Prior to working for OSDN, I was providing street outreach for a co-occuring service provider and in that capacity, was working primarily with the folks most people immediately think of when they think of the stereotypical image of someone experiencing homelessness. Since I would certainly have been considered one of those "stereotypical" individuals prior to entering my own recovery back in 1999, I know first-hand that they are far from the stigmatized view so many have, since each one of those individuals comes to the table with a life, loved ones who care or at least once cared, and none ever saw their lives travel the course that left them destitute, homeless, and broken on a city street.
To be sure, plenty of the veterans experiencing homelessness I worked with at OSDN would have- and have been - inappropriately "stereotyped" and as a result stigmatized because of their appearance. But something else was happening at OSDN as we moved into 2010 that provoked emotions of fear and trepidation among many who had for a long time been working with those experiencing homelessness and had seen a lot of misery and heard a lot of sad stories.
That "something else" was a frighteningly large wave of couples and families who, to the very last one, would always start their client intake with, "I've worked all my life and never thought this would happen to me." This "wave" continues crashing down upon direct service providers across all areas of our community, but what made it particularly powerful to those of us at OSDN was that we were dealing with veterans, and veterans who'd been actively engaged in work, community and family for their entire lives.
That these veterans, who were well connected, had well established networks of support and employment resources, and even qualified to receive preferential hiring status in some jobs were suddenly out of work and desperately seeking jobs that were non-existent, was a very scary wake-up call for all of us, indeed.
In 2012, the entire nation has awakened to the new face of homelessness, although ignorance and stigma still abound within many communities and continues to hamper even the most herculean efforts put forth by those currently homeless and struggling to get back on their feet and regain some sense of normalcy in their lives again.
To make matters worse, the federal government has been unable to change policy fast enough to be able to provide critical early assistance to people, exacerbating further the plight of those stuck on the streets as a direct result of a slowed economy and a housing foreclosure crisis.
What this means to them - and to those who provide direct services - is that when families, couples or individuals finally set aside their pride and their longstanding, inculcated sense of self reliance to humble themselves enough to ask for help, they discover that there is very little help available to them beyond some time at a typically filled to capacity shelter. That shelter often splits up the men and women, and can even split up children - especially male children - who reach a particular age and are then regulated out of the shelter with their mom and into the men's shelter.
For most families, this is simply unacceptable, since they've been clinging to each other for strength and comfort since they began experiencing problems.
For single parent women faced with more time on the streets together or sending their oldest son into a men's shelter, just about any mother out there will tell you what the decision is going to be, since mom needs the kids close at hand as they cope and overcome the challenges together.
All of these new faces realize early on that something is horribly wrong with a system that can't step in with a small level of assistance before they end up homeless on the streets, and then force some of them to wait for months while homeless before they even qualify as 'homeless." To its credit, HUD has worked to change the definition of "homelessness" and has tried to be more inclusive and proactive by making it slightly easier to intervene earlier.
But the truth is, by the time most of these families reach the point of qualifying for help, they've left a trail of debt, eviction and default in their wake, which makes extricating themselves from the systemic issues that bring about homelessness that much more challenging to overcome.
Think for a moment about your own response to a job loss; most likely, you'd first go through your savings trying to stay on top of the basic bills (rent, utilities, car payment) as you desperately hunt for a job, and the "non-essential" things would start to fall behind (cable bills, insurance premiums for health and vehicle, healthier foodstuffs, etc). As the month ends with no job offer in sight and your savings starts showing severe signs of depletion, you begin trying to work deals with your creditors, only to find that because you haven't yet received eviction or turnoff notices, you don't yet qualify. At about the three month mark, the eviction and turnoff notices arrive, and if you're unaware of the timing of application for local community assistance sources, chances are that by the time you learn they are available to assist you, they're out of funds for the month.
Now, with credit ruined, turnoff notices for essential utilities stacked on the table, and forced removal from your residence imminent, you begin to consider government social services. But even if you're lucky enough to actually qualify, the application period can take up to 90 days to begin receiving food stamps, and the days of big welfare checks are long gone, so this is not going to help you catch up on your utility bills and your rent.
