The Homeless, The Mentally Ill, and The Ignorant

Meds Can Reduce Homelessness, but The Homeless (and Advocates) Don't Get It
Huffington Post, October 20, 2009

Some advocates for the homeless believe that housing is a ‘right’ and are devoid of any responsibilities, like taking medicines. Other advocates for the homeless want to present the homeless as being high-functioning well-educated, previously employed individuals who are temporarily down on their luck. I don’t deny this may be true for the majority of homeless, but these advocates shouldn’t deny there is a giant percentage who don’t fit this mold.

I should have known from the title that reading this article was a very bad idea. What this writer doesn't get is that it isn't as easy as saying "you need medication." We're all in situations where we know what is "good for us" but make choices to do different things instead.

I have severe hearing loss in my right ear, it started when I was in the second grade. My left ear was pretty close to normal so I tried a hearing aid in the right ear in elementary school but it didn't help much so I stopped using it. I had to say "what?" a lot and people sometimes thought I was ignoring them but I found ways to get by, usually undetected.

In middle school I nearly failed a class one quarter because it was lecture based and I needed to have a notetaker for one of my college classes but I just blamed it on the teachers voices.

I worked in residential care with adolescents for a few years. I couldn't hear when kids were talking to me if they were on the "bad" side and I couldn't hear the gossiping or the plotting. At that time I briefly considered getting a hearing aid but I was off to grad school in a few months so I decided to let it slide.

I went to grad school, did fine, got out, and got a job.

More recently my work began to suffer. I do a lot of training and I couldn't hear the questions that were asked. When it got to the point where I couldn't hear conversation at the quiet dinner table I knew I needed to seek out some help.

As soon as I got a hearing aid I began to realize that what was "normal" for me for so long was no where near "normal" for other people. During all of that time up to now I thought I was functioning just fine, that I had a grip on things. Now I'm starting to realize how much more successful I would have been if I just stuck with that hearing aid that I had in the third grade rather than going it on my own.

How am I any different from the person who decides that they feel better without their meds? The person who says "I don't need meds, I can make it on my own"? Or the person who says "I can't afford my meds so I'll have to give it a shot without them"? I am no different, and neither are you.

These are people who are experiencing homelessness and mental illness, NOT "the homeless mentally ill." This writer never once referred to them as "people," he just called them by their illness and their housing situation. That is not what makes a person a person. I am not a "hearing impaired." I am a colleague, a friend, a blogger, a daughter, and maybe someday a mother. Or maybe someday homeless. But none of these things alone will ever define who I am.

Please think before labeling people. It just makes you sound ignorant, especially when you label yourself as an advocate for "the ___". How about "homelessness," "treatment for mental illness," or "people experiencing homelessness/mental illness" instead?

Motel Life

Motel Life
Denver Post

This is a heartfelt multi-media presentation put together by the Denver Post. It consists of three short segments of photos and audio of three families that are avoiding the shelter system by staying in motels. These families love each other and are doing what they can to pull through together. It's definitely worth a watch.

Us and Them

Maybe you've seen it already. Maybe you still don't believe that it's happening. Or maybe it's you. Around the country people who never dreamed of becoming homeless, people who have well paying jobs, people who own BMW's, and people who thought they had a safety net are finding themselves joining the ranks that they once thought only consisted of addicts, the weak, and the mentally ill.

Identity Crisis Accompanies VA Family's Financial Slide
Washington Post, October 6, 2009

Ron Vazquez was not a drunk. Not a drug addict. Not mentally ill.

For weeks, he repeated those phrases to himself and to anyone else who would listen. He and his wife used to fight over walk-in closet space and which BMW to buy. Yolanda Vazquez is the quintessential PTA mom -- organized and energetic. Ron's the classic Little League coach -- involved and enthusiastic. They were not drunks. Not drug addicts. Not mentally ill.

They were not homeless. Except that now, they are.

The Vazquezs are not alone. Around the country families that never dreamed that they would find themselves in a shelter are there. But they still see themselves as different from the "real" homeless people. As the oldest daughter says "This is where I live. It's not who I am." While I don't think the family should view themselves as derelicts and the scum of society, it saddens me that families that find themselves in this situation don't see the humanity in the "real" homeless people. There are plenty of people who struggle with alcoholism and mental illness but do have stable jobs and high salaries. Some of them have their illness under control while others are just successful at hiding their illness. Either way "those people" pass as one of "us" every day.

We are no different from "them." All that makes us different is that in this crazy world some of us have it easy and some of us didn't. The next time you see someone panhandling, or sleeping on a park bench, or slipping into a shelter remember that they shouldn't be pitied and you can't "save" them. Remember that if things were different you could be them and think about how you would want them to treat you if the tables were turned. Because, no matter what you feel, "they" are one of "us" too.

