#NHHAW – Solidarity through Experience

Solidarity through Experience: Experiential Learning and its place in Homeless Advocacy – Deirdre Walsh

Tonight will likely be an uncomfortable and cold evening for some of the nation’s most influential business executives.  In 14 cities nationwide, Covenant House will host its fourth Executive Sleep Out. The annual fundraiser brings not only financial resources to those combatting youth homelessness, but also much needed attention to the issues of hunger and homelessness. Executives will join together on behalf of the thousands of people around the country who have no place to call home. This act of sacrifice and attention will raise funds and awareness in order to protect the most innocent and forgotten members of our society.

The National Coalition for Homeless will also call upon people to take the ‘Homeless Challenge or participate in ‘One Night Without a Home‘ events throughout the annual National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Solidarity and understanding develops between participants and their peers without homes. These events then bring about greater public awareness and raise much needed funds for services and care for homeless individuals. Those who live in poverty and who do not have a home deserve the same treatment as the highest paid executives and everyone in between. By working together, both challenge participants and people experiencing homelessness can work to end homelessness.

Major fundraisers and awareness events such as Covenant House’s Sleep Outs and the National Coalition for the Homeless’ Homeless Challenge are part of a rising trend throughout the United States. Their goal is to spread awareness about poverty and its effects on the poorest of American citizens. Through these experimental learning events and projects, awareness for homelessness has a deeper meaning. Homelessness can be easily disregarded by the public if they have no understanding of the harsh realities and ordeals undergone by men, women, and children living on the streets. Sleep outs simulate just a small part of those experiences, but teach the participants that homelessness is more than statistics or stereotypes. Homelessness has many causes, many obstacles, and many faces.

With more and more experimental learning events and fundraisers, the question “do these programs actually work?” often comes to mind. The answer is YES! The place of simulated experiences in homeless advocacy is critical. They bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots by uniting people for one cause: to end homelessness. Statistics and facts about poverty are one-dimensional and easy to disregard. One evening on the streets cannot encompass the entirety of life without a home or financial insecurity, but it can help participants to see beyond the factual side of poverty and see the faces of hunger and homelessness. Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is an opportunity for people around the country to join together and bring political and social attention to the impacts of mass poverty and homelessness. Sleep outs not only help finance the efforts of nonprofits such as Covenant House, but also bring people together in support of those who are usually forgotten. Solidarity between all Americans, no matter their financial or housing situations, will enable thousands more to resolve to fight poverty!

6 Things I Want You to Understand About Being Homeless in America  – by Jayda Shuavarnnasri.

It’s been long overdue that I’ve written about my time in D.C. doing the Homeless Challenge.  Life moved on once I came back, and before you know it I was on a flight to Bangkok, still sharing my experience here and there and trying to process it all at the same time.  And of course, that right there perfectly reflects my privilege of not actually being homeless.

For some reason I thought I would have some more clear cut answers to share with those who cared enough to ask.  I also thought that when people listened to my experience, they would have more in depth reactions beyond, “so what did you learn?”  That became the dreaded question after a while as I tried packaging my answers into something they could swallow.  And that’s what bothered me most…having to package together an answer. I didn’t leave D.C. with this list of lessons learned or facts and stories just so my friends could be like, “Omg. That’s crazy. Because of you, I totally know what it’s like to be homeless now.”  For some reason, I feared that sharing my experience would lead to this belief and because of that, I felt like I needed to word my answers correctly when asked, and eventually I just wouldn’t talk about it at all.

Now here I am 3 months later, I am compelled to finally write something (the littlest I can do), in hopes that those who listen can be motivated to do more in their own lives.

Disclaimer: This is from my own perspective, and I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible using what I know about homelessness…which probably isn’t a lot.

