I saw this poster when I was going out to dinner with some friends at a pizza parlor.  Surprisingly, this was the first anti-panhandling poster I have ever seen, or at least can remember seeing.  I found this poster to be very abrasive and very political.  The bold title of the poster really conveys the message that panhandling will only lead to more problems and increase the number of homeless, or so one would think.

At the bottom of the poster, it tells the viewer to instead make a donation to a charitable organization, not necessarily hinting at a particular one.  It instead directs the viewer to a website.  What is disturbing to me is that the words telling the viewer to not promote panhandling are surprisingly larger and more “in your face”  than the small text saying to give to a charitable organization.  To me, this poster was made only fore the pizza business, and did not have the intention o having people donate to charitable organizations.  The business likely had panhandlers outside of the store, perhaps deterring business.

Another thing that bothered me is that this poster compares donating to a charitable organization to giving spare change to a panhandler.   Giving spare change to a panhandler is almost always a much smaller amount than in a donation to an organization.

What do you think the main intention of this poster is?  Have you all seen any posters similar to this around Redlands?

I traveled to Washington last week to assist in my aunt’s post-surgery recovery. The night after her surgery the T.V. was on in her room showing “BREAKING NEWS: Two Dead in Shooting at Seattle Homeless Encampment”. I listened closely as the investigators were looking into the meaning behind the shooting. Amongst the broadcasters, another conversation emerged. They provided statistics that homelessness has become more of a problem in the City of Seattle in recent years. In response to the shooting, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, presented some solutions to the problem.

In a local NPR segment, the reporter highlights this information about homeless cleanups, “Last year, Seattle performed more than 500 of these cleanups, up from 350 the year before. It’s all adding to the sense of the crisis around homelessness and one reason Seattle’s mayor declared a state of emergency.” Ed Murray has “allocated an additional $5 million for shelters, and he’s about to announce a one-stop walk-in center where homeless people can find services.”

Similar to other efforts around the country to find solutions to homelessness, Seattle was on track to have a plan to end homelessness by this time. Statistics show that homelessness has increased by 19% over a year ago in Seattle.

I find it interesting that legislative action is being taken only after the problem is revealed through breaking news. I would be interested to see the trend in aid to the homeless in Seattle and if the heat around the topic will continue to inspire action. What do you think about Ed Murray’s response to the shooting?

Check out the NPR conversation here:

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/30/464961021/seattle-mayor-confronts-homelessness-crisis-with-services-shelter

This week we had the opportunity to watch the film “Taylor’s Campaign”. The film made me realize that it is one thing to see and analyze statistics about homeless people and an entirely different thing to watch how their civil rights and dignity are slowly stripped away from them by the people in society. This documentary not only tells the story of homeless people in Santa Monica but a story shared by many all over the world.
It was very interesting to see the way in which people from different social classes treated the homeless. Officers in law enforcement found power behind their title and used it to their advantage in order to become more intimidating. Council members of city hall who had the potential to change the lives of homeless people made it clear that they were none of their concern. I was especially shocked of the way in which the residents of the city of Santa Monica perceived homeless people. A young man in the film used language that is used in cases of genocide, words that should not be used to refer to homeless people. The young man in the film stated, “They’re a waste… Simply taking up space. Homeless people should be put to sleep”. I was absolutely astonished by this statement. The fact that some people can be so ignorant to the hardships of others. The film definitely educated me and helped me be more understanding of homeless people because homelessness does not just happen from one day to another, there is a series of events that lead up to homelessness.

What does it mean to be in a position of power? After watching the documentary in class regarding the homeless population in Santa Monica, I began to change my views on what the word power means. Power was used left and right in this documentary, and used in ways that through my eyes appeared to be abusing it. Something that really struck me in this video was how the police officers used their power over these homeless people, who were causing no harm to others, just because they could. The civilians did the same thing, exerting their power of money and status over the homeless people by reporting them, and saying that they were disturbed by their presence. But these homeless people are essentially just like us. They have citizenship, they have the right to vote and they have the right to exist. The only thing that separates them is money. And because America is a place where money and power go hand and hand, these homeless people, and people living in extreme poverty, are in America essentially powerless.

