Homeless Potential: Introduction

I currently attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where I was also born and raised. I have lived in other cities, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, for short periods of time but none of them compare to my hometown, which I have grown to know and love. Where else can you experience the social life of a big city, without the hustle and bustle or corporate feeling, combined with the tranquility of nature paths, lakes and wildlife? Nothing beats the Memorial Union during the summer, where you can go sailing, sit by the pier or relax and enjoy a local Wisconsin brew on the infamous Union chairs. Of course, you have to take the good with the bad if you live in Madison. The state of Wisconsin, including Madison, experiences some of the coldest winters in the United States, with temperatures ranging from an average low of nine degrees Fahrenheit to record a low of 37 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.^[1] It can get pretty rough as a student having to walk twenty minutes to class every day and sleeping with no central heat in my house. But, this is what I like to call “privileged problems.” After all, over 3,500 individuals experience homelessness each year.^[2] In itself, homelessness is a very unsustainable problem, and when you factor in the frigid Wisconsin winter, it can be deadly. In 2008, over 94 percent of individuals in Madison’s homeless community (95 percent of them being in homeless families) were turned away from shelters due to the lack of space, forcing the majority of homeless individuals into survival of the fittest.^[2]

There are many reasons why individuals are forced into homelessness. Poverty plays a major role, with over 18 percent people in the Madison community are considered to be living in poverty.^[2] The other two main reasons for living homeless is violence or the threat of violence (36 percent of families in Madison) and mental health (49 percent of homeless single women in Madison).^[2] There are many other reasons why individuals and families are forced into homelessness, including illness, physical disability, divorce and many other unique life situations. However, for whatever reason, there is a public perception of homeless individuals as “lazy” and uninterested in permanent work.^[3] Many people want to make assumptions about homelessness, but don’t have the proper information. That is where I come in.

My goal is to start a local movement to change the stereotypes of homelessness, at least in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. I want the local public to be informed about homelessness and ultimately take it a step further and provide them with a framework for how to help. Too many times we are given facts and made aware of situations without a call-to-action or practical way to implement change. I knew I would not be able to accomplish all of this on my own, so I began networking.

The first person I talked to was Maurice Gattis, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work. I chose to talk to Maurice because he offered a unique perspective of homelessness. Although he had little experience with the issue of homelessness in Madison, he did extensive research in Toronto, Canada on GLBT homeless populations. His primary work focused on the role of contextual factors (i.e. family, peers, school, stigma and discrimination) on negative psychosocial outcomes (i.e. mental health, substance use, sexual risk taking).^[4] Maurice has played a prominent role in helping me break the stereotypes of the local homeless community. We talked in great length about general assumptions that people have of homeless individuals. For instance, many people are hesitant to give money to a homeless person, because they are afraid the homeless person will go spend it on alcohol or drugs. There are two problems with this train of thought. First, roughly 35 percent of Madison’s homeless population has reported having alcohol and drug abuse issues². While that number is definitely notable, it is certainly not the majority. Second, many of the people who are in the most need of money are on the move or away from the public eye. Homelessness is often an invisible problem. Maurice admitted it is an individual choice to give money to someone on the streets. However, if you choose not to give because you feel they deserve the position they are in, then maybe you are giving to the wrong person. After all, a 2007 survey of New Yorkers found 67 percent of respondents said most homeless people were without shelter because of “circumstances beyond their control.”^[6] It becomes a matter of figuring out who to give to, rather than if you should give at all.

While Maurice provided me with a substantial amount of information and dialogue for my project, I knew that I would have to continue networking in order to connect with the local homeless community. Though Maurice didn’t have much experience with the local community, he knew people who did. Before I left his office, where we were wrapping up nearly a hour long conversation, he set up a time and place for me to meet his friend Donna Asif, who would turn out to be the catalyst for my entire project.