6 THINGS I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA

  1. We live in a system that makes it extremely difficult to get out of homelessness.  I think there’s a prevalent assumption in our society that homelessness is caused by an individual’s inability to make the right choices in their life, after all, you’re friends and family have been able to survive just fine through hard work and perseverance right?  But the reality is that there are so many factors that lead to homelessness such as running away from an abusive family, having a mental/physical disability that prevents the ability to work, being kicked out for being LGTBQ, financial crisis, addiction/substance dependence (which is classified as a mental disorder), and the simple fact that housing, food, and healthcare in the United States are so expensive.  There is no way that even if a person had a minimum wage job, they could afford a place to live in many areas of the Land of the Free.  

    People tend to assume that a if a person is homeless, they must not have a job, but there are plenty who do (I met a security guard while I was having breakfast at a soup kitchen in D.C.), but they often don’t make enough for basic necessities like food and shelter, and life is even harder if you have children.  And for those who don’t have a job, how easy do you think it is to get one?  Are they supposed to walk in with all their belongings, in their usual attire, maybe having showered, and just fill out an application?  And what address do you think they should provide?  And if they are hired for a job, would they have reliable transportation? For those two weeks that they wait for their first paycheck, who can take care of their kids? How will they do laundry? Would you honestly interview or hire someone you suspect is homeless? My point is, there are so many hurtles that a homeless person has to face, and our system does very little to change that.

  2. Hunger is such a small part of the problem. For many of us, when we see someone begging for change, we feel better if we just gave them food instead, because after all they could be some drug addict trying to get their fix and you wouldn’t want to support that, right? I’ll talk about this stereotype later but there’s something bigger I want people to understand about homelessness and hunger.  In big cities, food is not that hard to find. There are shelters and soup kitchens that serve food regularly and most of the homeless community know exactly how to get a meal.  There isn’t so much a lack of food, as there is a lack ofquality food.  The meals I ate during my week in D.C. were not nutritious at all.  Canned vegetables, iceberg lettuce, pasta (and not the whole grain kind), and lots of white enriched bread. I had so much carbs that week!  Most foods given to the homeless community is not meant to be nutritious, it’s just meant to fill you up.  But as we know, the things you put into your body are important for maintaining your health and energy, which was reflected in my own physical health by the end of my Homeless Challenge.  By the time we were done, my body felt like it deteriorated.  I had a fever, chills, body aches, and barely any strength left to carry around my bags.  A woman we met who was homeless at the time, shared with us that exhaustion was a normal part of life for a person who is homeless, and frankly if I was in that situation for weeks/months/years at a time…I don’t know how I would even manage to try and find work.

    With this being said, I also invite you to think about your own access to quality foods.  All the healthy meals you cook for the week, the delicious trendy foods you instagram on the daily, and all the expensive fair food you get to indulge on this summer…what a luxury it is for us to call ourselves “foodies” while thousands of people are starving for nutrients.

  3. “No one in their right mind chooses to be homeless.” A man we had met, known as Better Believe Steve had said this to us when he shared his story of homelessness. (This was the night I cried my eyes out because this mans experience broke my heart…if you want to know more about that then ask me another time)  I want people to realize that aside from a small number of “nomad/traveller” types, people do not choose to be homeless.  The circumstances in their lives have lead them towards a path where being homeless is a last option.  Look at how much invisibility and loss of dignity is attached to being homeless. Or the constant threat of discrimination and violence. Really, who would not actually want a roof over their head? A safe place to sleep is a basic necessity, but for many people there are no safe places, which may be why the streets become their best/ only option.  Also there are many who choose to stay on the streets rather than in a shelter, (a shelter is still not a home!), and that’s because some shelters are so poorly run that the streets become more comfortable.
  4. People who are homeless are not lazy, crazy, drug addicts that can’t be helped. I hate these stereotypes.  I dare you too look at your circle of friends and tell me that you don’t know a single person who is lazy, a person who may be a little “off” mentally, or a person who does not use drugs.  We all have those people in our circle somewhere, so don’t try and think you’re so above a person who is homeless just because you’re not the one begging for change. 

