures. City officials have said they “have to balance the rights of homeless people against the quality of life and safety of the whole community.” These laws are essentially pointless, and are constructed specifically to target and marginalize homeless people.
The fact remains that the criminalization of homelessness is a lucrative endeavor, and the city is well aware of that fact. When it’s all said and done tickets can charge up to $200 or even $300, and tickets pile up. If anyone fails to show up to their court date there’s an automatic warrant issued by the LA superior Court, “a decade ago LA Superior Court computers were spitting out 8,000 bench warrants a week for failure-to-appear charges.” In 2014 a court ruling reported that California receives an annual revenue exceeding $75 million. Large institutions are designed to make bank by taking advantage of the vulnerable homeless population who have little to no representation in government.

This week resulted in a number of perspectives on the homeless community.  Each book report brought to light the same message.  The homelessness community is not what we normally expect.  That we, as a society, have to remember that just because they live out on the street or in shelters that they are human too. They experience the same things as we do.  They have just been dealt a different and harder hand then we have.  The book that I read focused on the homelessness community of women who live in shelters.  Each woman experienced a different reason as to being there.  Each woman was either stuck in a cycle or an unfortunate incident resulted into becoming homeless.  The book made me reflect on a number of things.  It is easy for us to forget what is actually going on in the world.  The homelessness issue in this country seems to be something that is brushed under the rug.  It seems as if we try to hide the homelessness community rather than trying to figure out how to help.  There are those out there who are trying to make an effort in combating homelessness.  Their efforts should not go unnoticed.  We should, however, encourage more to realize the issue at hand.  The homelessness community needs help and sympathy.  They should not be seen as a stereotype.  Understanding their stories and trying to find ways in which we can help is the first step that we can take in helping the homelessness community. 

After reading the chapter, “Patterns of Homelessness,” from the book Braving the Street, I could not stop thinking about the section where it discussed homeless children. It described that the cause for homelessness among families was from family disruption during their economic crisis. This deeply affected the lives of the children. In school, they were reported being fatigued, could not concentrate, and had difficulties academically and socially. This caused them to have to change schools or fall behind. These problems for the children normally occurred once the family was forced to leave their homes.

I was shocked when the author wrote that in New Hampshire “schools often close their eyes to the paperwork required for school entrance (which can take time) in an effort to minimize further loss of school experience” (24). This explains that faculty and staff ignore the suffering of the students who are obviously struggling. It is as if schools do not want to take children out of classes so that they do not fall behind in school, but how is this aiding the children in any way? Some of these children may be calling out for help, but the faculty does not want to put in the effort to do the paperwork.

This makes me look back on all of my experience volunteering in classrooms. I wonder if I had noticed a tired child who obviously was struggling, but I did not consider what was going on in their lives outside of school. How many homeless children in school go unnoticed and are in dire need of help? How can teachers see these children every day and do nothing about it?

This article in the New York Times from yesterday grabbed my attention because currently in my capstone class we are reading a book about gentrification in the cities of New Orleans, San Fransisco, Detroit, and New York. Although the book, How to Kill a City does not explicitly talk in detail about the homeless populations in these cities, it certainly discusses the thousands of residents in these cities being displaced due to gentrification. The city of New Orleans was particularly interesting to me because its gentrification is a direct result of how the city chose to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. As a result, whole neighborhoods have been forced to relocate themselves in different cities and states. They can no longer keep up with the increasing housing costs, the growing charter school populations, or the trendy neighborhoods that increase the costs of all sorts of necessary goods. For those who have chosen to stay in New Orleans despite all of this, one can assume they are certainly living precariously.

This article concerns the still failing infrastructure in New Orleans, and how the city does not have the funds to fix everything itself. Although President Trump has identified this as a crisis, it does not appear that he plans to allocate many federal funds to the rebuilding of this city that is falling apart. Because of this, the city is being forced to use its own money to restructure itself. The article points out that this means money will be taken away from other sectors, including housing for homeless veterans. But on the other hand, if these infrastructure problems are not addressed, more and more neighborhoods will crumble when there is any sort of rain or extreme weather, perhaps leaving more individuals and families without homes. It seems like there is no easy answer as to how to fix this cycle.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/02/03/us/ap-us-trump-infrastructure-new-orleans.html

I’ve recently been wondering about how both the U of R in particular and other universities in general address the problem of homelessness whenever it spills into their domains for the following reasons: a) questions about increasing “security” because of the threat of “transients” have emerged in my GeoDesign Studio class, a course in which my peers and I are helping design the proposed North Star 2020 train development on the south side of campus, b) the way in which campus security responded to the man that wandered into the Armacost Library a couple weeks ago (which seemed like a reaction to the same vein of fear), and c) the fact that I saw a Public Safety officer yesterday who appeared to scold a homeless man that was collecting cans from the dumpster behind Bekins Hall.