Before I met with Donna, I performed a Google search to find out a little bit about her and see what she looked like. After all, I was supposed to meet with her in person at a crowded place, the Memorial Union. An article titled “My Hero: Donna Asif” appeared at the top of the search. Donna, 65, was described as a “tireless advocate for the homeless in Madison.”^[5] I didn’t need to read any further to realize Donna was just the person I was looking for.

As it turns out, Donna runs a one-person non-profit group called Madison Homelessness Initiative, which is focused on helping one individual at a time fulfill anything and everything they need. Donna is currently focusing her time and energy on two specific programs that she started: Project Bubbles and Shower Power. The former was created to allow homeless individuals to wash their dirty clothes at a local laundry mat and the latter program, which I am currently volunteering my time, allows homeless individuals to sign up ahead of time and bathe themselves in a private shower stall in the basement of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Madison. Volunteering my time at this program gave me experience socializing with the homeless individuals, which was crucial for me to truly understand the dire situations many of these people were in.

The volunteering and interaction was definitely a worthwhile experience, but I learned a valuable lesson along the way that made me realize where my true strengths would be most effectively utilized. During a meeting with Donna, I told her how I enjoyed helping hands-on with the homeless individuals in need and wanted to continue to get to know them on a human level. I explained that I could sense the urgency of some of these people to get off the streets. However, I admitted to her that I was growing uncomfortable of the harsh reality of their situations. Although providing showers for the homeless was fulfilling, proceeding to just say “good-bye” when they were done, knowing that they had nowhere to go, was extremely frustrating. The last straw came when I met a man who lost his job, was evicted from his apartment and had his girlfriend move to another state, taking their kids with her. He said all he wanted to do was see his kids and was just like me or anyone else, but just got handed bad breaks. Right after he spoke that sentence, I had an epiphany. For the first time in my brief experience with homeless individuals, I realized the true potential each and every one of these people possessed. When I told Donna of my “ah-ha” moment, it sparked an idea in her head for what would end up being my project.

Donna informed me of an event that is held every year on December 21 on the Capital Square to honor those whose lives are lost due to homelessness (The mortality rate among homeless populations is nearly four times that of the general population).^[10] She suggested that her and I put together an awareness campaign for the event. Our goal for the campaign is to first and foremost remember and honor those whose lives were lost due to homelessness. We want to inform the local public on the conditions that homeless people have to live through during the harsh Madison winter months. Ultimately, we aim to change the public perception and dehumanization of homeless people, which is widely perpetuated by a negative portrayal in the media. The image of the campaign is centered around the idea of “homeless potential,” which represents the potential positive impact that homeless individuals could have on society if given the opportunity.

Homeless Persons' Memorial Day Poster

To implement our plan, we will first start by informing the local public about the homeless memorial day by creating multiple outdoor advertisements, such as posters and signs. Along these traditional methods, we will honor the deceased homeless individuals by posting memorials (bouquet of flowers, engraved stones, signs, etc.) on benches, sidewalk areas and other places where the homeless are forced to sleep. The memorials will tell a story about the individuals and provide a link to our social media sites (Twitter and Facebook). To add onto our social media, we will post short stories about a few homeless individuals, some being those who lost their lives, those who transformed their lives in a positive way and those who still need help. Interviews will be conducted by Ben Shapiro, the editor-in-chief of Street Pulse, a newspaper centered on the issue of homelessness in Madison, and myself using a video recorder. We will upload the videos to YouTube and link to our Facebook and Twitter, giving each homeless individual a voice to be heard. We decided to have each individual tell their story through video instead of written form in order to capture the raw emotion straight from the source. We did this because we feel that often times stories told in written form can be misinterpreted by the journalist. Though not all of the stories will be the same, they will all display the potential that each individual possesses to contribute to society in a positive manner.