    As for the “crazy” part, first off it’s offensive to call anyone that, as it further stigmatizes mental health, preventing people from understanding or seeking treatment.  But if we’re going to talk about mental illnesses, yes they are prevalent among the homeless population.  That means people don’t just need help finding a job or home, they need services and medication that can also help them deal with whatever mental or medical conditions they have too.  Addiction is a problem as well, one that should also be recognized as a challenge that needs to be over come with assistance and services.  Every person is deserving of help.  No matter what a person may be battling, it does not make them any less deserving of safe, adequate, and affordable housing.

  5. Homelessness can happen to anyone. If I were to ask you, “What does a homeless person look like?” what would be the first image the pops into your head?  I ask this because so many of us don’t realize that we could actually be friends or acquaintances with someone who is homeless, and not even know it.  Begging or sleeping on the street is not what every homeless person does…some can afford to stay in hotels or jump from friend’s houses.  Either way, they don’t have a secure home.  I know of so many financial struggles from my own friends/family and I always think that at any moment, it could be one of us. 

    The biggest reality check I had was when I met a girl at my own school, University of San Diego, who had spent a entire year during high school homeless with her family.  Thankfully they were not on the streets, but the three of them shared one bedroom that a friend had lent them, while the mom went back to school, the dad worked two jobs, and the daughter tried getting through high school.

  6. If you really want to help the next time you see a homeless person, don’t just hand them things.  Okay, if you’re that compelled to give them the change from your pocket or your leftover Subway, by all means do so. I’m not discouraging your act of kindness.  But I think it’s important to first ask yourself, why are you giving? Is it because you want to help? Or because you’re trying to ease the guilt that you feel inside, and providing charity makes you feel better.
     
    Those aren’t easy questions, but the reason I ask is because one of the biggest problems when people want to help a cause is that they assume they already know the solution without asking the ones they are claiming to help.  This is something I’ve learned from Counseling (Human Services) classes and in my Development (Peace and Justice), courses.  We want to help, and when we witness the problem with our eyes, we automatically think we know what that person or community needs. We see barefoot kids in poor countries so that must mean they really need shoes! Forget about clean water, nutritious food, or economic opportunities (I’m looking at you TOMS shoes…but I digress).  We see a poor man begging on the street, well he must be hungry so I’m going to buy him some food! But what if he needs medication? Toothpaste?  A pair of socks?  What if the woman standing at the end of the freeway needs money for baby formula? Or pads? Or some shoes?  We have no idea what they really need unless we ASK.  Such as simple thing to do when we want to help someone, but many of us don’t.  Instead we keep a barrier up and just hand that person enough to make ourselves feel better and then we move on with our lives.

    My suggestion? Ask a person their name, because who knows how long it’s been since they heard someone say their name aloud, and because they are human.  If you’re going to a store or you’re close to home, ask them what it is they might need that you can provide for them.  If you can grab that for them before they leave their area, great.  If they are a person you see regularly on the streets, ask them their usual spot and say, “Okay, I can’t get it today but I will have it next time I’m in the area.”  Now the challenge I have come to realize with this is that I live in California, and most of the people I see are while I’m driving somewhere.  This is different from D.C. where a person is not allowed to stand on an island to beg (and people drive less there anyways?)

    Either way, my point is to ask how you can help.  Because showing someone respect and being a good helper, includes recognizing an individual’s own agency to transform their own lives, even if it’s just for that moment.

So with all of this, what did I learn? 

It was only 48 hours of being “homeless”, so how much could I really takeaway from this experience? More than I thought, but certainly not enough to be able to solve this systematic problem that affects over 600,000 Americans.  What I’ve come to realize is that I didn’t learnmuch.  What I did was experience and absorb.What I did was become mindful of my existence within the homeless community, while recognizing my own privileges as a young woman.  What I heard, felt, smelled, and witnessed were beyond my usual routine as a suburban, college educated woman with a supportive family.  And what I do strive to learn is more about how I can positively affect the lives of people who are homeless on the individual and the national level.

//Jayda Shuavarnnasri

Solidarity and the Homeless Challenge – by Matt Gatti, NCH Intern

From May 28-30, I completed the National Coalition for the Homeless’ Homeless Challenge, spending forty-eight hours on the streets of Washington D.C. with nothing but the clothes on my back and a black trash bag containing an old sleeping bag. Knowing that I would be working for NCH this summer as an intern, I decided to make the challenge a prerequisite to my two months with the organization.

