Hearing these past two weeks about the various parties who work with the homeless, one of the most frustrating aspects for me has been the impression I have been given that very few people care. Obviously, a great many people do, as the number of organizations and other efforts we have been introduced to indicates. However, these people seem to be coming up against the general consensus that the homeless are not wanted, but also that no one wants to help them either, they simply want them gone.
I cannot help but think that some of these ideas come from the assumption that these people should try harder, that they have put themselves in this situation and therefore ought to (with the implicit assumption that they can) get themselves out of it as well. There often seems to be the idea, I have found, that people need to earn their own livelihood. That they should work for the things they need, and not subsist on handouts from those who have already earned what they have. Personally, I think this concept has many problems. Of course, I am not saying people should not work hard, or that the idea they should earn their living is entirely wrong. But there are a great number of factors I believe this attitude ignores. And, perhaps most importantly, is that really the type of society we should strive to create? Are we willing to ignore the needy because they do not deserve our help? What must they do to deserve it? Personally, I feel that their position as human beings automatically makes the homeless worthy of a decent life. In a society where so many have so much, I think we can afford a little generosity, to give without qualifications or expectation of repayment.

This week’s class sessions were very interesting. We talked a lot about homeless counts and how they are conducted. We had one gentleman named Ed Torres visit our classroom from the Center for Spiritual Living and we had a phone call with a gentleman from ASR who spoke in depth about how they conduct homeless counts, how the data and information is used, etc. Both of these speakers were very interesting and informative. I think that Ed’s approach of finding vacant buildings owned by the city, county, or state for use for a homeless shelter is very interesting. If I were in the same position, I would look to build low-income housing. I know the the county and/or state offer significant funding for these types of developments and I think it would be worth looking into more. I found the class about homeless counts particularly interesting. I didn’t realize there was so much politics within the topic of homelessness. In some cases it’s better to have a count higher than the actual number, and in other cases it’s better to undercount.

In the past few weeks, we have met with a slew of community experts on homelessness. Largely people on the front lines working with the homeless, advocacy, and data collection. A common thread amongst all these experts is that they are involved in local, isolated efforts. Short of the national effort to house homeless veterans under the Obama administration, there seems to be little being done nationally that is noteworthy. Nothing has come close to meeting the needs of the existing population or effectively begun to address the systemic drivers of homelessness. This observation is likely influenced by the fact that we can only meet those who are near, available over the phone, and are willing to donate their time.

Despite this, I’ve been unimpressed by the national efforts that we’ve read about. The issue seems to be the responsibility of the city or county at best. Even the HUD requirement to do homeless counts every two years fails to provide counties with guidelines that create useful data nationally. Many of the trends in the national data can be chalked up to issues with disparate methodology. I question whether this is a symptom of historical views of the homeless. People began to see homelessness as a personal failing starting in the late 70’s. Is homelessness not being addressed on an effective level nationally because of our cultural views of the homeless?

Would better data collection drive more appropriate action? Is there any precedent to suggest that having reliable data drives action on the national level? Some of the best homeless counts are conducted by Applied Survey Research (ASR). What does it cost to perform a count of this caliber? Would that amount pose a financial burden to a significant number of counties?

I read an article recently about the rising rent in L.A, and how its creating more and more homeless people as the wages are not increasing enough to balance it out. In recent years, as the economy has improved, corporate owners of rental properties have begun renovating a lot of their properties, driving up the rental prices. From 2010 to 2018, the median rental price for a one-bedroom apartment increased 84 percent, while median wages only rose 11 percent.

An interesting stat was brought up in the article, in which they stated four out of every 10 Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency. That’s almost half! In L.A county, that comes out to four million people. There was a woman mentioned in the article, Ana Estrada, who was previously employed as a social services case worker. Estrada’s rent increased from $1,000 to $3,000 per month, forcing her to relocate. The cheapest place she could find was $1,800, but then she suffered complications from a medical condition and ended up losing her job, and now her teenage daughter and her are living in their car.

Since 2001, 20,000 rent-controlled properties have been taken off the market. according to HUD, the Los Angeles metropolitan area needs more than a half a million affordable housing units to meet demand. Because of these factors, Estrada says that falling into homelessness is easier than people think.

• On monday we had someone come and speak to us about his plans to help create new locations for the unhoused to go. I like his approach but how he is willing to take the steps to speak to whomever he needs to get answers and take action. It was interesting to see the two approaches, political and more radical moves, both being good approaches. He is diving into his plans with high hope and it is inspiring to see, making me what to take more action. I like how he wants to open up multiple spaces realizing one is not the best option. Both of them bring up the point that the place can not be too glamorous or people will not want to leave, leading to chronic homelessness, which the government ultimately doesn’t want nor the cities losing business. The more I learn about Redlands the more angered I become, they are deciding not to take action. Trying to remove that population instead of help them. People fail to realize that that this problem is probably not going to go away, because of the economical problems as well as many others causing a bigger division in our society. MAKING PEOPLE INVISIBLE DOESN’T FIX A PROBLEM. One interesting observation he made was the first through through the fifthteenth less people are in the shelters since they get paid, but from the sixteenth through the end of the month they have no more money, so more people will be in the shelter.

This week we had a speaker come in and discuss homelessness within the Redlands community. This speaker was Ed Torres. He is the Chair of the Board of  the Center for Spiritual Living. He first got involved in this issue when the shelter in redlands closed down. Ed agreed to open the church at night to women to have somewhere to sleep.