Is our campus security especially concerned about the problem of homelessness in comparison to those of other universities/colleges? If so, does the U of R have a reason to have a heightened concern, given the way in which homelessness in perhaps more pervasive here? (That is not to say that I actually think homelessness is more pervasive here than any other place in the US—this is a nationwide/worldwide problem—I just think that the University could employ such an argument to justify their treatment of the unhoused when they come on campus.

In a way, one could argue that the condition of the unhoused in Redlands is quite serious in comparison to those of similar populations nationwide, given the closures of both the Blessing Center and the Salvation Army shelter…but to what end? Of course, rather than addressing the root of the problem (the need for shelter among the unhoused), entities that provide “security” in town seem to use said argument to justify keeping the U of R campus a sanctuary with a force field around its perimeter that zaps the unhoused whenever they penetrate its border.

To provide some context, my GeoDesign professor said that the UC Berkeley campus was full of unhoused people when he taught there…

I came upon a heartbreaking article on Twitter about photojournalist Ted Jackson and his search for ex-NFL player Jackie Wallace. Wallace played in two super bowls during his prime and was released from the Rams 30+ years ago. When Jackson first came in contact with Wallace, it was under a freeway overpass in New Orleans where Wallace was living. After leaving the NFL, he had become homeless and battled severe drug and alcohol addictions. The article highlights his recovery and success over the years and his failures once again as he gives in to his addictions. Wallace has not been seen since July of 2017.

This article made me reflect a lot on how we treat our athletes and it’s really worth the time to read. We put professional athletes on a pedestal when they’re in the continuous spotlight, expect them to perform at their highest capacity, and even bet our livelihoods on them, and then forget about them the moment the big game ends. To think that at one point, Jackie Wallace received thunderous applause as he played on Super Bowl Sunday and then was left alone and forgotten about is sad. This article shows how fragile life can be and how easy it is to succumb to temptation when life gets hard. For Wallace, it was the death of his mother and a cousin who introduced him to crack. For us, it could be anything. Homelessness and addiction do not go hand in hand, but they certainly compliment each other.

http://www.nola.com/living/index.ssf/2018/02/jackie_wallace_ted_jackson.html#incart_2box_nola_river_orleans_news

This week my group and I presented on the book Voices in America. The whole book was a compilation of interviews gathered from the homeless community of Portland, Oregon. Sisters of the Road, a nonprofit organization, thought it would be beneficial to share their stories and remind the public that the homeless are humans, just like us. They need help, just like us.

One story I remember well was of a woman discussing how she gets ticketed for doing things required by the human body. She gets ticketed for sleeping- she sleeps in the wrong place, but is not directed to a place where she can sleep. She gets ticketed for urinating in public- despite trying to do it secretly in an alleyway, where there are no other options, she must be very alert while going to the bathroom to not get caught by authorities. One man was cited for possession of shopping carts, and he owned them legally. He had receipts to prove he had not stolen them, but was cited anyway.

Hearing stories like these help you realize how looked down on the homeless are. People automatically assume they are up to no good or are breaking laws when in reality, they are just trying to survive. One man talked about how all he wants is to be clean, because it makes him feel better about himself and allows him the blend in with society more. We all get dirty, but not all of us are privileged with a shower.

Homelessness can happen to anyone- devastation knows no class and can effect us all.

This week in class we spent our time on group presentations listening to what books our peers had read in relation to homelessness. The book that stood out to me the most was “Homeless Mothers: Face to Face with Women and Poverty.” They started off the presentation with a video of a family with 6 children living in a hotel. They were living in a hotel because they were kicked out of the home they were renting due to the landlord not paying the mortgage and just taking their money. This is just another example of how no one plans on being homeless, but sometimes life takes a dramatic turn for the worst – especially when crooks are involved like this landlord. They then went on to discuss the different mothers in the story and the hardships they were facing. Most of them had/were in abusive relationships (usually multiple) and quite a few had multiple children. It was sad to listen to these women’ stories because I felt as though they were all trying to escape, but kept ending up back into an unhealthy cycle of abuse and drugs. I am glad that they were all able to find the author, Deborah Connolly, a social worker for help, but it makes me think of the women who are not as fortunate to have someone. I hope that they one day do find the person who will help them out of this cycle though. One final thought, there was one thing that really grasped my attention at the end of the presentation and that was when one of the mother’s said she just wants to hear her child laugh again. That broke my heart to hear that this mother isn’t asking for money or anything, but simply for her child’s laughter because a child’s happiness is the purest thing I think.