Superbowl Sunday is something sports fans across the United States have been looking forward to all season. However, as reported by Travis Waldron of the Huffington Post, the Superbowl 50 has stirred up conflict in the San Francisco Bay Area in terms of the city’s budgeting. As footballs fans sit in front of their televisions at home, on the couch, at the bar, the homeless community in the San Francisco Bay Area struggles to find a new place to call home. With Panthers and Broncos fanatics flooding the streets of Santa Clara and San Francisco to tailgate and watch their teams religiously, the homeless community is being displaced. Due to the Superbowl celebrations, homeless advocates believe that law-enforcement has made efforts to relocate homeless. While there is no actual evidence of these claims, the article homeless community in San Francisco feel targeted.

Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the San Francisco-based Coalition on Homelessness, says “the money San Francisco is spending on Super Bowl City could cover a year of housing subsidies for 500 homeless people.” With San Francisco having “more anti-homeless laws than any other California-city” the fight to alleviate homelessness in the Bay Area is seen as less of a priority to the city than the Superbowl. Those in favor of the Superbowl claim that the celebration will create enough traffic and revenue to cover San Francisco’s costs.

Ultimately, this is not only an issue prioritizing spending also of residents’ attitudes towards homelessness. Being one of the largest issues in San Francisco, homelessness ironically fails to prioritized.

Is the size of the celebration justifiable for the mistreatment of the homeless community? In what event is it appropriate to prioritize the issue of homelessness in the city of San Francisco?  What must be sacrificed to address the issue of homeless in the city? As many football fans lock their eyes on the screen, worrying about the $20 bet they are about to lose, many homeless San Franciscans are desperately searching for the new sidewalk they can call home, until they are forced to relocate once again.

Waldron, Travis. “How Super Bowl 50 Became Ground Zero For The Fight Over Homelessness.” The Huffington Post. N.p., 06 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/san-francisco-homeless-protests-super-bowl-50_us_56b625c6e4b01d80b2468235>.

In an article written by author Sohpie Cockie, the plans of Hawaii’s state legislature to combat homelessness in tourist hub, Waikiki, is outlined. The article explains that the state has initiated a campaign to help the homeless population of Waikiki either, return to their home states, or into local shelters. It was also mentioned that majority of the homeless living in Waikiki are transplants and came to Hawaii with the intention of being homeless- or became homeless after they arrived and found that the cost of living is excessive. In order to discourage transplants from moving to Hawaii the initiative will also take the time for a PR campaign getting rid of blogs and false media that encourage the thought that Hawaii is a homeless friendly state.

The initiative has been funded privately, by the local mainstream hotels, and publicly. The private funders had similar views abut the homeless situation as most (think about the views of those in the documentary we watched on homelessness in Santa Monica- its unsightly and bad for tourism. It is interesting to note how our greed for money cloud our judgments and numbs us, allowing us to forget to treat humans as humans no matter their circumstance.

Though the program is also focusing on relocation they are worried about the system being overly abused. They predict that there is a possibility that people will flow into Hawaii in mass numbers with plans to get there, and none to leave, with the assumption that the government will present them with a free ticket home.

Homelessness is an issue everywhere,

Including paradise.

Click for article

For my first group book project in class, I read the book “Tell Them Who I Am, The Lives of Homeless Women” by Elliot Liebow. Liebow spent two years getting to know women in homeless shelters in the Washington DC area. He worked alongside them and gained their trust during this time. Many of these women had sad, and to me, unimaginable pasts. Many of these same women hoped for change, and fought for change in their own lives every day. They fought for change by working several jobs, maintaining some dignity, and attempting to receive services. While some women had mental or health problems, addiction issues or were not attempting to work, many were not. Many of these women worked hard, on a daily basis, because they had several jobs and lives to upkeep.

