Because I Need to Spend Time in the Field if What I Say is Going to Have Any Credibility

Last night was my first night volunteering at a wet shelter. I have experience at a dry shelter in a suburban town; I conducted a small survey to see what kinds of groups people would be interested in and helped to start up a reading group and a computer group (sadly both groups fell through shortly after their inception because both I and the other facilitator got new jobs) but a wet shelter is another story. Here clients regularly come in drunk, substance use problems are a prerequisite of being able to regularly access a bed at this shelter. I was quite nervous going in but the staff made me feel right at home. The clients were also great, even though one wasn't too happy with me for putting gravy on his potatoes. I didn't get to talk to too many people in great depth but the few that I did talk to were quite friendly, one updated me on the state of the Red Sox while another asked some deep questions (how am I supposed to answer "What's the most important thing in your life?" on the fly?). I'm looking forward to going back next week, I shouldn't have waited this long to get started!

Outreach: Only a First Step

Sleuthing Needed to Track Homeless People
Star Telegram 7/23/07

Like a detective, Selena Sumner follows clues through Tarrant County's homeless community.

Today's case: Find a mentally ill homeless woman whose family is worried about her.

Because of the mental illness, the woman hates authority, so forget about the shelters, Sumner reasoned Friday, driving a white van past abandoned buildings on East Lancaster Drive.

Outreach is a huge component of combating homelessness. People who live on the streets know that there are services available and chances are that they know where to find them. The problem is that their trust in society has been broken. The job of the outreach worker isn't to hand out socks, it is to use those socks to build a relationship. A smile and some socks isn't going to convince everyone that it is time to return to the shelter, get sober, and begin to look for housing. Outreach workers need to be careful in that they must meet the individual where they are figuratively as well as literally, and allow the individual to make their own decision about whether to enter treatment.

The individuals who conduct outreach are some of the most driven, innovative, and dedicated people you will ever meet. Many have stories of that creative hook that they used to engage a client, who later entered services and stories about searching for that hard to reach individual who they had been following for months. This is not easy, outreach workers witness alcoholism, drug use, mental illness, profanity, trauma, filth, and much more in their work and they must look past it all and see the person underneath as a unique individual who needs their help. After all of that work to engage the individual and enroll them in services the outreach worker often does not follow them and become a part of a treatment team. But they may cross paths again, whether the outreach worker runs into the formerly homeless individual at the individual's new job or running into the individual while the outreach worker does his job. People aren't perfect and we're addressing individuals, not society, so chronic homelessness is a huge issue that outreach workers must witness first hand.

For more:
Homeless Care, Delivered
Chicago Tribune 7/23/07

Data Matters

Fight Homelessness With Data
Boston Globe 7/2o/07

IN THE 1980S, volunteers fought homelessness with bread lines and soup kitchens. But as the lines got longer, it became clear that a meal and a cup of sympathy weren't enough.

Now public policy is getting smarter, and instead of managing homelessness, the federal government is seeking to end it. Rather than join sleep-outs, officials are relying on data. This change should transform lives and mesh well with state and local efforts.

As a researcher, and a fan of quant at that, articles like this one excite me. Not just because they are good job security (and who doesn't love job security?), but because I'm a big believer in research, we need to understand the intricacies of the problem if we are going to find a way to solve it. Understanding homelessness requires more than anecdotal evidence. We also need to know who these people are, what brought them to the streets, and what the barriers preventing them from getting/staying housed are.

Counts of the homeless are conducted annually, usually in January, as point in time samples; a group of volunteers hit shelters, soup kitchens, and the streets to literally count each and every homeless person that they can find. While they don't get everyone the counts are useful to compare changes from year-to-year, if the methodology doesn't change. And the fact that the department of Housing and Urban Development requires counts for funding is a bit of a motivator to get out and conduct one.

For some more info on counts and a great report:
New Homeless Count Shows Need For More Housing
NBC 30 7/20/07 [Homeless count in CT]-2007 Point In Time Result Full Report

MSU Students to Survey Area Homeless
News-Leader.com 7/67/07 [Three-day count as follow-up to one day count]

When Lying in Bed is Illegal

Crackdown on Homeless Brings Results-Police Arrest 100 in 5 Weeks
Tennessean.com 7/22/07

In five weeks, Central Precinct officers have made 51 arrests, issued 31 citations and identified 76 Metro ordinance violations. In the West Precinct, which covers Broadway and West End west of Interstate 40, primarily in the Vanderbilt/Centennial Park area, there have been 49 arrests, two citations and three Metro ordinance violations reported.

I'm not quite sure where I heard it originally but someone once said something to the effect of the only reason that many of these behaviors are illegal is because the individuals engaging in them don't have four walls around their home. Public intoxication is a perfect example. I can drink as much as I want at home but until I walk out the door the behavior is perfectly legal. For individuals experiencing homelessness the park bench, cardboard box, or alleyway where they sleep is their home for all intensive purposes but they can be punished for just having an open container. They have no bathroom so they are forced to urinate in public. The bench is their bed yet they can be ticketed for lying there, and some cities us dividers so lying down isn't even possible.

Even if the crackdown does reduce the visible signs of homelessness it will not increase housing or create a livable wage. Cities that institute initiatives like this need to think long and hard about what their long-term goals are and how they can truly achieve them.

Edit: Here's an article about a similar initiative that isn't working:
Homeless Plan Needs Reality Check
ajc.com 7/23/07

Homeless Soccer

Homeless soccer widens goal: Brothers teach life-changing outreach program to visitors from 11 other U.S. cities
The Charlotte Observer Fri, Jul. 20, 2007

Today, people from 11 U.S. cities are in Charlotte to learn how to start a homeless soccer program back home.