It was very interesting hearing about this issue we have been discussing all semester from a local point of view. Our speaker was very knowledgable of the issues in our community. He talked about how a very high percentage of the homeless individuals in redlands are from redlands. He talked about how this meant these are people’s brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc.

He spoke a lot about his plan for the future of redlands. He talked about wanting to take government owned buildings that are vacant and use them as centers for the homeless. He talked about using underground parking structures at night as somewhere for homeless to sleep, or for those that sleep in their cars to have somewhere safe to sleep.

I really enjoyed his thoughts and the ways in which the community can make steps into providing resources for the disadvantaged individuals in our community.

This week in class we went over homeless counts and a speaker on Monday that was making a difference in our community. This man was actively working within the city system to make change for the homeless in the city of Redlands. Although met with numerous road blocks by the city council he is managing to get ideas into action. I didn’t realize how a city council can block projects by the community with a simple no because of one reason. The image of a city is that important,and but I wasn’t surprised it was prioritized over the welfare of other human beings. I live in Victorville and expect the same to happen,since it’s criminalizing how these people survive. The Skype call on Wednesday made that much more apparently by the method used to count these people. Knowingly having to avoid law enforcement and be sneaky about getting accurate counts was alarming. But his methods for getting those counts was very interesting to hear about,by using people in the community or are homeless make all the difference to get accurate counts. I’m glad I was able to hear both talks,it made me much more aware of how these people are going to get help.

This week we listened to two presentations from individuals who are experts in their field. The first presentation we listened to an individual named Ed Torres. He spoke to the class about Redlands Round Table on Homelessness. He spoke about how his goal is to acquire buildings to utilize them for services for homeless individuals. These buildings would be utilized as an intake center, community garden, and shelter. He and his team are attempting to acquire these buildings from the city, from my understanding. They have created a map that details which buildings belong to whom and the specific codes that must be met for each categorized area. Their goal is to meet all of the requirements for these facilities to successfully obtain these permits and rights to run their facilities.

The second individual we heard from was Peter Connery. Peter is one of the leaders in Point in Time Counts. He gave the class details on how they perform these counts and some of the surprising statistics behind today’s homeless. One surprising fact that Peter had stated was while working in the field he had learned of a one university town that had over 200 students who were identified as homeless. He continued by stating that these individuals would sleep in common areas, the library and even in the woods. This was shocking to me because if the simple fact that this is such a small population but there is such a staggering number of individuals who are homeless. It is also saddening that these individuals are in the same stage of life as our class. They are all students just attempting to better their lives, but they are in this horrible situation.

This week, Ed Torres, whom I work with, from Center for Spiritual Living in Redlands, came into class to talk about the work he has planned up to help the homeless of Redlands. He gave information as to what our “task force” RRH, the Redlands Round table on Homelessness, is up to; which included looking into buildings which are owned by the city, county, state, or the feds. He explained how we are looking for property in which we can convert into different facilities, such as an intake center, a shower and cooking center, short term housing, and long term housing. In each of these facilities, we are still discussing exactly what it is we want to include. In the intake facility, we are talking about including background checks, a place to register to vote, a temporary mailing address, and a place to help find them find jobs. Showers and cooking would involve having a sustainable garden, and a green building. In the short term housing, it would include daily, emergency, and cold weather shelter. In the long term housing, we were talking about including the long term housing, obviously, and a daycare center, for the parents who are out working but can’t afford child care. Over all, I really feel like Ed and his team can really make some great changes if things go as good as they seem they will be going. There is still much more we need to look into, regarding buildings that need fixing, how to receive grants, and so on.

In the past week, class turned away from readings, media, and discussion and focused on meeting the experts. We met members of the community that serve as the front-line for programs that target the homeless and those who run these organizations. In meeting these people, the narrative that I was drawing from the class changed dramatically. Up to this point, our conversations focused on the ways systems force people to homelessness and keep them there. Many of the homeless people we studied were examples of individuals that were just like us; only they had fallen on hard times and were now homeless. Then, experts brought us stories of how, often, the homeless were refusing services offered to them. There was a rough average of 70+ contacts before someone accepted services. For me, this change in narrative reemphasized the question, why are we helping people who don’t want it?

I don’t think this is a question that should be ignored, whether through willful ignorance or otherwise. If we are going to alleviate the plight of the homeless, we must address the valid – or at least seemingly valid – questions that many conservatives and others hold. To begin to explore this question, I want to understand why the homeless are apprehensive to accept services. Is denial of services rooted in reason and/or mental health issues? If so, then we have yet another systemic problem: it’s our cross to bear, not solely theirs.

Addressing the main question, why are we helping people who don’t want it, is important for another reason. This line of thinking is used to discredit the factual, sensible argument that it is cheaper to help these people than to pay for policing and hospitalization of them. A plethora of articles tell us to “stop wasting money on the homeless”, encouraging people to vote against measures that would in truth save the taxpayers money. Bleeding hearts aside, it’s just good business to help the homeless.

Throughout my education, I have tried to lend focus and credence to the opinions and perspectives that seem to get lost in the liberal arts. At the very least, opinions that get lost here. I feel it’s important to focus on these individuals because they matter. Their opinions sway the way we, as a nation, address issues big and small. Often there is validity in their concerns. To ignore them is to ignore their rightful place in this country and to possibly sacrifice the success of your own goals. I try to apply this same thinking to the issues and politics of homelessness. Without recognizing and addressing the concerns of others, we risk the success and sustainability of any effort made to help the homeless.