We could stop there, so we didn’t just want to promote awareness of the issue. Many people are aware that homelessness exists. However, few people look at homeless individuals with the type of potential that we hope to show them. That is the type of “awareness” that we feel like we will accomplish. But is that enough? Sure, people will be aware of the issue, the facts and even have more apathy and compassion for the lives of homeless people, but will that promote change? A Penn State study in 2004 concluded that “familiarity breeds sympathy” and greater support for addressing the problem.^[7] The crucial piece that is missing is the call-to-action that takes this project one step further and actually gives people a practical way to address the problem.

Coming up with the call-to-action was by far the hardest element of my project. Asking for volunteers and donations are always crucial for implementing change in any given situation, but it seems as though potential donors/volunteers have become numb to the overload of non-profits. Many people, sadly including myself, often disregard most of the e-mails/newsletters asking for donations, because there seems to be no connection to the issue. Speaking for myself, I feel disconnected from the situation when the only way I can help is by giving money. I am often left wondering where exactly my money is going and what it is being used for. And while I am a huge fan of volunteering my time at non-profit organizations, I feel uncomfortable with the superiority complex and assembly line-feeling that I get when doing so. I am not trying to suggest that any of these ways of helping are bad by any means, but I think there are more creative and sustainable ways to implement change in our society and even more specifically, homelessness. That is why we decided to focus on social media to drive our campaign and ultimately call for action.

With a down economy in the United States and a more spread out donor pool, non-profit organizations have turned to new ways, including social media, to promote awareness and connect with donors/volunteers. Social media has been proven to be effective in providing two-way dialogue between an organization and it’s followers.^[8] This is exactly what we would like to create with the “homeless potential” campaign: a forum for our organization and followers to connect and work together to help the local homeless individuals. Our hope is that we could possibly expand our two-way dialogue to a three-way communication, adding the homeless individuals to the mix. This would allow our followers to form a discussion directly with the people they are helping. To form a more personal connection with between a follower and a homeless individual, we would like to provide each follower with the individual’s story (aforementioned video interviews). Our followers would then serve as a sponsor for a homeless person. From that point we would figure out what that individual’s greatest need is, whether that be money, shelter, food, etc. This personal connection, that is so desperately missing when someone just simply donates, will help build a powerful network and long-term relationships, which is essential for sustainable change.

Change is a large-scale impact, but it starts with an individual. If one follower helps one homeless person, that generosity will likely be reciprocated by the homeless person. There is a theory for this, called “paying-it-forward.” In fact, the emotion of gratitude has been shown in scientific studies to increase not only the likelihood that an individual will repay a benefactor but also the likelihood that the recipient will assist an unrelated third party in the future, or “pay-it-forward.” ^[9]

Pay-It-Forward Theory Diagram

People often shy away from giving, because they question how much one person can do to help. However, with the combination of social media and “paying-it-forward,” the power of individual impact is exponential. For it to work, each individual has to matter. That is the beauty of it all. Those individuals can come from the most unlikely of sources, including the homeless people themselves. Once a follower changes the life of a homeless person, that homeless person now has an opportunity to “pay-it-forward.” That is “homeless potential” at its core.

References

1.       ^ “Monthly Averages for Madison, WI – Temperature and Precipitation”. The Weather Channel. http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/MSN:9.

2.       http://www.porchlightinc.org/documents/homeless_summary_memo_2008.pdf

3.       Kusmer, K. L. (2002). Down and out, on the road: The homeless in American history. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

4.       http://socwork.wisc.edu/maurice-gattis

5.       http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=31865

6.       Public Agenda: “Compassion, Concern and Conflicted Feelings: New Yorkers on Homelessness and Housing”, 2007.

7.       American Sociological Association: “Exposure to the Homeless Increases Sympathetic Public Attitudes”, press release, 22 March 2004.

8.      http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=joursp

9.      http://www.springerlink.com/content/e832531vh3788l5t/fulltext.pdf

10.   Concurrent Resolution in the Senate of the United States. H. Con. Reslorraine C. Miller. 3 December 2010.