How many times have you walked down the streets of New York City and stumbled upon an old man bundled up in a doorway, begging for money? And how many times have you thought, “Why is he begging for food when he can just go to a shelter and get some?” This is the train of thought many of us encounter in the face of homelessness. If we do not want to give money, we often justify our heard-heartedness by criticizing the beggar, thinking, “Why can’t he get a job?” But is this not the same question the silk-stockinged CEOs and loaded politicians are asking Occupy Wall Street protestors? At the Defending The American Dream Summit earlier this month, Rudy Giuliani mocked protesters, heatedly arguing, “How about you occupy a job.” Well, Occupy Wall Street hasn’t made waves around the world because a bunch of “hippies” are too lazy to get a job. And homeless people on the street are not just “too lazy” to pick themselves up and get governmental aid, like many of us think. It is time to shed our preconceptions and face the truth.
Listen to a homeless person speak firsthand and it will forever change your perception. At the Homelessness in Focus meeting this past Wednesday, I walked into the Patio Room, sat down in a blue plastic chair, and listened to two intelligent, articulate elderly women tell their stories. One was an inner-city schoolteacher, the other a government employee. Both are homeless. Each explained how she became lost in the heaps of bills that kept piling up. Their salaries simply could not lift them out of their debt, and so they were forced to enter the shelter system.
When the poverty line was first created in the 1960s, the most expensive thing was food; 1/3 of Americans’ incomes were spent on it. These days, food is only 1/8 of our budgets. The item that takes the biggest bite out of paychecks is rent, with New Yorkers spending close to 50% of their incomes on it. In New York City, the average fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in 2006 was $1,133. (Source: US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development). These astronomical rates force people out of their homes each month and into the corrupt shelter system, which is harder to get out of than in. The two women explained in depth the dishonest, almost criminal methods that the shelter owners use to keep individuals in the shelters for profit. Until 12 years ago, homeless people did not have a voice to shake politicians and make taxpayers aware of the injustice they face.
Picture the Homeless was organized in 1999 under the principle that, “in order to end homelessness, people who are homeless must become an organized, effective voice for systemic change.” Like protestors of Occupy Wall Street have realized, change can only be brought about once its demonstrators are educated in their cause and are organized. Both movements strongly emphasize knowing one’s rights. And both are fighting to end the deception and fraud that the 1% is using against Americans.
New York City’s history of gentrification has been spurred by the presence of artists in the City’s neighborhoods. Artists are attracted to areas that provide low‐rent housing primarily, and loft/warehouse space or proximity to developed areas, secondly. Once artists dominate a particular neighborhood, the area becomes known as a bohemian center, attracting aspiring artists and semi-professionals, driving the rent up. Soon, the neighborhood’s original residents become too poor to afford the skyrocketing rent, driving them out of their homes. If these artists cannot find new places to live, their art will not live either.
sources used:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/rudy-giuliani-occupy-wall-street-sean-hannity_n_1102099.html
http://takethesquare.net/2011/09/20/wall-street-occupation-makes-waves-around-the-world/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112641330
http://www.picturethehomeless.org/
http://www.artwrit.com/article/blame-the-bohemians-the-gentrification-of-bushwick-brooklyn/
I find this post both relevant and interesting. Relevant because homelessness will be one of the issues that I will have to take into consideration when I start my career in community development and interesting because it changed my views about homelessness and shelters. It opened my eyes to the corruption found in shelters that I had no previous knowledge of. I also had some unsympathetic opinions about homeless people and always questioned why they couldn’t just get a job or do something to help themselves. But, when i started applying for jobs last year and couldn’t find one, i realized that it’s easier said than done in this economy. After reading your post I learned about the circumstances that force people into shelter systems and how corrupt the systems actually are. It is really fortunate that Picture the Homeless was organized and that the people were given a voice. Everyone deserves to have their voice heard.
It is very interesting how the arts are the first thing targeted for cutting when trying to balance the education budget, and the artists are the first ones to gentrify neighborhoods and improve real estate values. If we don’t continue to educate the next generation of artists, who will be available to gentrify the depressed neighborhoods in 20 years? (Tongue firmly in cheek.).