Based on the introduction from website of Project Homeless Connect “Project Homeless Connect is a one-day event that serves as a one-stop shop, connecting homeless individuals to needed services, including but not limited to: basic healthcare, legal services and Homeless Court, IDs, birth certificates, food-stamp benefits, and information about employment opportunities and shelter openings.” On the day of April 24th I spent a wonderful day with the homeless people. This year is the seventh Project Homeless Connect at University of Denver. I never pay attention to the homeless people nor talk to a homeless client so closely until I did face to face this time.
After checking in with the volunteers at the front desk, my friends and I got ready to serve the homeless people who had come to DU, and waited in a long line. Volunteers, who showed up at the University of Denver, they had different kinds of jobs in different positions, such as handing out brochures, helping volunteers to check in, handing out breads to clients, preparing food for both volunteers and clients, guiding to different areas, and so on. Most volunteers were current students from DU, and I met two old ladies who work in a small company in Denver. While waiting, I observed that nearly every homeless person was dressed decently, and they were polite to volunteers. The journalist from the FOX also came here to report and to interview staff. I could not identify they were homeless people if they were in the streets, since they acted politely and dressed nattily. After nearly 20 minutes’ wait, it was my turn to serve the client. In my first sight, this homeless person was pretty optimistic, and he walked with an old lady. This old lady smiled to me and shook hands with me politely. Later through the conversation, I knew that this old lady is this man’s mother, and they just saw the flyer of PHC7 the day before the project began. The client I served was a Hispanic American, born in Denver Colorado in 1977. Because of one officers’ mistake that he considered another volunteer who would serve that old lady as homeless people, the officers called another volunteer to serve. As a result, I with another volunteer served this man together.
At the beginning, we asked this man to fill some forms of PHC7. Based on the forms, I got to know that his name is Robert(his name has been changed for the personal privacy), and came here to get a Colorado ID, Colorado Indigent Care, apply jobs, get information about housing, and get a Social Security. There were lots of tables set in the lobby of Ritchie Center, and every table was occupied by clients and volunteers. There was one group of people sitting next to me. They talked a lot, and the volunteer asked the situation of the client’s past. On completing the forms, we firstly went to basket field to get the Colorado ID. Most services were offered in this basketball field, so large numbers of people gathered here. Actually, the longest queue was outside the temporary office of Colorado ID. Fortunately, we had two volunteers serving this client, so we made a decision that my partner stayed in the line and waited and I would lead Robert to solve other problems. This time I deeply realized the incredible power of team work.
Then Robert and I went to Social Security office which was just next to Colorado ID. Although there was also a line to wait, it was much shorter than that of Colorado ID. When we were waiting, I and Robert had a conversation. “Have you ever been to other states in the US?” I asked. He told me that he had been to California, Nevada, and Las Vegas for hunting jobs; however, he was rejected by every employer. I was really shocked and I asked him why he was rejected. The answer was very simple, “They didn’t tell me any reason.” The interviews happened not only outside of the building but also inside the building. Coincidentally, Robert told me that he knew the woman who was being interviewed. Then he told me that his wife and that woman used to hang out in the past, and that woman sold used cars with her husband. One day, they came to Robert’s house to borrow money without telling reason. Robert mentioned that he and his wife were poor and did not have enough money for themselves, so they denied lending money to the couple. Robert kept telling me that the couple called the police and told the police that Robert and his wife stole their car, which really surprised me. When I looked into his eyes, I was expected to see animosity from his eyes; conversely, his eyes were quite calm, no hates, and no angers. I thought the conversation was enough for a man, and felt sorry about that. He just replied, “Life is crazy.” Then he told me his impression of China from the news and TV, asked me the situation in China. In my view, Robert was really a brave man. I looked at that woman, and could not imagine she could do such a crazy thing. He also told me that he married for 8 years, and he and his wife went to many other cities to live a better life. Unfortunately, they could not get a better life. After returning to Denver from their last trip, both he and his wife decided to live with their own family, so they divorced. Yes, as he said life is crazy, you could not understand why some people’s fates are so miserable. Several minutes later, he began to talk to the workers in Social Security. We stayed for no more than 10 seconds, he was asked to show Colorado ID which was lost by him. Consequently, we had to go and get information about employment.
On arriving at the desks of employment, we were greeted by a smiling old lady. Robert was asked to fill a form about his job experience and background. I noticed that he had 3 jobs before, and every job was about hard labor. The most important thing is that he did not receive any education after he graduated from high school, which influenced his life directly I think. I realized one important issue, that is, education plays a very critical role for individuals as it influences one’s future, the economy consideration status, and society. Education level can affect one’s future. After meeting with Robert, it was my first time to understand the meaning of “a bird of passage”, through his eyes; I knew he would like to hard work to keep these once he owns. Robert defined his “American Dream” as a stable house, a stable job, and a stable life. The reason why he did not continue his further education was that he did not have enough money to find an affordable college nor had good grades in his high school. As a result, he had to start to hunt for a job immediately after he graduated from high school. As I narrated above, all his jobs he had worked for in the past are only hard labors. However, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, “the homeless population in America is only expanding, predicts 1.35 million U.S. children are without a home each day in the United States.” (Kacey, 2007, How to help the homeless) which means there will be a lot of poor educated groups of people in our society. First, they are not able to work for high level diploma job. Second, they only qualify to work for hard labors, once the company begins to lay off employees; these people are the first groups to cut off. As Ehrenreich (2001) describes the situation of the poor working class citizens in United States, these people are the hardest workers and the easiest to lose their jobs. Consequently, one who is not well educated would be the most likely to have a period of hardship.
