Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live.
Given all of our reading and discussion (and your research, too), what do you think about this assertion? How does it relate to the perspectives that Justine and Lisa brought to our class on Monday? What do you think is the most significant thing you’ve learned about homelessness, poverty, gender or research from them or from our course thus far that will prepare you for our work with The Gathering Place?
There is much in common between the focus of Elliot Liebow's study, and the purpose of Lisa and Justine's visit, in that both hoped to dispel common myths and notions of homelessness and the stereotypical cardboard-carrying homeless man. I feel that Liebow's quote is somewhat oversimplified to leave room for the implications that this lack of housing is due to an individual lack of responsibility. Given the research I have done, homelessness is much more than the lack of a place to live. Chronic homelessness manifests itself into a lifestyle, in which individuals fall into the familiarity of life on the streets and find it harder and harder to readapt to a structured lifestyle of a job or of maintaining stable housing. This quote does, however, do a service in dispelling the myths associated with it. It allows the reader to picture an ordinary citizen - any of us - subject to homelessness in the sense that all it consists of is not having housing. While it does ignore many factors that often play into homelessness (mental illness, domestic violence), it goes along with the focus of my research in that in order to be homelessness and be necessary for the services of outreach programs, one does not need to be an addict, a bad parent, or irresponsible, but all it requires is that one fall short of paying for housing. One of the most significant things I have learned in hearing from our speakers, and in doing my research, is that - in general - many of the individual factors of homelessness (that is, that can be blamed on the homeless person) are often secondary in nature. Many outreach programs are often ineffective in their attempts to serve clients due to the amount of energy they expend in screening and establishing certain requirements rather than building relationships and allowing homeless women to truly seek the services they really do need.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live. There are so many people that suffer from the same sorts of addictions or circumstances that homeless people are faced with, but through some thing or another they are able to keep their homes. But also I believe that being homeless is so much more than not having an address; being homeless is truly an isolation away from society is which these men, women, and children are sort of forced to fend on their own without any outside aid that most of society relies on. Some circumstances that lead to homelessness leave these individuals without anything or anyone to turn to. Justine’s story about her own experience that could have easily turned towards homelessness really touched on the fact that a home represents so much more than a person can imagine and when its gone you lose a sense of who you are as a person and as part of society. The most significant thing that I have personally learned about homelessness is that it is so hard to find the opportunities that are needed in order to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” The system that is in place to help these individuals almost creates a vicious cycle in which by the time you are able to get just far enough ahead to get out of homelessness the aid that you need to reach the top of the mountain goes away and leaves the individual hanging in a limbo between homelessness and mainstream society. Also, my research on crime and victimization and the correlation to women and homelessness really opened my eyes to the sorts of pain these women are forced to endure while they are homeless and why places like TGP are so important. Where there not places like TGP that are willing to accept a woman for who she is and not who they believe she should be and provides aid with no strings attached then there would be no hope left in these women. They need places like TGP where love, support, healing, and friendship can be found before any forward movement out of homelessness can be accomplished. This class really erased the generic image of the “homeless” in my mind and gave homelessness a face. They are people too and it is not my place to pass judgments on their position but rather it is my place to assist getting their stories heard so that aid will be able to find them and hopefully someday issues with homelessness will not be so astronomical.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually not as many connections between the Liebow’s study and the organization as I thought there would be and this may be because of the key differences of location and shelter types. These shelters are all common in their mission but the Gathering Place seems to be nothing like Liebow describes in “Tell Them Who We Are”. However they do share a commonality that stuck in my mind: that every homeless person needs different help and one solution could never apply to all homeless people. I have a greater understanding that “homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live”, and I can say that because beyond all the misconceptions people have of the homeless the only thing that differentiates the homeless from everyone else is that they do not have a home. What Justine and Lisa said last Monday only confirms my broadened perspective on why the homeless are homeless. The issue of homeless is dependent on so many factors, and most of these happen to be out of the control of those that homelessness victimizes. The most significant thing that I have learned throughout all that I have learned which would prepare me to work with the clients at The Gathering Place is that homeless people are easily misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteThe assertion that “Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live” is in essence true because in the end, they are still human beings. They shouldn’t be judged any differently from other people. The perspectives that Justine and Lisa brought up followed similarly to the assertion. They don’t judge at The Gathering Place, they will let people in regardless of the circumstance. No questions asked.
