My Eyes Feel They Need to Cry: Stories from the Formerly Homeless

Chapter One. A Canvas of Homelessness

1 chapter one A Canvas of Homelessness Asidefromextremepovertyandtheabsenceofstablehousing,thereisnosingle characteristicthatallhomelesspeopleshare.Someareoldmen,someareyoung women, some, indeed, are infants and children. . . . Amidst the obvious heterogeneity of the homeless, however, three salient andwidespreadconditionsdostandout:first,theextremelevelofpovertycharacteristicofthegroup ;second,thehighlevelsofdisabilitiesofallsorts;andthird, the excessive degree of social isolation common to most, if not all. —James D. Wright, AddressUnknown:TheHomelessinAmerica WHO ARE THE HOMELESS? Homelessness does not discriminate against color, race, size, class, ethnicity, sex, religion, or political affiliation. It affects the young and old—children, parents, and grandparents.Homelesspeopleliveallovertheworld—inrural,urban,andsuburban areas, in both heavily populated and isolated areas. As economic resources diminish, the number of homeless people continues to rise. One third of the homeless in the UnitedStatesareveterans.Typicallyandstereotypically,ahomelesspersonissomeone at risk who grew up in poverty or homelessness with an unsupportive family, with few or no educational or financial opportunities or resources. Some have repeatedly Chapter O ne 2 experiencedearlychildhood,adolescent,andadulttrauma;physical,emotional,and/ or psychological abuse; and domestic violence. They may be mentally ill and/or addicted to alcohol and/or other drugs, and may have served time in juvenile detention homes,jail,orprison.Theyhavelittleornoaccesstomedical,dental,ormentalhealth services. While I worked with other mentors and mentees and now reflect on the issues of poverty and homelessness, recurrent questions revolve in my mind. Why does an individualbecomehomeless?InMichigan?theUnitedStates?andallovertheworld? Why does a safety net not exist to protect individuals, families, and society? While similarthemesmayripplethroughthesepeople’snarratives,theyeachhavetheirown individual story—like theme and variations in a musical symphony. In Address Unknown: The Homeless in America, James D. Wright said, “In painting the picture of homelessness in America today, poverty, inadequate housing, personal disabilities and the like are the pigments, but the destruction of social networks is the brush” (Wright 1989, 90). Sociologist Peter H. Rossi talks about how easy it is to cross the line between “those with homes and the literally homeless.” He writes, Alifeofextremepovertyisoneofextremevulnerability.FormostAmericansitis easytorollwithallbutthemajorpuncheslifecangive;mostofuscanabsorbthe shocks of illness and unemployment up to a point. A few months of unemploymentoraweekinthehospitalareserious ,butmostpeoplehaveenoughfinancial andpsychologicalreservestosurviveeitherwithoutbecomingdestituteordeeply depressed.Amongtheextremelypoor,however,themanyuntowardeventsthat the rest of us absorb can be major shocks catapulting them across the blurred line between having a home and being homeless. For the extremely poor, with no reserves of savings, no safety net of entitlements, and no credit cards, losing a few days’ wages or catching a severe cold can mean losing a job, going without adequate food, or getting evicted. Events of this sort can trigger an episode of homelessness. Being homeless is a considerable notch below having a home although being extremely poor. And getting back among the domiciled population is not easy for someone with essentially zero resources. (Rossi 1989, 9) Thecanvasofhomelessnesshasmanydifferentimagesandismultidimensional. Toni Townshend and Allyson Bolt, both mentors for this project, talked about three different kinds of homelessness. Most homeless people have grown up in troubled or broken homes with a single parent who was unmarried, divorced, or widowed. They are the generationally homeless. Sometimes grandparents, aunts, or adoptive or foster A Canvas of Homelessness 3 parents raised them. Some lack emotional and physical nurturing and appear to have few inner psychological resources and tools to fend for themselves. Sometimes, realizing it is unsafe—emotionally or physically—to live with family members,theyleavehome,dropoutofhighschool,andtrytogetajob.However,since most have no job skills or jobs, they cannot pay rent for housing. Often they then find illegal jobs. Usually, they suffer from more than one profound difficult or traumatic event in their lives—often repeated traumas in themes and variations. According to sociologist Christopher Jencks, even when we want to help our mentally ill relatives, somehow, sadly, they do not always let us. The mentally ill are most likely to be on the streets. But that does not mean their relatives are more selfish than earlier generations of relatives were. The mentallyilloftenrefusetolivewithrelatives.Eventhosewhosaytheyarewilling to do so are often unwilling or unable to behave in ways that would allow their hosts to live anything remotely like a normal life. That was also the case in the nineteenth century, which was one reason legislation created mental hospitals. (Jencks 1995, 79–80) Theyconstantlymovefromonesituationtoanotherwithoutstabilityorthepossibility ofreturningtoahomeorenvironmentthattheycancalltheirownonashort-orlongterm basis. They ultimately land on the streets, live in shelters, motels, or Volunteers of America (VOA) facilities. Inthelate1970s,anincreasingnumberofpeoplesleptinpublicplaces,wandered the streets with their personal items in shopping carts, searched for food in garbage bins, and begged for money. This trend continued in the ensuing decades. “It is a combination of personal vulnerability...