Current Trends in Denver Colorado

I recently moved to Golden Colorado, about a half hour from both Denver and Boulder. We moved here for the mountains and change of scenery. I'm proud of my new home but now I have something to be even prouder of.

Denver is making great strides in their struggle with homelessness, and I'm not talking about the parking meters for donations (is there any research on whether those do anything?).

Mayor Hickenlooper Beefs Up Homeless Funding
Denver Post, September 30, 2009

At a time when Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has proposed freezing city salaries, laying off 176 employees and slashing library hours, he has decided to boost spending to battle homelessness.

The mayor's proposed 2010 budget would transfer $2.3 million in general-fund money next year to homeless programs, the second year in a row in which those programs have received money from the general fund.

Why is he doing this? Is he a kind compassionate soul? Maybe, but his argument is hitting at the wallets of the tax payers: it's cheaper to provide them services than have them in jails and emergency rooms. Since 2006, bookings of people experiencing homelessness are down by half and police calls related by homelessness have also decreased since 2006. That alone is a huge cost savings.

Where is the money going? 500 new housing units to add to the existing 1,500 units. This particular article doesn't get into whether Denver is like Boston and adopting a housing first approach or if there is a focus on services as well. Another article I ran across addresses funding cuts for homeless seniors, but, unfortunately, that is how the game is played. There is only so much money to go around and helping one population means neglecting another.

How long will it last? Who knows, politicians are notorious for having to make tough decisions, but the article indicates that Hickenlooper hopes to continue this commitment for 20 years.

Gwen Thompson: The Homeleess American Girl Doll

Meet Gwen Thompson, the Homeless American Girl
ABC News September 25th, 2009

In a storybook that details the doll's life, Gwen's mother revealed, "I woke up one morning to learn that my husband had left us, and my daughter and I were evicted -- truly homeless. I always thought homelessness happened to other people. Never to me."

Ms. Thompson goes on to describe their destitute lifestyle, "At first, my daughter and I slept in our car. I'd park so that we'd wake up near a wayside rest area or restaurant - somewhere where we could use the sink for washing up - and then I'd go to work and pretend that life was just as it had always been."

I'm not sure what Matel is trying to accomplish with this $95 doll? At first I thought it was completely absurd but then I remembered my favorite childhood game: orphans. My three cousins, two brothers, and I would all gather in my grandmother's basement and pretend that we were orphans hiding out because we didn't want to go to the orphanage. Same thing when we "played trools" (blast from the past!), they were always orphans (though I think the trolls lived in an orphanage). Kids aren't immune to sad situations.

But why would mom choose Gwen when there are options for dolls with much happier stories? The moms who need Gwen to normalize their situation and help their daughters understand that they aren't alone are not going to shell out $95 on a doll. I think that with the right donation or fundraising campaign this doll could do a lot of good. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like there was any such campaign in mind when they created the doll.

The Soloist

While it's three months too late to catch the movie primer, I finally read "The Soloist."

Nathaniel Ayres was a brilliant student at Julliard whose bout with mental illness landed him on the streets of LA. Steve Lopez is a journalist looking for a good story. "The Soloist" is the true story of the unlikely friendship of these two men.

Since it's a true story one can't criticize the the plot too much but I do worry that some readers may walk away thinking that people who are sleeping on the street just need someone to take an interest in them. Lopez doesn't shy away from the fact that Ayres was resistant at first and that it took a lot of time, consistency, and patience to make the friendship work but many people who live on the street would require even more of a commitment than Ayres did.

Without a roof but not without a Facebook Page

Homeless Folks Getting Reconnected Through Facebook, Twitter
Switched.com July 3, 2009

Although the homeless may not have physical mailing addresses, they want to have virtual ones through free social networking sites. Featured in a profile by the Wall Street Journal, 37-year-old Charles Pitts administers Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter pages, and runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, all despite living under a bridge in San Francisco. The executive director of Central City Hospitality House in San Francisco estimates that 50-percent of the visitors to its free computer center are homeless.

I've been wanting to write about how to use Facebook as an engagement tool but the field is mixed as to whether or not it is appropriate. Obviously everyone should lock personal profiles and should not "friend" clients but there is disagreement as to whether or not there is value in creating a professional profile.

Some say that a professional profile can be a great tool to connect with clients:

• You can post status updates that say where you are and when you'll be at the shelter/drop in/office so your clients know when you are available,
  
• You can send people reminders for appointments via private message,
• You can see what your clients may want you to know but don't want to tell you,
• and you'll seem "hip" since you know what is going on with technology.
  

Others say that under no circumstances should staff use Facebook with their clients:

• Boundries are easily confused on the internet,
  
• Confidentiality is at risk because others can see that your clients friended you and any wall posts or comments you make are public,
• and is is just too easy to blur the professional with the personal.
  

