This week we had speakers come in, Craig Turley and 4 officers with H.O.P.E. Craig brought up some very interesting points. He brought in many numbers and statics, which was nice to hear making me truly visualize. Many cities are very against homelessness trying to blow this community into the next city. I remember him saying at one point San Bernardino and Redlands were transporting people back and forth because neither cities wanted to deal with the issue. After hearing him speak, it made me realize many want them gone, but don’t want to find solutions to this problem. Over 80,000 people applied for housing and it takes some up to 4 years to actually get approved. What happens during the time they are waiting?  Some places, for sometime and even now ,make it illegal to sleep in cars and public areas. Some of these people have no one to run to, what happens in these cases? People started to sue the cities that had these laws. Higher authority make it so difficult for these people who already have to worry about eating, making money, LIFE. Why add to their struggle. With all of the resources we have in California, more should be helped. Craig also said that funds are set aside to help the unhoused community but isn’t really used in Redlands. Millions we have sitting to give away and nothing is done.

This week in class, we had two different presentations, both enlightening and encouraging to an extent. On Monday, we had the H.O.P.E team come in, and they are the homeless outreach department of San Bernardino County law enforcement. It was impressive and heartwarming to see people who are genuine in their care for the homeless and are trying to get them help while also treating them with respect. The story of the guy who was not ready for help initially, and then years later came back to the team saying he was ready was touching. The fact that these men constantly showed up for these people, whether they were ready for help or not, built a sense of trust that is vital in these interactions. The discouraging part of the presentation was that there were only three men, and San Bernardino county is one of the biggest in the U.S. Those numbers dont add up.

Our second presentation came from Dr. Craig Turley, who gave us good information about the un-housed people of Redlands, as well as some general ideas and thoughts. I thought it was interesting that Dr. Turley distinguished homelessness as a manageable issue instead of a “problem”. After hearing his reasons, it makes perfect sense, because there will always be people who chose to live outside regardless of if they have housing or not, and that is okay. But the idea of calling it a problem, however slight you may think that is, does in fact change the perception a little bit. Its slight, but I think it is important, and issue sounds better and is more humanizing.

This week we had a team from the police department come in and talk to us about homelessness. Their division was made up of 3 men, who call themselves H.O.P.E. They were talking to us about how they would go and look for homeless people, sending them information on local shelters, preventing more incarceration of the homeless, and give resources to the homeless. While they were talking, I couldn’t help but notice some similarities between the H.O.P.E. task force, and therapeutic policing. While the two rely on different methods to their policing style, they both came down to one thing; pushing the homeless into resource centers to “rehabilitate”. The only difference with this group is that they strive to better the chances for helping these people get back onto their feet, and start a new life, whereas the police in Down Out and Under Arrest: Policing on Skid Row, really just kept incarcerating, arresting, and citing these people living on the streets for almost anything and everything. While I feel the three gentlemen really did have the best interests in heart, and understanding how difficult it is to give an entire presentation on an organization as complex as H.O.P.E., I still felt uneasy with how they would describe some of the interactions with the homeless. Nonetheless, I found the information shared with us from this group was very insightful to many issues that still need to be addressed with policies, and how people look at homelessness as a problem rather than something which can be managed.

This week, several members of the San Bernardino Police Department who are a part the of H.O.PE. team came to class as guest speakers. They spoke about the ways in which the majority of law enforcement approach to homelessness entails criminalization, or as they put it “handcuffs and jail”. The H.O.P.E. team talked about how they take a different approach, focused on outreach and various programs rather than arrest.
I appreciated hearing about the issue of homelessness from the perspective of the guest speakers and enjoyed learning about their work. I was also emotionally torn when I heard them speak about how long it often takes to get individuals to accept help. While I admire the efforts of those involved, and was happy to hear about the success stories, I also wish there was some way to get members of the homeless population help more quickly. I also was saddened to hear about how organizations often cherry-pick from the homeless population, choosing those who are easiest to help, while abandoning those with more severe issues. While I understand that they want to help as many as possible, ignoring the most vulnerable of an already vulnerable population seems contradictory to the principles of these organizations. As a whole, I found the presentation of the guest speakers to be interesting and enlightening, and very much appreciated their willingness to take the time to speak with us.