ReplyDeleteMy views on homelessness were a lot different before this class. Like many other people, my visualization of a homeless person was a bearded man holding a sign at an intersection. But it’s far from that. A large percentage of the homeless are women and families that must go through even worse struggles. The first thing that the homeless needs isn’t anything material, but rather, they need to build connections and have people they can trust and who can care about them.
After reading Liebow’s chapter on “Making it Together,” one fundamental connection I saw between Liebow’s perspective and the perspective of the women from The Gathering Place was the fact that both identified shelter life as being the only place homeless women can go to “be a part of a human community” (Liebow 220). Given my research on families of origin, this concept is significant because it identifies the fact that not having a place to live is not limited to the physical structure one can call “home”—not having a place to live also implies not having accessible people you can turn to in times of need, not being able to develop meaningful social contact. I’ve learned that shelters like The Gathering Place stand in the place of families and friends and community that most homeless women have lost. Given, Justine and Lisa’s presentation, my perspective on the success of shelters has shifted from thinking that the success of a shelter is based on its rate of women getting housed, getting jobs, and getting established, to thinking of success based on the connections women make within the shelter, the comfort and encouragement, the friendships and the community that has been built for those women. Human beings need more than a roof over their heads, they need meaningful human contact.
ReplyDeleteThe main connection that I see is that, while certain life aspects have kept people homeless or brought them into homelessness (drug/alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, loss of employment, mental illness, physical/mental disability), why someone is homeless is not as important as finding them a home, and not definitely not as important as treating them as a human being.
ReplyDeleteGiven the research I’ve done I believe that Liebow is correct; that human error is not really the greatest problem surrounding homelessness. There are a lot of systematic forces that push people into working informally or participating in illegal sources of income, because they don’t want to become homeless. In a pervious class (not this class) we discussed participation of people, especially in this country, in the drug economy, and it was said that given the estimated number of people that work in the narco-economy, if they were to stop working America’s formal economy is simply too small to absorb all of their labor. Our economy, too small to absorb additional labor?…maybe there is a reason the homeless do not escape homelessness. At the current time our welfare system is not strong enough to lift people out of homelessness, and that given the shift in employment in America from manufacturing to service based economy in the past century, and the focus on higher education and degrees for work, it has become harder and harder for the people under the middle class to find stable, decently waged employment.
I think the most significant thing that has been brought to my attention was something that Justine said yesterday; that “even if you do everything right, you still can become homeless”. That no one is above falling into poverty; and it really doesn’t matter how you got there, but that everyone is human-everyone makes mistakes. We should help each other up when one of us falls, not because it's the “nice” thing to do…but that someday you could be in their place and would you not want help also?
I think that the statement Liebow makes in the final chapter of his book underlies the biggest barrier to stopping homelessness. Homelessness comes with all sorts of stereotypes that serve only to isolate the people facing it. Homeless people have become rejects of society, not because they have lost their homes, but because of attributes that are perceived to come with homelessness: laziness, mental illness, addiction. While these stereotypes exist there has been no desire for people to help the homeless. While many homeless people struggle with these issues, people with homes do as well. The most significant thing that I have learned from this class so far is just how valuable being understood is. For many of these women the hardest part of being homeless is being stuck into stereotypes and generalizations. The Gathering Place, like the Refuge, is important to the women because it is a place where they can be with women who are in similar situations as them, and who will not judge them. One of the most striking parts of this chapter was the story about the women who was housed and continued to sleep at the shelter, and eventually sold her house and moved back to the shelter, returning to homelessness voluntarily because those women understood her more than anyone else. I feel as though until people realize that homelessness is not an issue of choice but an issue of circumstance then there will never be an end to homelessness. What this class has prepared me for with my visit to the Gathering Place is to have an open mind, and to remember to try my best to understand.
ReplyDeleteMy individual research and the visit by TGP staff is framing Tell Them Who I Am within connections and relationships; but, Liebow concludes his study with such clarity: "Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live."
ReplyDeleteConsumer-behavior researchers suggest home creates solid membership, bridges time periods, adds permanence to life, and maintains sense of self through the affirmation of real walls and protected possessions. The homeless lose elements of identity when they lose a space in the world.