If you do decide to start a professional profile here are some things to remember:

• Do not friend clients on your personal page under any circumstances,
  
• Only friend clients back; do not initiate the first contact beacuse this can make them feel coerced into friending you,
  
• Be cautious not to reveal consumer status when making wall posts or comments (you may want to make it a personal rule to only send private messages with your professional account),
• Talk to your colleagues first to see how they feel and if there are any confidentiality issues or program rules that you would be violating by creating a professional Facebook page.
  

An alternative to making a professinal Facebook page is to make an organizational page like Youth On Fire. Because it isn't attached to one person boundaries aren't such an issue and it's a great way to get the word out about events and hours of operation.

If I were working in direct care I would advocate for the use of professional Facebook pages but I'm a twenty-something blogger so of course I'm going to advocate for the use of technology. Many programs are going to need time to get used to the idea and someone to help them understand the importance of connecting with their client base in this way. And the best selling point is that it is FREE!

Long story short I found out through the grapevine that in a class on race that a friend of mine took they dissected a Yelp review of a Latin American restaurant... the random wacky part was that it was a review that I wrote. The class concluded that I was pretty darn racist. Now, I know I'm not perfect but I'm certainly not racist. I find myself having prejudiced thoughts every so often just like everyone else, we can't turn off what we've been socialized our whole lives to think overnight.

I re-read the review and could see where they might have drawn the conclusions from but if a review of a French hole-in-the-wall said the same things (that the service was expectedly slow and that I wasn't sure what meats/fish was in one of the dishes) nobody would have batted an eye. But what still has me fuming isn't the fact that some things I wrote were twisted around, it's the fact that in colleges across the country there are people sitting in classrooms doing exercises like that every day but the lesson on one subpopulation doesn't necessarily transfer to another one. Plenty of people who are aware aware of prejudice towards Black or Asian people still run around calling people who are homeless derogatory names without a second thought.

How do we get that lesson to naturally transfer so we can teach it once, instead of a lesson on Black people, disabled people, homeless people, gay people, non-english speaking people, old people, Asian people, transgender people, poor people...? The root of the message is the same: everyone is valuable and everyone's experience is just as valid as yours and mine. Why is it so much harder to understand that when the thing that makes someone different is the fact that they don't have a place to call home?

Faces and Voices

While the "face" of homelessness is often a stinky, middle-aged-but-looks-older-than-his-years male with a bottle hidden under his coat and torn dirty clothes a few sizes too the reality is that there are many different faces of homelessness. Every face has a voice and some of these voices can be found in your own living room.

Invisible People is a website that interviews a variety of individuals who are living on the streets. One of the people that they interviewed, Briana, has a blog of her own called Girls Guide to Homelessness. And she isn't the only blogger out there who is currently homeless, there are many, even a website solely dedicated to bloggers who are homeless and a community that is working to compile a list of all blogs that address homelessness. The voices of people who do not fit the stereotype are ringing out loud and clear, we just need to stop and listen.

"Mankind is No Island"

Fantastic YouTube video shot completely by cell phone:

More NIMBY?

Looks like Lancaster CA is also on board with the one way tickets out, so much so that the Mayor is donating $10,000 of his own money to the cause:

Homeless in Lancaster Get Free Tickets to Go Away
LA Times, March 30, 2009

Jonathan Powell, a spokesman for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, disputed allegations that the city was encouraging its homeless to relocate to the Antelope Valley or anywhere else.

"We're doing everything possible to get our homeless families the services and shelter they need to get back on their feet," he said.

Powell said Los Angeles' social service agencies view accusations of homeless dumping by other municipalities as "urban legend, to deflect from their lack of achievement on this issue...

So far, most beneficiaries of the free bus program in Lancaster have been local residents who chose to go elsewhere, according to the Grace Resource Center.

Several homeless people who learned about Parris' views when he visited the center in January said they were offended.

"The way the mayor put it, 'homeless go home,' I didn't like that. That was kind of cold," said Grace Guijarro, 57, of California City, who lives at the Lancaster Community Shelter. "Not all homeless are . . . robbers and killers.""

When your gender is "other"

Homelessness among transgendered individuals is common. The most recent research (not so recent anymore) revealed that one in five transgendered individuals experienced homelessness and one in four transgendered individuals were not happy with their current housing status.

Shelters Slowly Adapt to Help Transgendered Homeless
The Associated Press

Twelve years heading the Salvation Army's downtown homeless shelter had done little to prepare Janeane Schmidt for the recent night when a soft-spoken biological male transitioning into a female walked in.

Schmidt didn't want to refuse someone in need. Having seen few such cases, however, and with limited space that winter night, she wasn't sure where to place the transgender woman. The shelter has space for homeless men and women but not anyone in between.