One of the most striking things I read was when one woman claimed that she wasn’t “homeless,” rather she was “famililess.” This idea to me is a new one, and such an interesting idea. The woman repeatedly said that she didn’t lack a home, she simply lacked a family. Her claim was that if she had family to lean on for support, she would not be out on the streets and forced to live in shelters. Many of the women agreed with her, saying that if they had a family that they were still in contact with, they would be able to have a home to return to as well. An interesting idea to me, that having a family would supposedly fix their situation.

Working at a restaurant, you see many different types of people, regulars, travelers, couples, foreigners, and just about everyone. We all need to eat. But what about the homeless? What happens when they walk into a restaurant?

I walked into my restaurant the other day, for another day at the daily grind, to find a lady by herself in my section. The other waitresses told me that she had been sitting there for many hours. Come to find she had been there since about 11 in the morning and it was already reaching 4 in the afternoon when I got into work. I stopped to check in on her where she asked for a slice of pie; my manager had just gone over to talk to her, so I assumed she decided to order something in order to stay longer. After about another hour, she asked for a refill of her coffee to-go. It was then that I realized that it was the coldest it had been all week and she might want a hot drink to warm her up.

When another server came on and started to take over my section, he began talking about her loud enough for her to hear of course. He would say things such as, “shes been here since 10,  she shouldn’t still be here” or “she smells and is grossing the customers out”. And shortly after that is when she decided to leave, most likely due to his comments.

Many of us wanted to help, but we were unsure of how; from the class I am currently taking, I know that there are some shelters in San Bernardino, but we were in Redlands. My manager called the police to see if there was anything we could do, there apparently is a Goodwill just down the street, but the only problem is they don’t accept people until after 8 pm, and that was about four hours away. Before she left, my manager was able to tell her this information for which she only nodded.

But how is it that we don’t know what to do in these situations, where we want to help someone, but don’t know if they want it or even how to give it. There wasn’t much any of us could do, since we were at work, but even if we could, we didn’t know what to do. None of us wanted to send her on her way since it was really cold out, but there wasn’t much we could do in the first place. And what if we were in her shoes, someone just trying to stay out of the cold, but being commented on by other people. Would the other server treated her differently, if he only imagined he was in her shoes, wouldn’t he hope for some compassion?

So, what can we do in our town to help the homeless?

Twice a week, I’m a coward. As I sit in class for an hour and twenty minutes, I am humbled by the independent stories of homeless mothers and their children. While many of theses individuals have been inserted into an inevitable trap of poverty, struggling to make it day-to-day with only two dollars in their pockets, others have been blessed with material items.

As soon as that hour and twenty is over, it’s no longer a matter of “Hunger and Homelessness.” At 2:30PM, the setting transitions to “Consumers and Consumption” where I am faced with the overwhelming reality of overconsumption in American culture. The privilege many millennials have come to identify with is borderline disgusting. While cellphones in kindergarten are what is expected by many children of affluent backgrounds, for children born into the cycle of poverty, food is never guaranteed. It’s fascinating seeing the divide between those who buy shoes for the brand name, those whom shoe’s aren’t even an option for. As situations become more emotionally, physically, and financially draining, the expected standard of living consequently decreases.

As sociology major, I have come to understand that this educational route means despising almost anything that I encounter that faintly smells of inequality. Seeing beyond societal, economic, and political issues in hopes of finding a solution requires energy that individuals in society fail to search for.

So I was doing some digging to follow up on my last post since it seemed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans for dealing with homelessness were pretty vague. What I found is a 13 page document that’s dated eight months before the article I used in my last post that outlines everything de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are planning to do. I’ll post the link at the bottom, and I highly encourage you guys to check it out; these guys are trying to end – yes, END – homelessness in New York City by 2020. Of the nine main concepts outlined in the document, at least five focus on housing and rental assistance to prevent homelessness.