This week I was in Texas for baseball, so I decided to look at what kinds of shelters where around my area.  To my surprise there were a lot of places that homeless people could get help but if you looked at the homeless count here you’d realize that 32% of homelessness here is chronic.  2018 research found out that the homeless population was rising in Austin, Texas.  According to kxan.com, the city is spending more than 33 million dollars to combat homelessness.  With 2,147 people experiencing homelessness, they say 1,014 people are living on the streets unsheltered and that’s just the numbers that have been documented.  I’m sure there are plenty others that are not accounted for.  It’s crazy to see just how severe homelessness is everywhere, not just in our cities in California.  One of the things that struck me was kxan talking about the federal government, saying that the federal government should be funding programs that help the homeless.  They have the money and it would better our economy if we did help.  It sucks to see so many homeless, and organizations such as Redlands Family Services that I intern for lose funding.  Especially when the government has money that could go towards getting people off the street and getting them the help they need.  Whether that be mental, physical, a job, clothes, or food; we need to be funding and creating programs, organizations, and jobs that can combine all the needs for homeless and the less fortunate together.  Creating a way for the homeless and less fortunate to help themselves all in one place would do the economy a great service, because it would give them a job to make money to support and buy themselves necessities, get the mental and/or physical help they might need, plus clothe and feed them all at the same place.  They would be able to relate and help each other out, with the help of supervisors and other medical care physicians that would make sure everything goes smoothly.  Stepping in whenever there’s a real problem or situations that need to be addressed.  We just have to make it a reality because its implications would be tremendous  for the economy as a whole.

This weeks’ time in class was spent listening to speakers who are professionals in their field of work. The first set of speakers were from the HOPE Team which is a branch of the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department. The three-man crew explained their reason for being formed and the influence that they produce. They also presented us with their database that depicts all of the information that they have gathered thus far. This information included a point where they have made contact with a homeless person and if that area was one of an encampment. The data points also included the percentage of the people surveyed that have mental illness, drug addiction or those who are veterans. They explained that this technology is useful because it helps to identify those in need. They are able to keep track of the sites in which an individual has been contacted. This information also lends itself to a better knowledge of statistics. It allows a better understanding of the demographics that make up homelessness. One comment that was made that I became fixated on was the comments on panhandling. The HOPE team stated that they do not believe people should give to panhandlers. They stated that in most of their experiences, the ones panhandling were not in need. They stated that if you have the heart to give then one should give to charities that help the homeless. I also learned a valuable lesson in the resource of 211. 211 is a number to call in San Bernardino County when in need of homeless help. The men stated that this number is a resource for individuals to receive housing, emergency housing, meals, health care, etc. This is something invaluable to me because it is a resource that I have never known about previously.

This week’s class meetings were very interesting. On Monday, we had speakers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office H.O.P.E Program come and talk to our class about what they are doing in the community and how their program has impacted the homeless population and the community. I really enjoyed hearing how passionate these individuals were in their work and how wonderful the program is. It was the first time I heard about the 211 call center number for homeless related calls and to find resources/organizations for this population. It seems like San Bernardino County does a good job in supplying resources for the homeless population. What I found most interesting is that on average, it takes 70 encounters with a homeless individual before they accept any form of aid or assistance. That seems like such a high number, but it makes sense to me that they would be resistant or untrusting of people reaching out to them. I also found it interesting that the San Bernardino program uses Esri technology to track and “count” homeless individuals. From what they showed us in class, it seems like a great technology that is efficient and helpful to many different people

On Wednesday, Dr. Craig Turley, founder of the Blessing Center, came to speak with our class. It was interesting to see his perspective on how homelessness has changed through the years in the Redlands area. I am relatively new to the Redlands area (3+ years), and have only experienced homeless individuals on freeway exit ramps. I didn’t know that there used to be an encampment on Redlands Blvd. for instance. Talking with Craig helped me to understand all of the politics that is involved when discussing solutions to homelessness. Overall, I gained a lot of valuable information from both of our speakers from this week. I enjoyed getting different perspectives from people who are actively trying to make a difference in our community.