"Rather than turn them away, we give them a cot," said Schmidt, whose staff allowed the woman to stay a week in the shelter's lounge — the only space they could find.

This solution isn't ideal but for many shelters it is revolutionary. As recently as 2003 it was reported that some shelters in Atlanta actually posted signs that said "No Transvestites." I used to volunteer at a shelter where I co-ran a book group. After one of the sessions one of the staff pulled the other volunteer and I aside to let us know that one of the individuals who attended the group was transgendered. We didn't need to know that, we were just spending time with these people and weren't involved clinically. But he thought it was appropriate to "out" the individual, probably because he was uncomfortable and didn't understand. This is where the importance of sensitivity training (as horrible and cliche as it sounds) and reminding staff of confidentiality. He wouldn't run around telling the volunteers that someone was HIV positive (I hope) and it wasn't appropriate for him to reveal this information either.

If accepting people into programs and offering a cot in the day room is the best we can do right now so be it, it's safer than the streets and it's within the view of staff so in some situations it may be safter than the sleeping quarters. But a cot in the dayroom is still segregation and we need to strive for better.

For more information about making shelters trans-friendly check out Transitioning Out Shelters: A Guide for Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People

YouTube Documentary

Great YouTube documentary on youth homelessness.

Sometimes Life Just Sits Up and Bites You

When I first started volunteering a year and a half ago "Bob" was a regular at the shelter. An attractive guy who reminded me of someone I used to work with, he had it together, always with a smile and a helping hand. Soon after I started he disappeared.

In January he was back. He didn't really remember me and he was more reserved than before but he opened up as we worked together in the kitchen.

Last night he was there again but this time "together" would be one of the last words I would use to describe him. He was plastered. I'm used to seeing drunk people at the shelter, it's a wet shelter so pretty much everyone there is high on some sort of substance. But seeing Bob that way broke my heart. Substance use is no joke, it's a lifelong struggle.

From Paperback to Film

Two novels on homelessness are currently being adapted to film:
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City novel-film
The Soloist novel-film

I haven't read The Soloist but I have read Another Bullshit Night. It wasn't an easy book to get through but it's worth a look. Very unique writing style, and google is hosting it for free so why not check it out?

Because Social Workers are in it for the Money

Ending Homelessness, A Tough but Well Paying Job
New Times, 2/18/2009

Ending homelessness in SLO County will be neither easy nor cheap. In fact, it will cost $100,000 just to hire someone whose job will entail finding funding.

It’s part of the county’s so-called 10-year plan to end homelessness, although those writing the plan pitch it as more a step in the right direction than a decade-long cure-all to homelessness. Federal requirements actually mandate the plan title to include reference to ending homelessness in 10 years. It may not end homelessness, but having the plan helps qualify local homeless-services providers for more federal funding.

I don't know a single person in "this field" who is in it for the money. But that doesn't mean that I think that it's unreasonable to spend $100,000 on salary AND overhead (as the article later specifies) for someone with extensive fundraising skills. You need to spend money to make money and securing the right staff person for this job can maker or break an organization.

Didn't we just hear about the $1,000,000 bonuses that AIG staffers got? That's three more zeros, for just the bonus. It's really upsetting that the only reasons larger salaries are sometimes offered in the human services world is to "lure" people from the for profit sector. What makes them worth so much more?

Genius or NIMBY?

Hawaii has unorthodox plans to help control homelessness in the 50th state:

Plan would buy airfare to send Hawaii homeless to mainland
Honolulu Advertiser, January 25, 2009

Homeless service providers are supporting a proposed state-funded program that would provide airplane tickets for people who have come to Hawai'i from the Mainland and then find themselves homeless — and stuck.

State Rep. Rida Cabanilla, chairwoman of the Housing Committee, said she plans to ask for $100,000 this legislative session for a pilot program that would fly people who have recently arrived from the Mainland and are now homeless back to where they came from.

Relocating to Hawaii seems like an exotic idea. Who wouldn't want to live somewhere that feels like a permanent vacation? But because the cost of living is expensive and jobs are scarce which can result in homelessness. As much as 19% of the shelter population in Hawaii were in the state for a year or less before finding themselves homeless. As a result, Hawaii is funding programs that provide individuals who find themselves homeless soon after their arrival with a plane ticket home.

Other states employ similar techniques but it seems more extreme in Hawaii because the state is so isolated. When I first read this article I thought that it sounded like an obvious case of Not In My BackYard Syndrome (NIMBY) but now I'm not so sure. They only offer the tickets to people who want them and they make sure that services are in place wherever home is before sending someone away. For those who will return to family and friends, or service providers, who know them and care about them this ticket could be the ticket out of homelessness.