This weekend, six homeless teams will compete for the national street soccer championship at the Urban Ministry's recently built art park and street soccer field.

This is an amazing example of how innovative strategies can be used to engage individuals in services. Of former players 8 out of 9 secured housing, which may suggest that the skills needed for teamwork may be transferable skills that can help these individuals access and maintain services, the same reason that your 10th grade guidance counselor told you to include team sports and group activities on your resume.

For more:
Homeless in U.S. find solace in soccer
Guardian Observer July 20, 2007 (another source talking about the same thing)

Homeless Footballers to Play in World Cup
News.com.au July 18, 2007 (the Cambodian team)

Edit: And more...
Soccer Helping Homeless Improve Life
News 14 California 7/22/07

Edit: and more...
We Can Be Winners
Guardian Unlimited 7/24/07

Holeless Celebrities

When A Homeless Person Dies and They're Not Mr. Butch
Allston-Brighton Tab Thu Jul 19, 2007, 07:54 AM EDT

Mr. Butch was a charismatic homeless man with a cult-like following, but he was an exception to the rule. When other homeless die in Boston, they’re not always met with the same outpouring of love and generosity.

As a Bostonian who has lived in Brighton for two years when the posts began that "Mr Butch" was rumored to be injured in a scooter accident I had to look him up to see who he was. Sure enough, I recognized him from Harvard Ave in Allston (where, according to urban knowledge, he was known as "The President of Allston"). Boston has it's share of local celebrity homeless individuals ( although one, Spare Change Guy, isn't even homeless), as I'm sure does any major city, and it has been interesting to see how the blog community has reacted to his death; it has been with respect and sorrow. If only every individual experiencing homelessness could have that kind of a send off.

The reality is that many of these individuals don't get a community send off like the one that Boston is giving Mr Butch this weekend. I did a little searching for cemeteries that will take individuals who died while homeless but google wasn't very much help. The Tab article notes that Boston has three cemeteries that have sections for those whose bodies are not claimed: Mount Hope, Fairview and Evergreen. But there have to be places in other communities too. If interested try contacting your local shelter, a funeral home, or cemetery and see if they can point you in the right direction.

Edit: And there's more:
Editorial: Remember Mr. Butch, Remember the Homeless
Allston/Brighton Tab Fri Jul 20, 2007, 03:27 PM EDT

Edit: The funeral was yesterday, here are photos by historgygradguy

Edit: Here's how another town remembers the homeless:
Paying Tribute to Marin's Homeless
Marin Independent Journal 7/22/07

Violence Against Homeless People

4 Youths Arrested in Attacks on Homeless
Los Angeles Times 7/19/07

Four teenage boys were arrested for allegedly driving around Los Angeles and attacking homeless people while using a cellphone camera to capture some of the assaults, LAPD officials said Monday.

The youths allegedly attacked at least eight homeless people either by throwing smoke bombs or firing plastic pellets from an air pistol at them and in one case throwing a bike into a homeless person's tent as he slept.

Police said the suspects filmed some of the attacks with a cellphone camera, and the attackers intended to post the recordings on the Internet.

A horrific incident? Yes. Shocking? Sadly no. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless attacks on homeless people was up 65% from 2005 to 2006, and these are only the incidents that were reported and confirmed. This spring it was highly publicized that a Florida youngster was facing charges for his treatment of a homeless man, nearly beating him to death if I remember correctly.

What is wrong with these kids? It may not be what is wrong with them but rather what is wrong with society. In a conversation I had this spring with Vicki Wagner, Chief Executive Office for the National Network For Youth, she mentioned that in her thirty years of working to end youth homelessness one of the changes has been that society today views homelessness as a nuisance rather than a problem that we should work to solve. That may be what is wrong with these kids.


EDIT: One day later and already two more similar stories:
Homeless man slain-- teenager sought
San Francisco Chronicle 7/20/07

3 Statesville Teams Charged in Beating Death of Homeless Man
WRAL.com 7/20/07

EDIT: Another day, another article:
Belfast Court Appearance for Man Charged wit Death of Homeless Man
Belfast Telegraph 7/21/07

EDIT:
Arkno Duo Attack Two Elderly Homeless Men
Cleavland.com 7/23/07

The College years

In the fall of 2000 I began my undergraduate degree as a communications major, but that didn't last for long. The program wasn't for me and I was in a very cool Sociology of Mass Media course so what the heck, I changed my major to sociology. It was an easy decision, sociology was me. It was how I thought about things, how I viewed the world, and it came so easily. In theory class we had many assignments where we looked for theory in unusual places and I embraced the assignments and found Marx, Weber, Durkheim and their contemporaries in nearly every situation.

In the beginning...

In 1997 I was a junior in High School and there was a hole in my schedule. My guidance counselor suggested that I take a sociology course. I wish I could say that I jumped at the opportunity knew from that moment what I wanted to do with my life but it wasn't that easy. The reality? I asked "what's that?" and apprehensively signed up for the class. I don't remember much from that course. There was something about theories of deviance and watching "The Breakfast Club," a movie on serial killers, and a "Here's Johnny!" poster that was right behind my desk and freaked me out on a daily basis. The reality was that in the following year I would apply to communications programs, including at Emerson, with aspirations of work in broadcasting. Now I look back and wonder how I possibly could have been serious!