A couple comments I have about the document: I’m really interested to see how raising the minimum wage in N.Y.C. to $15/hour would affect the economy. It sounds great, but I know there is an argument to be made against it from a business standpoint; since economics isn’t my strongest subject I don’t know what kinds of effects this would have on both small and large businesses, and overall I think this will be one of the more controversial parts of de Blasio and Cuomo’s plan. Another thing I wanted to touch on is under section 3 of the document it states that de Blasio and Cuomo will renew a City-State agreement to create and fully fund 30,000 units of supportive housing over the next ten years. First off, the beginning of the document says they’re trying to end homelessness in five years, but that’s not the point. What stood out to me was that one of the bullet-points under this agreement states 20,000 of those units will go towards individuals, while 8,700 go to families, and 1,300 to youths. I’m a little confused as to why families aren’t getting the majority of these housing units, I feel families should be more of a primary target in terms of getting people off the streets. I’m not trying to say families are more or less worthy of housing than individuals by any means, I was just a little thrown off by the figures because allocating 20,000 of the units towards families would get more than double the people off the streets.

I think this document is great way for us to get an idea of what it’s like trying to create public policies to counteract homelessness, and it’s definitely something I’d like to go over as a class one day if at all possible.

Click to access HomesForEveryNYerReport04072015.pdf

When watching the documentary that showcased the lives of a community (family) compiled of homeless people in Santa Monica during 1994 it was hard to not be emotionally effected. The effort that this community put into the upkeep of their living space (such as sweeping rugs, making beds, and maintaining cooking supplies), newly formed familial bonds, and livelihood (can collecting and dumpster diving) was impressive. I would never have the resilience to be hassled by my inner demons as well as outer entities such as police and the societal structure that enabled me to live a suppressed life.

One example of impressive resilience and strength that stands out is, the army veteran who collected cans for 15-18 hours daily in order to make less than $40 change. He had all sorts of problems with his feet including, but not limited to, ingrown toenails and terribly painful callus. These problems should and could have left him incapable of maintaining his daily chores in order to survive. But when push comes to shove and you are faced with a choice of life or death- those who want to survive will aim to thrive in whatever ways they can.

How do these people maintain the courage to handle or bare the multiple struggles that present them daily? Where do they gather their strength, motivation and faith to keep going in a world where they do not belong? The most unsettling portions of the documentary were statements taken from (non-homeless) Santa Monica residents and tourist about homeless people. Statements about the process of evolution, and how the homeless were stunted in this process therefore should not be allowed to live their gift of life, was astonishing. The general air of the civilians towards the homeless was unfortunate. There was a lot of degradation of the human spirit and mind, calling homeless “unsightly burdens”.

The moment when the “family head” started breaking down in tears was a huge moment to understand and empathize through. Imagine; everything you have built and tried so hard to protect and maintain being stripped from you because in the eyes of society you have no right to anything you lay claim to. Not your belongs, your family, or yourself.

You just have tears worth noting.

What is money? What does it get you? If you only had $2 a day to live off of how would you survive? These are questions many of us do not know the answer to because our lives are privileged and we do not have to face the problem of not having enough. The book $2 A Day by Katherine Edin and Luke Shaefer shows the struggles of how to survive off of $2 a day.

In short the struggles the people in the stories go through are how to apply for welfare and also qualify to get welfare/food stamps, because if you did not know welfare is pretty much extinct. Other struggles these people face are finding a safe place for them and their family to live. Specifically in one story a mother and her two children were living with her uncle and she came home to her uncle raping her daughter so they went from having a home (even though it was unsafe) to being back on the streets.

In addition imagine you are ten years old again…what would be your biggest concern at that time in your life? For one of the people in this book her parents had left her alone on the streets at the age of ten and she had to figure out how to live and grow up. This to me was a reality check that nothing in my life is that bad and horrible and that when I have a bad day I need to take a step back and realize my problems are very miniscule compared to most peoples.

How far would you go to survive if you had $2 a day? The conclusions these people come up with are extreme. So…what would you do?