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Posts Tagged ‘destitution’

Jobs for the Homeless

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2016| 4 Comments »

After Albuquerque’s harsh approach to homelessness resulted in the death of a schizophrenic man in 2015, the city has done a 360.

NY Times reporter Fernanda Santos describes the current approach to homelessness: “Will Cole steered an old Dodge van along a highway access road one recent Tuesday, searching for panhandlers willing to work. … By the third stop, [nine] men and one woman had hopped inside.

“They were homeless. But suddenly, as part of a novel attempt to deal with rising poverty and destitution here, they were city workers for the day.

“Donning gloves and fluorescent vests, they raked a piece of messy ground by some railroad tracks on the edge of downtown … The toil paid off decently: $9 an hour and a lunch of sandwiches, chips and granola bars, enjoyed in a park. For the city, it represented a policy shift toward compassion and utility.

“ ‘It’s about the dignity of work, which is kind of a hard thing to put a metric on, or a matrix,’ Mayor Richard J. Berry said. ‘If we can get your confidence up a little, get a few dollars in your pocket, get you stabilized to the point where you want to reach out for services, whether the mental health services or substance abuse services — that’s the upward spiral that I’m looking for.’ …

“To collect their pay, they must work hard and work an entire shift, from start to finish — five to six hours, on average. They are paid in cash at the hospitality center’s employment office, two blocks from the shelter that feeds 400 people on a given day.

“The sole woman among the day laborers that recent Tuesday was Ramona Beletso, a Navajo Indian in her 40s who had twice fled abuse and destitution on the reservation. …

“ ‘I don’t even know how I ended up homeless,’ said Ms. Beletso, her eyes cast toward a pair of striped pink socks nearby, abandoned in a drying pool of mud. ‘Work helps me forget.’ …

“The mayor said he got the idea for the program from a panhandler he spotted on his way to work, holding a sign that read, ‘Want a job. Anything helps.’ It dawned on him that ‘the indignity of having to beg for money cuts through the soul.’ “

I saw almost the same sign in Providence last week. I usually duck my head and hurry on, embarrassed and not knowing what is right, but the young man who wanted work was so pleasant, perhaps I can think of a place he could ask about a job.

More on Albuquerque at the NY Times, here.

11/23/16 Update: Yesterday I saw the concept being applied by Amos House in Providence. The city has also said it intends to try it.

Photo: Mark Holm for The New York Times  
Panhandlers dug up weeds along a side street in Albuquerque as part of a work program in the city.

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Fed-Up Photographers Fight Poverty

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2011| 2 Comments »

Years ago, when we were living near Rochester, New York, it was pointed out to me that poverty in rural areas was often worse than in cities because people were more isolated and there were fewer services. That winter I contacted an outreach coordinator who had put out a call for warm clothing. I offered to drop off some clothes we no longer needed.

The coordinator, an African American, believed deeply that dropping off clothes was not the same as understanding what the need was. She herself had grown up in a family of migrant farm workers and was acquainted with grief. When she was small, I later learned, her family had even been assigned to a chicken coop for their housing.

The coordinator knew a family who needed my clothes, and she thought I should go with her to make the delivery. Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed.

I will never forget the wary, beaten-down look in the eyes of a young woman living with family members in a tumble-down old house. After handing over the donation, the coordinator and I hung around for a brief, awkward chat. I could see that my contribution could not scratch the surface of the family’s need and was mostly for my conscience (which is not a reason to give up on donations, of course).

The main thing that has changed in the America in 30-plus years is that greater percentages of Americans are poor.

That is why some photojournalists, outraged at the lack of serious coverage in the mainstream media and recognizing that a picture is worth a thousand words, have founded an organization to fight poverty called American Poverty. See their recent photos here.

Perhaps you know the work of Walker Evans and James Agee in the Great Depression. The photographers’ new antipoverty site may, like Walker and Agee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” provoke the question, “Is this America?”

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