Finally the day comes, the Sheriff arrives and sets you, your family and the possessions you have left after you've pawned and yard-saled everything you had of value, onto the curb, destitute, terrified, and trying to keep some dignity and hope alive for the rest of your family. With all pride long since stripped away, you humbly try to find someone - anyone - that might be able to help you, because surely that lavish safety net we hear the politicians saying needs to be reduced further has some help available to you.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot we as providers can offer you yet. Your efforts to sustain yourself, you discover, have worked against you, and you discover that the safety net you thought protected those who'd hit bottom has been so gutted that the only assistance available is typically for the most vulnerable, the "chronically" homeless, the addicted, the severely mental ill. To reach this eligibility, you realize that things are going to have to get worse, much worse, before you have a chance at making them better, and for many, this is the last straw.
If there is any bright spot to any of this, it is that many of these people will succeed in spite of the challenges they face, because they are inculcated and determined and motivated to do so. And what they will remember about this experience is that we as a nation have failed to ensure that our safety net works for everyone, and not just the very worst of the worst. These people traditionally vote, and they also speak out, both of which they will be doing as they recover their dignity and their lives over the next several years. And they will remember how hard it was for them, and I'm counting on the fact that these people will be the ones who help drive our public policy in the proper direction, so that anyone who finds themselves facing homelessness has options long before they ever have to begin the slide into it.
New Face Of Homelessness: The American Family
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GUY RAZ, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Guy Raz.
If you look at the year in economic statistics, you could tell two different stories of two different Americas. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a two-year high this week: retail sales, industrial production, factory orders, all are up. And the biggest corporations are posting healthy profits. And yet, hidden among all these trends is one that was released this past week by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
In 2010, cities across America saw a 9 percent increase in the number of families seeking emergency shelter. One out of 200 people in America slept in a homeless shelter this past year. The homeless crisis now affects more families, people who just a year or two ago had jobs, apartments, relatively stable lives that affects more families in that any other time in recent history.
And so on this Christmas Day, we bring you the stories of three of those families: the Gibsons from Washington, D.C.; the Stewarts from Salt Lake City, Utah; and the Browns, also from Utah.
We start with the story of Jamie Stewart(ph).
Ms. JAMIE STEWART: I have to be here with my daughter and grandson. I mean, not being able to have our own house and - because I know I'm better - well, not better than that, but I mean, I know I can do it. It's just - the work is just hard after hard. You know, you go to an (unintelligible), there's 15 people there. And (unintelligible) always is to having my own place and being able to provide for my family, which I can't right now.
RAZ: Jamie Stewart lives in the shelter for homeless families with her 18-year-old daughter Emilia(ph) and Emilia's 3-month-old son in Salt Lake City. You just heard Emilia patting his back in that clip.
Jamie left Arizona earlier this year with Emilia and the baby to tend to her dying father in Utah. They lived with her sister for a few weeks; eventually in a car for another week. Jamie thought she'd find a job pretty quickly. She's a nurse, and maybe getting apartment. But she hasn't, except for some seasonal work with UPS.
Ms. STEWART: It's sad. In the first place, I don't have, you know, we don't have our own place. We don't have it free. I just haven't really even thought about the holidays. I haven't. I'm not shopping. I'm not buying for anybody. I'm not - because, of course, I'm saving my money to get a place and to...
Ms. EMILIA STEWART: It's definitely hard just because it's my son's first Christmas and we can't really celebrate out. We can't really buy him the things that we need for him. And so definitely makes it a lot harder knowing and having to look at my mom and not watch her open Christmas presents, Christmas morning and (unintelligible) people say that they know how it is. They - but they don't.
So I tend to ask them, have you ever looked down at your 3-month-year-old son not knowing where you're going to be next, or if you're going to have a roof over your head, or diapers to put on him, or a bottle to feed him? It's hard.
RAZ: That's Jamie and Emilia Stewart in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mr. DAVID BROWN: My name is David Brown. I'm 31. I'm living currently out here in Magna, Utah.
RAZ: Exactly a year ago, David Brown lost his job at Wal-Mart. And for most of this year, David and his wife Nicole and their four kids, 11-year-old Chloe, 9-year-old Seth, 5-year-old Cameron, and J.J.(ph) who's 2, have been homeless.
Mr. BROWN: You know, we were avoiding the actual shelter itself at all cost. You know, staying with family member here or family member there, ending up staying in the pop-up trailer in your friend's driveway. You know, we were doing pretty much everything we had to to avoid the shelter.