So, I spent two days on the street. I panhandled, dumpster dove, ate at shelters, walked through the pouring rain, hung out at libraries and museums, got kicked off street corners for panhandling or simply loitering, and slept on the pavement with the rats. Those forty-eight hours had their ups and downs. On one hand, panhandling was embarrassing and shameful. Sleeping outside on the street was miserable, and I began to smell my own body odor after only a day. On the other hand, I was on the receiving end of incredible acts of generosity and got to meet some great people. One particular morning, a woman purchased me and my friend breakfast as we posed as a couple. Another time, a shelter staff spent at least twenty minutes trying to find an extra blanket for my friend whose covers had not been sufficient the previous night.

Now, I refuse to try to convince anyone that I completely understand homelessness after just forty-eight hours of immersion. I knew going in that after two days I would head home to my friends and family. With this in mind, I was only ever on the lookout for my closest, most immediate needs. I never had to figure out a way to get off the street because I already knew how I would do so. I do not truly understand what it means to be homeless, without any kind of safety net, and I probably never will.

Despite this, I found great value and education in this experience. Growing up in the D.C. area, my contact with those experiencing homelessness never expanded far beyond serving meals on McKenna’s Wagon or slipping a dollar to a panhandler on my walk to the Metro. These experiences are a part of only one lens from which one can view this issue. There is a large difference between serving a meal at a shelter and eating a meal at a shelter, and that is what I would like to suggest. In the shelter setting, we too often allow barriers to disconnect us from one another. We become service providers and service recipients, and this alienation hinders our ability to live with and interact with each other. We forget the only real difference that separates us is housing status. The Homeless Challenge allowed me to experience a small dose of solidarity with the almost seven thousand people who live without a home in our nation’s capital.

Our Homeless Challenge Project helps people experience the realities of homelessness by dressing down, emptying their pockets, and living on the streets for 48 hours with an experienced NCH guide. Participants see the world through the eyes of a homeless person and meet others who are currently experiencing homelessness. One student from Colorado State University recently shared her experiences with us.

48 Hours on 48 Cents by Taylorae DeWitt

Contact the author here.

From October 10-12, I participated in the National Coalition for the Homeless’ Homeless Challenge. I spent 48 hours living on the streets disguised as an unhoused person—sleeping outside, panhandling, and walking blocks and blocks to access food, a bathroom, transportation, and other services.

Emily Kvalheim Homeless ChallengeOn our first night, my partner and I walked for hours in the rain. We slept in the rain with minimal coverage. My shoes and socks and waterproof jacket were soaked; my skin became like prunes. Despite the cardboard we collected, I shivered throughout the night, completely unprepared. I lay awake for hours. In the middle of the night, I got up, in need of a bathroom; I went to a fast food restaurant—like I have done in the past—but I was denied, even when I offered to purchase something. Shocked and discouraged, I walked to a fancy hotel, where I was given a key to the bathroom. For the first time that night, I felt like a human being.

The next day, I experienced this similar feeling of overwhelming gratitude when strangers helped me. I was allowed to sleep on the floor of a worship center because it was raining, and two hours of sleep at night is not enough to compensate for all of the walking we had to do. A kind volunteer at a feeding program gave me crackers, peanut butter, and cookies. One woman slowed down her car and offered us a ride and food. In the afternoon, four or five strangers reached into their wallets and gave me what they could. I made $9.43 while panhandling, and I was relieved to know that I could eat again that day. In the evening, I was welcomed by a sit-down restaurant’s owners, despite the disgust of the other customers. A $5.00 salad had never tasted so good.

Some people were less empathetic. I was kicked out of a fast food restaurant and into the rain on our second morning. Strangers sneered and laughed as they watched us. When we went to the library, I was sprayed with some sort of perfume (without my consent) due to the aroma I had acquired after not showering, applying deodorant, or brushing my teeth for three days.