This past week in the classroom we had spent time presenting information from our readings. My reading was the text entitled “Grand Central Winter”. The text recounts a personal struggle felt by a man who faced hardships and living on the street. His recount depicts the very real experiences felt on the streets of New York. The story follows his decent to the bottom and his wavering path back to himself again. He begins his fall with the death of his business partner and his brother, which quickly leads him into alcoholism and drug abuse. His always changing living conditions and constant struggles to stay one step ahead of police are a strong thread throughout the text. Lee finally begins to hit his stride when he develops a passion for writing and regains some of his entrepreneurial and passionate spirits. He struggles with getting and staying drug-free but prevails against all adversity and all obstacles in place trying to keep him down.

While discussing the text in class, it became apparent that the text was just a single example of how many have fallen down the path headed towards the streets. It was discussed that this is being the only text and understanding about the cause of homelessness, would not give a clear reality. The reality is that the road to the streets is not one set in stone. Making specific decisions does depict that homelessness would be the end result or a sure-fire way to stay off them. But in actuality, homelessness can happen to anyone, anywhere and anyhow. This a fact that can connect all of our fears or realities to each other. We try to make the best choices possible but cataclysmic results are always a possibility.

This past week was an informative one when it came to this class. Listening to groups present about their books, as well as presenting on my own, gave a lot of different angles of the issue of homelessness. I thought the books all highlighted different aspects of the issue that occur for different people, however I would like to read more books written by actual homeless people. I know this is not a privilege that most homeless people have, and I value the contributions of anthropologists and journalists, but I think it is a little more raw when written from someone who truly went through it.

In the news I read two different stories, one promising, and one a little more humbling in terms of our society. The first story was about the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV), and how they are trying to eradicate homelessness for veterans completely. The group gets the homeless veterans registered and paired with an individual social worker, who helps them find housing. The council has been very effective in getting these people off the streets, and it was something great to read. I find it puzzling that in the U.S, a country who likes to talk about respect for the military so much, has so many homeless veterans on the streets. It seems like a true paradox, and it has always puzzled me. The second story was not so happy, as it was about the fact that the Portland Police get a call about every fifteen minutes about a homeless complaint, even though there is no crime being committed.  An issue with this lies in the fact that many of these homeless people have mental health issues, and the police are not always the best at dealing with this. Instead of calling the police, it would be better to call a mental health center or someone who could actually do something, but people don’t think that hard and just call the police because its the first thing they think of.

My group and I presented a book called Sidewalk by Mitchell Dunnier. I wanted to talk more about the race issue.  Dunnier discusses how people on the streets were constantly in and out of jail but for reasons  that were ridiculous. Drugs and homelessness were used as a continuously  way to put them in jail.  Jim crow laws had ended in 1965, creating more discreet laws. Majority of the people homeless were people of color, but black being the most. Trying to make the minorities go away they began to send them to jail to get them off the streets. At times police would help but they are getting paid to do a job, so there is more instances when they are taking that authoritative role instead. Something major that was paid attention to was what they were selling. Only allowing them to sell books, newspaper, and things of that sort. Robbery also something that done, but mostly as a last opinion. People were making irrational decisions to get that fix, but to help cope with being in the position they were in. When put in jail they are never rehabilitated so most end up back on the street, once again doing what they did. Some learn there lessons others don’t and end up in that cycle.

Hearing the other books, one thing that was really interesting was the men that worked out together and made plans to help themselves against police. It was an interesting approach to take on how to combat with police attacks. Even making yourself look and becoming integrated with the rest of society made you a suspect.