But these “powerless” people are causing us no harm; so why do citizens feel the need to displace them, ticket them for pointless offenses, and publically embarrass them? I believe that it is a social stigma that is put in place by the “higher” class of people. They seem to believe that poverty is a self-fixing problem, and that it is their problem that they are living on the streets. They believe that it is the fault of the homeless people that they are sleeping on cardboard at night and pushing around shopping carts full of their belongings during the day. This “higher” class believes this because they have never taken the time to understand them, to talk to them. But instead they want to make them disappear, to remove them from the streets, because they are making the streets “dirty.” Throughout that documentary I discovered that the power dynamic has become so strong in our country that it has become a form of discrimination. People treat the poor as though they are the embarrassment in our country, and try to deny them basic human rights.

But say a person of “power” took a minute to talk to the homeless, or even just decided to leave them in peace and stopped exerting their power over those who cannot defend themselves. Could a simple action such as that change the power dynamic? Possibly, but an idea like that is much easier said than done, and change, my friends, is never easy.

This week in class we watched the documentary, Taylor’s Campaign. By far it was one of the best documentaries about homelessness that I’ve seen.

It showed real issues that homeless people in Santa Monica, and I’m sure in other places, face everyday. It showed homelessness from the perspective of homeless people. The homeless people that we meet in the film have personalities that are likable and make you question how someone like this can be homeless. The documentary truly shows the unjust side of dealing with homelessness. It enlightens the way police treat homeless people, and how people in City Hall treat them. To me, it looked like they had forgotten about these people’s humanity. One homeless man stated, “We got nothing to stand on…we can’t turn to nobody.” The same people who are supposed to fix these issues of poverty seem to have turned their back’s on a large population of people living in their city.

I felt angry about some people’s comment towards homeless people. Many people saw them as a burden to the city. It also upset me that Santa Monica wanted to pass policy that meant a person could not give food or money to a homeless person. I felt like they had no right to stop a person from helping another person on the street. I was a big fan of Ron Taylor because he really cared about these people, and like one of the men said in the film, “It’s hard to find a person that really cares.” He really wanted to make a difference in the city, which I found inspiring and motivating. His beliefs and actions allowed me to think of ways in which I can help the homeless community now and in the future.

When I was doing my reading for my book report I over came a couple stories about peoples lives and how they are not able to do certain tasks in order to keep surviving and being healthy. The book is call “Tell Them Who I Am”, and the topic that made me really think so deeply about is when the homeless population has to go to a doctors and are told to do certain things in order to get better and they can’t even fill those basic needs and demands really opens your eyes. For instance in the book I talked about how the person had something wrong with their legs and their back and the doctors told the person to stay on bed rest for a couple days, but how are they supposed to do that if they are living in a shelter and have to be out of the shelter at a certain time a day and come back later in the day. Another story in the book discussed how one person had something wrong with their skin and was ordered to take 3-4 warm baths a day to help out with the infection or skin disease, which is impossible because they don’t have a steady place to shower in order to take care of themselves. This got me thinking about some ways that would help the homeless in these certain cases. I think that if they had a place that is like a shelter for people with special needs from doctors and allow the homeless population to stay as long as they are prescribed to get help. If we don’t already have these things i feel like this would just limit the amount of deaths and the amount of diseases out there.

This morning’s Los Angeles Times carried an article on counting LA’s hidden homeless youth.  http://lat.ms/1SJkQ3w .

The article covers the part of this week’s homeless count that targets kids who are on the streets but avoid shelters.  Some of them fear exploitation; others don’t want to leave their neighborhoods and friends.  In any case, they pass as street kids during the day and find places to sleep at night.

Many have aged-out of the foster care system.  L.A. is trying to find ways to give them greater support.

In the article entitled, “Governor Wants 10.8M to Tackle Homelessness”,  written by Mileka Lincoln on January 22, 2016 the allocation of Hawaii state funds in regards to homelessness is briefly touched upon. The article adequately describes how funds will be given to the police force, and a soon to be establish “maintenance crew”.

These maintenance crews will be vigilant in ensuring that the current laws in place, prohibiting sidewalk sitting, are followed. The sweep will be a daily job due to the vast homeless population that resides in Hawaii. The state’s objective for the maintenance crew is to encourage people to move out of the streets and the into shelters. The transition will be a long and difficult one, aggressive in nature. How would you feel to constantly be on the run?

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