Tent Cities
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Even the Homeless Get Evicted...From Under Bridges
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They're Not Camping; They're Homeless
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10 Places People Slept in 2009
Where Do You Put an Old Homeless Man on a Friday Afternoon?
Published February 22, 2010 @ 02:00PM PT
I received a call from a local bank recently. An elderly gentleman who, according to the bank manager, appeared to be "homeless and suffering from Alzheimer's," had wandered in and out of his branch office at least four times within the past hour, each time trying to withdraw money with a bank card from a different bank.
The manager contacted me asking for suggestions on how to address the situation before he called police.
Anyone who has spent any real time on the streets knows immediately the typical fate of those who "appear homeless" when the cops are called, so when I get an opportunity to assist someone in avoiding this often hair-raising, occasionally life-shortening experience, I make all due haste to do so.
Upon meeting "John," I discovered he was trying to withdraw money from his bank account but couldn’t remember which bank he used. I was able to convince John to come with me so we could figure out where his money was.
Turns out the man was 74 and had valid ID and a local address. He'd spent the previous night on a bench downtown and had made it through the rain that passed over around 2 a.m. I got him some food and as he ate, I began trying to figure out how best to serve the man, since it was obvious after only a few minutes that although he was lucid, sober and aware of his surroundings and situation, he had absolutely no short-term memory and couldn't even recall where it was he'd last lived.
5 Reasons to Feel Hopeful in 2010
Published January 02, 2010 @ 09:27PM PT
Homelessness reached crisis proportions in 2009. But there's reason to feel hopeful that things will take a turn for the better in 2010. Here are the top five reasons why:
5. Ending veteran homelessness
While many have called the VA's commitment to ending veteran homelessness in five years "bold," we say it's about time. The year 2010 will see changes in services available to veterans in an effort to prevent homelessness, including leveraging existing education and jobs programs, boosting the ability of veteran-owned businesses to compete for federal contracts, and spending an additional $3 billion on medical services and homeless programs. And the best part? Eighty-five percent of the additional funds for homeless veteran programs is being directed towards medical costs; thus finally acknowledging that untreated mental health issues and substance abuse are often the drivers of veteran homelessness. Read more here.
4. From crisis emerges opportunity for change
In 2009, $1.5 billion dollars of Recovery Act funding was directed to help homeless Americans. But rather than being directed towards band-aid solutions, such as opening more shelters, the money was used to fund proven solutions to homelessness, such as prevention and permanent housing solutions. This provided heavy financial backing for a much-needed paradigm shift in the way homelessness programs will operate in the future. Perhaps 2010 will see the "revolving door" replaced with a front door. Read more here.
The 5 Most Shocking Homelessness Stories of 2009
Published December 31, 2009 @ 09:15AM PT
The end of the year is nigh, but there's still time for one more reflection. These stories grabbed our attention, tugged at our heartstrings, and made us pay attention to the plight of those living without a home in 2009. Yes, these stories will disturb you. But hopefully, they'll make us resolve to do better in the 2010.
5. Born in a tent city
It would be nice to think that we all toe the same line at the start of life. That we all start at the same place with the same conditions, and have the same opportunities and challenges. But as one shocking story out of Vancouver illustrated, this just isn't the case. Earlier this month, a baby was born on a freezing night in a tent city off of Highway 50. This little girl was one of thousands of children who were born this year without a crib, stocked nursery, or home to return to. Read more here.
4. Frozen in a Detroit building
In January, I came across a picture that stopped me in my tracks. It showed a sheet of ice with two legs sticking out, almost like popsicle sticks. It was the picture of a homeless man who froze to death in an abandoned Detroit building. The building flooded and encased his corpse in ice. He was discovered by urban explorers, but they didn't bother to call officials. Rather, they continued their hockey game in the flooded basement of that building. To me, this story was a gut-wrenching analogy for the tragic indifference that is so pervasive when it comes to homelessness. It's too easy to turn the other way, pretend these devastating issues aren't happening in our own communities. Read more here.
The 10 Most Notable Homelessness Stories of 2009
Published December 30, 2009 @ 09:09PM PT
The economic recession made homelessness a hot topic in 2009. It seemed every day there was a story about shelter bed shortages, record numbers of school children, or a new tent city popping up. But which stories stood out the most? Change.org has scoured the headlines and trends to compile the 10 most notable homelessness stories of 2009.
10. Home Sweet Motel Room
The year 2009 saw motel rooms become the "de facto" low-income and/or subsidized housing for many families. In Massachusetts, for example, one third of state-sheltered homeless families were put up by the state in motels. In other communities, cheap motel rooms are the only housing within financial reach of low-income families. Who could have predicted this one decade ago? Read more here.
9. Tent City Tour
Last October, Mark Horvath of InvisiblePeople.tv began capturing raw, unedited stories of homeless people on the streets and sharing them via the web. Just nine months later, in July 2009, he set off on a three-month, 20-city road trip to interview homeless people across the United States. Through the web, we saw the faces and heard the voices of people living in unthinkable conditions -- under bridges, on sidewalks, in shelters, and in tent cities. While each individual's story is moving, perhaps the most compelling thing about the InvisiblePeople.tv road trip is the reality it exposed. In the year 2009, in the richest country in the world, you can drive to any state in the U.S.A. and find people living in third world conditions. Read more here.
8. $1.5 billion in stimulus funds
This year, the feds cut a big check for homeless service providers to try and ease the worsening homelessness crisis with $1.5 billion dollars in the stimulus act. But perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of these Recovery Act funds is the new emphasis on prevention over shelter. Keeping people out of the system rather than cycling them through. According to Secretary Donovan, over half of the Recovery Act funds are being spent on prevention programs. That, my friends, is noteworthy. Read more here.
