For many people in nations all over our world, homelessness is an ever present or looming issue. According to an article titled "The Geography of Homelessness" published on the website of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there were approximately 671,859 men, women and children living as homeless people in the United States in 2007. For my community service project and during my research I decided to put special emphasis on San Francisco and the Bay area since it is my home region, and also because it is the area that I know best in our country. Currently the Bay Area is home to many thousands of homeless men, women and children, with my home county of Contra Costa having the eleventh highest population of homeless people in the entire nation. Right now San Francisco is home to several thousand “hard core” homeless, men and women who live in between the streets and homeless shelters year round. The many tragic facets of their day to day lives are discussed in a series called "Shame of the City" by Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle. After reading the five installments of this series and digesting the information in each one I feel that I have gained much more perspective on the issue of homelessness and that I have a better understanding of how people feel about living without the security of a residence. Below is a photograph of the Silver family, a couple and their two children, who live out of their van in San Francisco. This family is an anomaly in that they are an entire family unit living together on the street. When thinking of the homeless I, like many others, think of lone men and women panhandling. It had barely occurred to me that there are in fact entire families who wake up on the street, send their kids to school, and live their lives as a unit just like mine, except that they are permanently without a roof over their heads.
I know that the problem of homelessness is a vast one, and that it is very important for residents of the bay area as a community to ensure that we are making progress towards alleviating the dire situations that many of our fellow citizens have become entangled in.
Sadly, many people in the community have very negative attitudes towards homeless people, often considering them to be lazy or shiftless, and saying things like “If they would just get a job..” not realizing that it is not always that simple. Disparaging remarks like these are quite often unfair because many of the men and women who are living on the streets are in their predicament because of problems with drug abuse or mental instability, two conditions which are very difficult to overcome without help. Many residents of San Francisco have come to view the homeless more or less as a plight on their city instead of as the desperate human beings that they are, which is truly tragic because without some perseverance and passion to help, the situation will never change.
Part II
Unfortunately it has been particularly difficult for a solution to this issue to be formulated in our area. The bay area (one of the areas in our nation with the most severe problems relating to homelessness) has not been particularly effective at obtaining and utilizing federal aid for the homeless because the government is wary of awarding cities funds if they do not have a solid plan to address their issue of homelessness. According to the following graphic, featured in a blog by Richard Shabazz on The Examiner.com, California is inadequately prepared to cope with their problems with homelessness, our state is in fact in the bottom third for preparedness, although we have one of the most insurmountable epidemics of homelessness.
In the fifth installment of the "Shame of the City" series, the author discussed the stunning fact that the city of San Francisco has as many as 5,000 "hard core" homeless men and women, and a population of about 800,000 overall, while New York (a city with a population of 8 million!) has a hardcore homeless population of less than 2,000. This disparity in the ratio between homeless population and overall population is due almost entirely to the fact that New York has been much more adept at utilizing government funding to remedy their situation with homelessness. The national government obviously does not want people to live on the streets, however since Regan was president and many men and women who were residing in mental institutions were in essence “turned loose” onto the streets, the problem of homelessness has become exponentially more grave. The local government in the Bay Area really needs to develop and solidify a competent plan for combating homelessness and present it to the federal government so that our region can receive the much needed federal funds to begin solving the crisis of homelessness in our area.
For my community service project, I donated two consecutive Saturday mornings and afternoons of my time to work at one of the Habitat for Humanity build sites in the bay area. The build site that I worked at on those two days was located on Edes Avenue in East Oakland. I was wary of venturing into East Oakland at first, being a sheltered suburban girl I had only driven through East Oakland on the way to the airport, and have been warned to be cautious on BART if I am passing through that area. Thankfully however, my opinions have been changed and I have realized that areas like East Oakland need to be improved, and that volunteers should not be wary of going to help. The families who live in East Oakland, just like in any intimidating area, should not be neglected or punished simply because of where they were forced to settle.
The organization Habitat for Humanity has developed a construction site on a lot near the train tracks, and they are in the process of building a lovely community with several really pretty, eco-friendly houses at the Edes Avenue site, and families without homes will be able to move into them. One of the pre-requisites for moving into one of the homes is that the family must work a minimum of 500 hours at the build site, which is really cool because then the families get to meet and interact with the volunteers working to build their future dream homes. In my opinion this program is really amazing because it basically provides families in difficult situations with the opportunity to work hard and earn themselves a beautiful, secure, new home.
Part III
For the issue of homelessness to be improved upon many things need to be set in motion. This is not really an issue which can ever be permanently resolved, but the governments in any area with a homeless population need to begin to take action. Plans to improve life for people currently living on the streets must be set in motion and local, as well as federal, governments must take responsibility and become culpable for the well being of the many human lives being affected negatively by the issue of homelessness. Also, individual citizens need to realize that we are a community. People need to understand that if someone is sleeping on a street corner, in the pouring rain, with nothing but a threadbare sleeping bad for warmth, they need help, regardless of whether they are lazy or industrious, or if they should be considered crazy or sane, they are a human being is suffering, and it is our responsibility as fellow human beings to do everything in our power to provide that man or woman with a brighter future. The citizens of the world must be shaken up and forced to recognize that their fellow human beings are suffering and that collectively it is in our power to change things.
After my experience at Habitat for Humanity, and after seeing the multitude of volunteers who had come out to donate their Saturdays, I am hopeful. I firmly believe that if enough people in a community have the desire to dramatically alter the circumstances of their neighbors for the better they will be able to. In my cumulative 15 hours of service I was able to paint wood that would soon enough be turned into somebody's home, and I was able to work together with the future occupants to erect the walls of a home. I have never been a very technical person, but at the Habitat for Humanity build site I felt like I was really making a difference.
I will definitely be returning soon to put in a few shifts at the Edes Avenue build site or any other build sites in our area. I have participated in several community service organizations, and Habitat for Humanity was one of the first during which I actually felt like I was trusted to contribute something valuable. At many organizations it seems to be more about marketing, or about simply putting in ones hours to complete their "civic duty". At Habitat for Humanity however, I felt like everything was different. Habitat for Humanity effectively creates a community of people who have the common goal of providing every family with the home that they deserve. I am so very glad that I had the opportunity to participate with this organization and that I had both opportunities to put in some time and labor at the build site. Hopefully many other people will realize how valuable it is to participate in an organization like Habitat for Humanity, and they too will be able to experience how awesome it is to work with your hands and actually see what you have created at the end of the day, and to know that your hard work will make a difference.
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