RAZ: At one point, the whole family slept in their van.
Mr. BROWN: You know, when you're in that type of situation, it's not easy to sleep because, you know, kids are scared, of course, and, you know, that's who you're there for, is you're there to let the children know that everything is going to be okay and you're not going to let anything happen.
So, you know, constant cars driving by, you never know what's about to happen. If, you know, someone's looking the brake into a car and they'd stop in the pit the wrong one, you know? So I'd remember there was like very little to no sleep at all. I think I slept maybe a total of 45 minutes.
RAZ: The family did end up in the shelter for sometime. Luckily, David Brown found a job a few months ago, and the family now lives in an apartment in Magna, Utah.
Mr. BROWN: You know, there's a lot of things you look at in life and there's a lot of times in life where you would look at a situation, and that's the first thing that comes in your head, and that happened to me, you know? And I can honestly say that as far as being homeless, I was one of those skeptics that believed it will never happen to me.
You just never know where life's going to take you. And you may think that everything is fine and great one day and wake up the next and have everything passed down around you. And it's possible to (unintelligible).
Mr. ANTONIO GIBSON: My name is Antonio Gibson. I'm 28 years old. And I reside in Washington, D.C.
RAZ: Statistically, Antonio Gibson doesn't even exist. It's not often academic studies or towering speeches are devoted to single black fathers. Antonio raises his two kids, 9-year-old Navia(ph) and 3-year-old Antonio Jr., by himself.
Last year, the mother of his two kids left after she lost her job at Bank of America. At the time, Antonio was a part-time janitor. He cleaned floors at NASA headquarters at night.
Mr. GIBSON: I tried to, with my part-time job, maintain the bills and the household and all the other necessities. But after a while, I guess it became a little bit too much, and we've gotten debt with the rent and with other bills and everything and we received our very first eviction threat.
RAZ: That was last November. And for most of the past 13 months, Antonio, Navia and Antonio Jr. lived in a car. He would tell Navia that they were camping or that the house was being renovated. He tried to find temporary housing, but all of them were full. And each time, he was turned away.
So at night, Antonio would park the car in the garage of an abandoned house. He'd crack the windows for ventilation and say goodnight to his kids.
Mr. GIBSON: Looking in the backseat while they were sleeping in the car, it was just breaking me down, emotionally and mentally, you know? And I can also see a change in my daughter, you know, like she didn't talk no more. She was afraid to go to school, you know? And she always loves school since she was like 5 years old. So I just saw their big change, and then I knew that that's where it was coming from.
I would wake up at 7 a.m. in the morning and (unintelligible) tap water to (unintelligible), wash our face, brush our teeth or try to change their clothes. And I'll first drop my daughter off to her school at 8 o'clock. And drop my son off the daycare around 8, 8:30.
You know, I used to read them a story in the car, little books. They have this thing at my son's school called lending library, where you can get a book every day, bring it back every day. So, and we get a different book every day, and it was cool because they would go to sleep real easy with that, you know? So that was my daily routine.
RAZ: After 11 months in the car, the Gibsons finally managed to get a place through the city's Housing Authority. He's on food stamps now and paying rent with help from a local church.
Now, a moment ago, I mentioned new figures that show a 9 percent increase in homeless families in cities across America this year.
Maria Foscarinis with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty says as dramatic as that number sounds, it's probably even higher.
Ms. MARIA FOSCARINIS (Founder/Executive Director, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty): Because what they are measuring is numbers of families who are seeking emergency shelter.
RAZ: Showing up at shelters.
Ms. FOSCARINIS: Yes. And so by definition, that number is limited by existing shelter capacity, which we know is grossly insufficient to meet a need. The national estimate is that only about half of all homeless people are actually sheltered, and that's due to lack of shelter capacity.
RAZ: How do budget cuts in states and municipalities begin to make the problem worse? Because, of course, we haven't really seen the full impact of this budget cuts yet.
Ms. FOSCARINIS: Exactly. Just this week, the D.C. City Council, since we're here in Washington, the local government passed a law that limits services here in Washington to people who can prove that they're D.C. residents. And this is supremely ironic and misconceived in our view because a big problem when you're homeless is you don't have ID, or it becomes very difficult to prove residency. But it's an indicator of the city trying to conserve its own resources.