"Welcome to Obama-ville" Sign at Colorado Tent City
Published December 15, 2009 @ 07:57AM PT
Last week, a mysterious sign appeared outside a Colorado tent city. It read, "Welcome to Obama-ville: Colorado's Fastest Growing Community." This simple sign prompted investigative news reports and a flurry of response from Colorado residents, wondering who created and paid for the sign.
Funny how a few words on a banner can get a rise out of people. But the people living in a tent city behind the sign? Well, they don't seem to shock us anymore.
KRDO News Channel 13 in Colorado Springs first spotted the sign in the woods off a highway on-ramp. Immediately, they launched an investigative report to identify the mysterious maker of the sign. This report generated a flurry of response. Some chided the misuse of money to create the sign, while others took issue with the political jab at Obama. Colorado's conservative media outlets whined about the lack of media attention being given to Colorado's tent city, and wondered if the sign read "Bush-ville" it would have the opposite effect.
All this banter about a sign in front of tent city. But the real question is this: would we be talking about this tent city in Colorado Springs if this sign was never there in the first place? Probably not.
Olympics to Shelter, Homeless Models, and the Right to Camp
Published December 12, 2009 @ 02:32PM PT
Mixed bag this time around. I promised myself that this week I'd look for good news. I'd make like a bee to the flowers of positivity on all various and sundry related to homelessness advocacy, etc. But as we know, things aren't always so rosy. There's a couple things in the news to be grateful for at least, one of them being a fashionista who actually knows how to incorporate the homeless in his work in a (mostly) responsible and progressive way. British Columbia homeless came from behind to save their tent cities while a world class athlete finds himself on the streets. I'll start with the bad news. I find that makes things just a little easier to take.
From Gold to the Cold
Not even the Olympic team knows what teamwork and social support mean in this country. Consider Calvin Harrison, now homeless, an Olympic track-and-field upstart from the 2000 event in Sydney. He was found guilty of doping, true, and subsequently defrocked, but for a time he was a minor star in the brilliant constellation of American sports. Now he and his family stand without medal or famous friends doing a stint at San Diego's YWCA Cortez Hill shelter.
What's tragic about this story isn't necessarily the failure of our social system to support those we rely on for proof of human potential and physical genius (if you think this is an overstatement on my part, think about the furor surrounding Tigergate). What's a real knife in the back to those of us who want to believe in people or anything else is that all this has already happened. Harrison had already written a memoir about his struggle out of homelessness to greatness in a memoir called Go to Your Destiny back in 2000. Now here he is again.
The sometimes cyclical nature of homelessness is exactly one of things I find so difficult about doing this work. Preventing this means building stronger systems. Meanwhile, even sports demi-gods like Harrison can be left out in the cold.
Homeless Promote T-Shirt Vendor
In a gutsy move, online clothing site Fat American made a play for the elite niche market of (universally attractive) homeless advocates by featuring homeless models. The excellent poverty law blog 13th Juror shares a quote from the photographer responsible for the serial photography series, "It may be an unorthodox way of flaunting our t-shirts, but we feel it is appropriate when we consider our feelings about the failure of the United States social system. Throughout the photo shoot we didn't meet a single person whom the US government hadn't failed...The only system caring for this group of people is the prison system."
We cover the fashion world's sometimes bizarre perspective on social violence quite a lot on End Homelessness. In none of these stories have I read a T-shirt company rep offering such astute social commentary. That's enough to make me smile for a day. My only question is whether the models were compensated.
British Columbia Court Upholds Right to Camp
After a 4-year fight, poverty advocates and the homeless have won a legal battle in Vancouver that should prevent sweeps of tent cities. From Global BC, "The B.C. Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that said banning so-called tent cities from city parks violated a homeless person's constitutional right to security if there is not enough shelter space available." What unusual common sense.
And what a shock to my American naivete to learn that Canada has a "right to security," included in their constitution. Egads. Incidentally, in the spirit of respecting human rights for a change, the appeals court made a dryly humorous recommendation concerning how best to guarantee the elimination of tent cities: make sure the homeless get housing.
Image courtesy of Victoria Times Colonist.
Baby Born in Homeless Camp
Published December 04, 2009 @ 09:57AM PT
This week in Vancouver, a baby girl was born. No, she was not born in a hospital with family eagerly anticipating her arrival in the waiting room. This little girl was born outside in a tent, part of a homeless camp that sits down an embankment off of Highway 50. Sure, it may be nice to think that the opportunities awaiting every newborn are the same. Sadly, this isn't the case.
Emergency responders were dispatched shortly after the early morning birth on Wednesday. According to the Daily News Online, both mother and baby were transported to the hospital in good condition. Miraculous, considering the outdoor temperature was near-freezing at the time of the baby's birth.
This was a tough story to read. Although, the birth of a child almost always makes me smile - even in this case. It's hard not to feel a sense of wonder whenever a new, healthy baby is brought into the world. Mixed in is a sense of uncertainty, in an "anything is possible" kind of way. What does the future have in store for this baby?, you wonder. Where you you go? What will you do? What will you become?
For some families, however, this uncertainty has an entirely different meaning, like when it's time to leave the hospital and return to reality. For so many mothers and newborns, this sometimes means returning to a crowded, hectic homeless shelter. How long will we be able to live here? Where will we go next? For others - like the young mother and baby in Vancouver - the answers to these questions are even more unknown when there isn't even a shelter to return to.
It would be nice to think that we all toe the same line at the start of life. That we all start at the same place with the same conditions, and have the same opportunities and challenges. But as this story illustrates, this is not the case.
Some babies are born in a hospital, surrounded by doctors and nurses, and return home to a freshly painted nursery packed with new clothes and toys.
Others are born outside, on a near-freezing night, to a homeless mother in a tent city.
Image: Sean Drellinger