I recorded the names of the businesses that treated me like a second-class citizen (as well as those that treated me as human). I wanted to expose them and take revenge. They made me feel angry and lonely because they could not see past my stench and my grime and my grimace. They were privileged enough to ignore me, and they did.

But what good would it do to retaliate? I, too, have not been compassionate enough, and I have allowed my prejudices to distort my view of the homeless. One woman, who sat across from me at a feeding program, talking to herself erratically, may have seemed strange to me before the Homeless Challenge. But when I really saw myself as her equal, and when I took the time to watch her get up and laugh as she danced to the music playing in the background, I thought she was beautiful. She had found her own happiness, amidst despair.

I met some pretty amazing people on the streets. Unlike me, they could not quit homelessness after 48 hours. They were not able to pick up their belongings, reach into their wallets, and take a taxi home. They did not get to shower or wash their clothes. They could not shut the door, turn out the lights, and climb under my pink sheets and blankets. They were left outside to sleep on the concrete, vulnerable, exposed, and ignored. They did not choose to be homeless, and I hope I will never really know how difficult it can be.

What I do know is that homelessness is a horrible situation. It is horrible after 24 hours, it is horrible after 48 hours, and I am guessing that it never really stops being horrible. No matter how many nice people and charities there are, no matter how appreciative I am of the people who helped me complete the Challenge, homelessness will always be horrible. We, as housed people, must do everything we can to eliminate homelessness and show the same compassion to those who helped and protected me on the streets.

One way you could help is by asking your family and friends to donate to the National Coalition for the Homeless, perhaps even through a fundraising page like mine. You might also consider hosting events for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week 2013 (November 16-24) to raise awareness in your community. For more information, visit the NCH website.

No one should have to live the way that I did. Together we can end homelessness.

By Emily Kvalheim, NCH Intern and American University Class of 2015

Earlier this week, at George Washington University in Washington, DC the student chapter of Amnesty International hosted a sleep out to help students better understand the issues of poverty and homelessness.  NCH speaker Steve Thomas attended and gave the students a first person perspective on what it is like to sleep outside in the nation’s capital.

Read more about the event here.

FinalTentCity from The GW Hatchet on Vimeo.

Each fall,Washington D.C.teems with incoming freshmen from all over the nation… Oftentimes, these students get a glimpse of homelessness for the first time as they roam the streets during their first few weeks. But for the students of Georgetown School of Nursing, Georgetown University, George Washington University, and American University, the encounter took place face-to-face. For years, the NCH’s Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau has presented to the first-year students at these universities, in the case of Georgetown, since 1989.This year, between August 24th and 29th, NCH’s Speaker’s Bureau spoke to nearly 600 incoming students at these universities, where many of the young adults were personally confronted with this issue, and given a fresh perspective on the experience of homelessness.

The Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau is one of NCH’s longest-standing and most successful programs. Through the program, panels of people who currently are or have been homeless present their personal experiences to groups of all ages and backgrounds. The Washington D.C. branch of the Bureau has been educating the public through these presentations for 15 years, and in the past 4 years NCH Speaker’s Bureaus have sprung up in Maryland, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. The Bureau’s approach is unique in that it empowers those who have been affected by homelessness to directly advocate for themselves and others, and bridge the gap between themselves and their audience, who have often never seen the faces of homelessness up-close. As the Speaker’s Bureau shares the often unexpected variety of paths that can lead to homelessness, the negative view of homelessness as a personal problem is challenged and perceptions of the issue are re-evaluated. In 2010, the Speaker’s Bureau spoke 270 times, reaching a combined audience of 15,000, and 2011 is shaping up to beat that number by a landslide, with over 400 bookings.

This August, each of the three undergraduate presentations was given to incoming freshmen in specially-designed community service programs, and their responses were overwhelmingly positive. Freshman Peter Sacco, from George Washington University’s Community Building Community early move-in program, felt the experience “forced me to re-examine my perceptions of homeless…I used to look at these unfortunate souls as lower level people, whose poor choices in life forced them into their own predicaments. But I desperately want to change this perspective.” He has since reached out to NCH to take part in the 48 Hour Homeless Challenge later this year.