After Robert completed the form, the officer saved his information and told him that he could learn how to write a resume for employment and how to use computer software in the next zone. When I asked him if he would go there to learn these staff, he shook his head without thinking. This action made me know the reason why he was lack of education.
Then I led him to get the health insurance. It was not a long queue, but it moved slowly. While waiting, he told me that his mum signed his name for hair cut. He smiled, “I will take a photo for my ID. I already have a black eye, and I don’t want other people have bad impression on me, so I’ll cut my hair to look better.” I just guessed his black eye was caused because of being beat by somebody else, but he always kept smiling and saying thank you to me. I really could not see any self-abasement from him, and strongly felt the dignity from him.
As my partner was still in the line and far away from the office of Colorado ID, I led Robert to ask for the housing back to the lobby of Ritchie Center. This time I followed him, and he just browsed those desks and did not say anything. Later he told me that he knew those shelters and negative aspects of those houses. Since we were all starving and there were few people having lunch, we had lunch together. During the lunch time, he told me that he and his mum lived in his friend’s home, and he really desired a job to have incomes. Every time, Robert and his mum met, I could see the love from their eyes. His mum took away some socks for him, and he brought ice water for his mum. Additionally, he said that he knew some people today, and most of them did not receive much education like him. Even though they look politely and kind, in fact, they did bad things before. I did not ask him about the bad things for details, but I could guess what they were. After finishing our lunch, we came back to the basketball field to find my partner. As they had Robert’s record in the computer system, it did not last long to get a new ID card. A society’s stable can affect people’s normal lives in this society or community. For common citizens, they would like to stay away from a bad society, such as high rates of crimes, bad traffic zones, and town centre downtown areas. Also no one would be happy to see their kids grow up with drug addicts, drug dealers, bad neighbors or homeless. They prefer to live in a society such as, good school zones, low rates of crimes, and nice-view suburbs. This is just common views for majority of citizens in our society. At this point, parents and children are not happy to see the homeless around their houses. As one of the scholar argues “blame the victim” for their unfortunates and offer the “false generosity of paternalism” (Lozano, 1997, P. 7) through acts of kindness that do little to raise individuals out of poverty and despair. They described themselves as “victims who have few rights or privileges and who are often perceived as lazy, violent, or addicted and as having a greater desire to remain on the streets than to escape homeless.” (Lozano, 1997, P. 7) In the real world, we always tell our friends to leave the homeless people alone, and not even look at them more when we meet homeless people in the streets, and this is a very common phenomenon in our society. It’s not what we misunderstand about the homelessness or homeless people, it is just something deeply in our minds and this kind of impression will not easily change for a long period. Accordingly, the homeless people experienced “the lack of respect for their human dignity, apathy, indifference, callousness, service-connected labeling, degrading comments, and put downs.” (Lozano, 1997, P.7)
When we finished visiting every area Robert wanted, we three had to say goodbye to each other. Robert kept saying thank you to me and my partner. His mum was still waiting for him. Finally, my partner thanked me for leading Robert for a long time. I had to say it was a really great team work. On the way back to my dorm, I kept thinking about the reason why those people become homeless. America has the largest and best economy in the world, “the United States of America is such a powerful country that an outsider could never fathom seeing a homeless person in the country that is supposed to fulfill dreams.” (Kacey, 2007, How to help the homeless) all the hard workers lead to success of economy growth of United States. I never realize the country of United States is facing a serious homeless problem until I come to this country. The statistics provided by Bureau of Labors, “the unemployment rate is 8.5% in March, 2009.” (U.S. Department of Labor, Apr. 2009, Issues in labor statistics) shows that we could not ignore this issue. What we can tell from this statics is, many people are laid off, and this covers white collars and blue collars, and most of them are blue collars. Most of blue collars are not well educated, and it is because of economy crisis. Many people who had been fired or laid off just because of the economy crisis since the last year. Un-educated or low-educated people are the first group to be laid off or fired. For these who have been laid off or fired, if they cannot find another job shortly, they may start to taste another living style. This could be one of the top reasons for new homeless people this year.
Overall, I had a very exciting day to work with a homeless person, it is my first time to talk to a homeless person so closely, and I cannot forget this day for ever. There is no denying that education is an important element for the society and individuals. Firstly, we ought to try our best to complete our college academy. Secondly, we need to work hard and if we could get a further education then just go for it. It is easy to say that “life is in our hands” but it is hard to know and command our destiny.
References
Lozano, S. (1997). Homeless veterans: Perspectives on social services use. Social Work, Vol. 42, Issue 1. Retrieved 05/01/2009 from database.
Kacey, A. (2007). How to help the homeless. Associated Continent.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/153457/how_to_help_the_homeless.html
U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Bureau of labor statistics. Issues in labor statistics.
April, 2009. http://www.dol.gov/
The Seventh Project Homeless Connect. PHC Denver http://www.du.edu/homelessness/about/index.html
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