Street people offer essential perspective
Creative solutions from those who know
By: Cathy Holt
The names of the interviewed individuals have been changed out of respect for their requests for anonymity.
John, who appears to be in his forties, is not new to the streets but is new to being homeless. John walks slowly, has a slight limp, and struggles to step onto the curb that he uses for requesting donations. Several years ago, he was in a serious car accident while hitchhiking across Alaska. A drunk driver hit the car he was riding in, killing the driver of the car John was in and severely injuring John. He now has severe back pain, no health insurance, and no money.
“I was an artist,” John says, “but I have no money now to buy my supplies, much less pay rent for a place to live and do my work.”
“I am tired and hungry,” replies Barbara, a woman in her sixties, when I ask her how she was. Speaking in a loud voice that seemed to deny her expressed fears of living on the street, she shared that she has been homeless for the past month. Her body struggled with physical effort, and her hands trembled a bit as she used them with her speech.
“I stayed at one of the shelters but it was very scary,” Barbara says. Her housing vouchers were withheld this summer because of government budgets, and this resulted in her having to leave her apartment four weeks ago.
“I stayed one night [in the shelter] and never went back. Because I was afraid to be alone, I tried to live in a tent camp with other homeless people but this was worse than the shelters.”
Before this summer, Barbara was able to meet her basic needs, but when her housing support was lost she was overwhelmed by the cost of living. “When my husband died three years ago, I lost everything,” Barbara says. She explained that she suffers from short-term memory loss from unknown reasons and can’t work because of the problem. “My husband earned a small wage as a self-employed carpenter/plumber and we had no health insurance. All of our money went toward his medical care and daily needs. When he died, I had a lot of debt, no savings, and no skills.”
The Barbara’s of our community are not comfortable with poverty. They have tried to live conservatively while sharing their goals and dreams with a partner, but a long list of unexpected circumstances have forced them to become closely acquainted with poverty. Limited income, veteran post traumatic stress disorder and/or war injuries, lack of health insurance, the death of a primary bread winner, lack of family support, excessive debt, and disabilities can swallow up whatever livelihood an individual may have. For many of us, like Barbara, homelessness is one event away: It simply takes the right chain of events to occur and any one of us can find ourselves living a life of poverty and even homelessness.
John, like Barbara, finds fear waiting for him in the streets. “I don’t stay in the shelters anymore,” John says, “because of all the drinkers and druggers who sleep there.” He explained that the shelters and tent cities are all places where addicts and criminals live, and he feels he is better off on his own.
“There are a lot of artists who are so poor that they can’t pay rent or make and sell their work,” says John. “Sadly, a lot of them use [drugs],” he adds.
Poverty is a circumstance that John has been able to manage. Materialistic wealth is not a driving force in his life, and he felt that as long as he was creating his art, feeling free, and enjoying life within his own value system, he could be happy. However, with one single event, John’s lifestyle was taken from him, and his social status shifted from poor to homeless.
Barbara and John are representative of many of the homeless in our city. Poverty is not going away. Alaska has a poverty rate of 9.3%, with Anchorage toting 7.7%, according to the Economic Research Service for 2002. This equates to approximately 60,000 individuals living in poverty in Alaska alone. One in four American workers earn $8.70 or less per hour, which places them below the poverty level, and 25% of available jobs in the work force will not support a family of four above poverty level. Many families living in poverty have at least one wage earner with at least a four-year college degree.
The stress from even modest levels of poverty is enough to prevent people from realizing their goals and talents, the very things that the larger system needs if it is to sustain the individual contributors. Life truly is reliant on other life for survival. When support is strong life can flourish; when support fails, life will weaken and potentially become extinguished.
It is our responsibility to be supportive of our family members, our friends, and our community members. It is their responsibility to do the same for us. This connectedness is what enriches the soil from which we grow. Without it, none of us will reach our greatest potential.
John’s own dream of helping others realize their goals involves a shelter for recovering addicts who are also artists.
“A shelter/rehab house for recovering and homeless artists would allow people to make their work and sell it while living in a safe place,” John suggests. “One catch should be in place--no drinking or drugging, or you’re out.” John is currently looking for a way to make money to support himself and to open such a place.
In the meantime, each of us can immediately do something to alleviate the stress experienced by someone in poverty so that they may in turn address their financial crisis with increased strength and dignity. Say hello and make eye contact with those asking for donations. Even if you don’t give a donation, give them respect by acknowledging their presence. Compliment workers when you receive their services. Overlook some of their “bad attitude” by remembering they may very well be working two, maybe even three jobs to support a family they rarely see. Put your trash away after eating at fast food restaurants, pump your own gas, open the door for others.
It’s time to stop waiting for political salvation to occur regarding poverty and its social consequence. There are so many things we can do on a human to human level, for each other, for our community, right now. Consider this a challenge to start giving to others who are at this time less fortunate then you--ometimes from your wallet, always from your heart.