Speaker Jackie Grimball made her debut as an NCH Speaker the GWU program. Her story, which includes an elite family background, a privileged life, and “the best private schools that money could buy, along with a Masters from George Washington University” had an enormous impact on the audience. As it sunk in to the audience that she was speaking to her Alma mater, Ms. Grimball “noticed one young lady in the audience whose mouth dropped.” She also shared that she “could not help but be amazed at the reaction of the students as I was talking to them about my family’s rejection of me when they found out my plight. I saw a few of them crying.” Ms. Grimball received a standing ovation for her presentation, a response which aptly reflects her assessment of the evening: “I believe the GWU students’ reaction was that I was still able to ‘stand’ and I am still ‘standing.’”

Donald Whitehead, one of the presenters at American University, is one of the country’s most notable experts on homelessness. As a former Executive Director of NCH, and two terms as President of NCH’s board, he has been active in the Bureau for years. According to him, speaking to incoming freshmen at American’s Freshman Service Experience “has always been one of my favorite speaking engagements,” but this year he felt “there was something special in the room…The questions that were asked by this year’s group were extremely insightful. As a presenter, I left with a genuine sense of hope that at least for one night there was a room full of amazing young people that truly believe that we can and will ‘Bring America Home.’”

 

 

Steve Thomas

Georgetown School of Nursing and Health Studies invited Steve Thomas of the Speaker’s Bureau to present in accordance with their induction ceremony, where the incoming students swear to the values of upholding the common good, and advocating for social justice, among others. “Universally, everyone in attendance was deeply moved by your presentation,” Samuel Aronson, the Assistant Director of Academic Affairs, later told NCH. “This kind of engagement is something I have never before witnessed,” Arnson said after the nursing students voluntarily gathered the next day to share their response to the presentation. One of the attendees reflected that Mr. Thomas’ “ability to bring us into his dark hour of despair and share with us the hope and kindness he thankfully found was something I will not forget.” Another shared “deep gratitude” with Mr. Thomas, “for his willingness to share his thoughts, feelings and experiences with us.” An article about the Georgetown Nursing event can be found here.

These events are just a handful of the thousands of times that NCH’s Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau has impacted audiences by allowing people who have often never interacted with people experiencing homelessness to hear what it is like, and encouraging both parties to learn and discuss what they can actively do to end it. For more information on our speakers themselves, booking a Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau event, or starting a Speaker’s Bureau in your area, please visit the Faces of Homelessness Speaker’s Bureau website.

– Adeline Pearson, Fall 2011 Intern

The following was written by a recent college student participant of NCH’s Homeless Challenge program, as a reflection on the experience:

“When I entered the world of the homeless all I had were the clothes on my back, a sleeping bag, and the preconceptions and stereotypes I had created throughout my 21 years of existence. Having grown up with an uncle who struggled with homelessness for a length measured in years, I thought I knew it all. But you can’t truly understand what it’s like through a story.

Forty-eight hours may not seem like a long time now, but those two days held a week’s worth of activities and a lifetime’s worth of change. We walked many miles, mostly because when we weren’t walking, we were cold. When we got tired of walking, we watched businessmen walk past us. We became invisible. We got used to being invisible, we took advantage of being invisible, and then we got sick of being invisible. We appreciated the small things. Celebrations were often but short lived, like smiles. We befriended pigeons, squirrels, and other homeless people, the only things not scared of us. We experienced the homeless community. We made friends. We saw the city.

We scoured the trash. We searched for caring eyes, but instead found averted eyes. We went crazy. And we became sane. We found the meaning to life, the importance of friendship, the power of money, and the makeup of happiness. We transformed.

When we finished the challenge, we had the opportunity to hear the Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau. My uncle and two other wonderful speakers stood at the front of the room, taking turns sharing their stories to a room full of transfixed students. Hearing my uncle turn back the pages of his life, recounting his struggles and tragedies, my mind was reeling with empathy and understanding. I have lived my story for 21 years.

But for the past two days, I lived his.”