RAZ: You're hearing reports of homeless shelters having to turn people away very, very frequently.
Ms. FOSCARINIS: Absolutely. And the U.S. Conference of Mayors report that was just released earlier this week show - said that 27 percent of requests for emergency shelter on average were turned away.
RAZ: Twenty-seven percent.
Ms. FOSCARINIS: On average. And again, this is likely understating the problem, because at a certain point, people just give up.
RAZ: I mean, realistically, what could be done over the next two years? I mean, you're well aware that Congress is on a budget-cutting kick, the American public is demanding this. What can be done to begin to tackle this issue?
Ms. FOSCARINIS: Budget is obviously critical and it's really a matter of where our priorities are as a nation. So I think we know that if something is considered important, money can be found and money can be spent.
Banks were considered too big to fail. Well, I think we have to start thinking that in a country, such as the United States, that allowing people to be homeless, allowing children to go without a place to lay their heads at night is not something we will tolerate, and we have to be able to find the money to stop that, to ensure that everybody has a place to live.
RAZ: That's Maria Foscarinis. She is the executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty here in Washington, D.C.
Maria, thank you for being here.
Ms. FOSCARINIS: Thank you, Guy.
RAZ: If you're interested in finding out more about the groups that have helped the families we heard from earlier in the segment, here are a few websites: The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless helped Antonio Gibson find public housing. They're at legalclinic.org. Family Promise helped the Browns and Stewarts. They're at fpsl.org. And thanks to Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C., for helping us this week with the story. You can find their website at catholiccharitiesdc.org.
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Photo credit: Donna Grethen / Tribune Media Services | "These days poverty is less and less a remote phenomenon," writes Nicolaus Mills. She has picked the perfect spot to be noticed -- right between a subway stop and an upscale deli on New York's Upper West Side. But she seems to crave privacy. Never does she initiate eye contact. Never does she start a conversation. Her preference is to sit quietly on a foot stool reading a book.
Yet more often than not, the aluminum beverage cup that sits in front of her stool has dollar bills in it.
I have given her some of those dollars. "God bless you," she said once. Another time, it was simply "Thank you."
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The homeless men who in the past asked for handouts on the same block did not do so well. They rarely got more quarters than nickels. Even holding the door open for the customers of a nearby bagel shop rarely worked for them.
The woman to whom I and others walking along this Upper West Side sidewalk having been giving dollar bills looks different from the homeless men she has replaced. She is tastefully dressed. Her gray hair is clean. She doesn't talk to herself. She is white.
She is the new face of homelessness, and from what I can tell, her presence frightens passersby. They see themselves in her, and they are right to do so. "Homeless, Scared, and Hungry" she wrote one day on a cardboard sign she put next to her stool. It was easy to believe her.
These days poverty is less and less a remote phenomenon. In the last decade, those living under the poverty line in the suburbs grew by 66 percent while the overall suburban population barely changed. Even having a job is no guarantee of staying out of poverty any longer; 7.2 percent of those the government says are employed are living below the poverty line, and 150 million Americans are no more than two paychecks away from falling into poverty. In our high cost-of-living region, the stakes can be even higher.
In the case of the woman on the stool, it is hard to imagine that she became homeless through her own fault. Her neat appearance and visible shyness make it seem more likely that terrible luck, rather than a personal failing or mental illness, is the source of her trouble. She resembles a kindly aunt who has, for the moment, sat down to rest on a hot summer day.
I hope she keeps getting dollars rather than loose change. But I worry that the dollar donations I am talking about say something terrible about the way we have in the past stereotyped homelessness. It should not take a middle-class-appearing woman asking for money to jar us into giving.
During the Great Depression John Steinbeck in "The Grapes of Wrath" and James Agee and Walker Evans in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" took us inside the heads of the poor, making sure we didn't just see them as anonymous Okies or faceless sharecroppers. We have lost that egalitarian sensibility, and we need to get it back. If it takes a woman who looks as if she has always had a roof over her head to help accelerate that change, so be it.
Anything is better than the quiet racism that let so many passersby pay scant attention to the African-American homeless people who, in the past, dominated this small New York block.
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