Justine and Lisa also suggested the homeless need restored membership and connections. It's not just about resources; it's about meaning. My research is revealing that symbolic possessions are the last efforts of salvaging the better past and inspiring a hopeful future.
I agree. The homeless need the independence and space to rebuild themselves.
This assertion is true in a literal sense, but in reality, it is not the true definition of homelessness. The real definition consists of the absence of the many significant components that make up life. Primarily this is an income. By this, I do not necessarily mean money, but actually the ability to buy certain things like a house or food, or afford transportation. Another essential component of life is a sufficient support system. Whether this comprises of family and/or friends, homeless people often lack such system. Homeless women do not have the necessary luxuries that most people need to feel human. These are simple things like being able to rest for a minute or find a job through a vast network of successful acquaintances. The lack of such prominent parts of life is the true definition of homelessness, and as these women began to get them back, they feel more and more human again.
ReplyDeleteThe most significant thing that I have learned about homelessness can be applied to many issues; how something is perceived can lead to misinterpretation of something else. The word "Homelessness" itself instantly casts a picture of the scruff panhandler on the side of the intersection with a cardboard sign. This completely ignores the issue of homeless women or if anything it casts a negative association. It is important to realize that these people are just like everyone else, they just have had back luck and have been put into bad situations.
Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live. I agree with this assertion. Sure, many homeless people have mental health problems, some are drug addicts, and some are alcoholics. But so are many non-homeless people. This difference seems to lie in who has money (or family or friends with enough to go around) and who doesn't. Justine and Lisa brought up the fact that we AREN'T all coming from the same place. We DON'T start the race of life on the same line and we are all affected by the system which we are placed in, one which gives advantages to some and not to others and one that is often based on racial, social class, religious, or other biases. I believe that homelessness is more of a systematic issue than a personal one. Yes, many people could benefit from services to help them address their own personal issues, but the main issue is that they don't have a safe place to live. Because they don't have a home, homeless people constantly have to worry about safety, they don't have a permanent address to put on work applications, they don't have a place to store their belongings, they don't have as much respect from society, and the list goes on and on. I think the most significant things I have learned so far in this class is 1. homeless people come in all shapes and sizes and each case is unique so we must learn to help each person in a unique way (and we must LISTEN to how they want or don't want to be helped) and 2. there are problems with the system itself that truly help keep people in poverty/homeless. In order to address the issue of homelessness we need to not only help individuals, but work to change the unfair system. We need to listen to the people themselves because it may not always be apparent to us what they need. Maybe its food and shelter, maybe its help finding a job, or maybe they just need a place to rest and a friend to talk to for a while. I'm realizing how easy it is to slip into this situation and therefore we must realize that we too one day could become homeless. There is a poem I read the other day at a holocaust remembrance service which reminded me of this and it goes something like this: They came for the communists, but I didn't do anything because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the socialists, but I stood by because I wasn't a socialist. And then they came for the Catholics, but I didn't dare step forward because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for the Jews, and I did nothing, for I was not a Jew. And then they came for me, and there was no one left to step forward to help me because I was all alone. We need to realize that we all need help once in a while and we can't categorize someone as being homeless for a certain reason, lazy, or ill, because the truth is we could be in that same situation even if we do what is “right” or what we are “supposed” to do in society.
ReplyDelete“Homeless people are homeless because they do not have a place to live.” Some may read this statement and say “duh, of course they are homeless because they don’t have a place to live.” However, this statement that Elliot Liebow made is a very powerful and accurate one that entirely sums up the cause of homelessness. Stereotypes have been established regarding the homeless and that they are homeless because they are lazy, mentally ill, or that they just don’t care. On the other hand, it’s simply because they don’t have a place to live, whether that’s because they were poor, got caught up in a system that did not favor them, or life happened and they ended up without housing. After reading “Tell Them Who I Am,” I have gained an entirely new perspective on homeless women. Hearing from Justine and Lisa from The Gathering Place has also helped tremendously. The way they explained the women and experiences at TGP relates to what Liebow talked about in his book. They both highlighted the importance of relationships to these women, whether it is with other women in the homeless shelter, staff at the shelter, the women’s children, etc. I feel as if the importance of relationships has been the most groundbreaking thing we have either discussed, read, or heard about during this class. This will help us tremendously as we start our research at TGP because we better understand the importance of relationships and that we will become a part of these women’s lives by listening to their stories.
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