Things you learn when you talk to people

  We've all seen tents pitched on sidewalks and people sleeping in doorways wrapped in blankets. People with nowhere else to go. The ones who aren't on the bottom rung of the ladder; they can't even reach that.

One bad month, and you could be joining them, unless you have enough money set aside to cover six month's worth of expenses. A sudden illness or injury leading to a huge medical bill, your car breaking down and costing you half your monthly income, a divorce or death of a spouse, and it would be you in that tent.

There are a lot of preconcieved notions about homeless people, mostly because nobody is talking to, and most importantly, listening to them. I want to challenge those notions by sharing what I have learned through my own informal interviews with other unhoused individuals.

First of all, everyone assumes that,  because so many homeless people are on drugs, that they are homeless because of the drugs. However, out of all 130 of those I spoke with, not a single one became homeless because of drugs. Not one. Most of them didn't even start doing drugs until they lost their homes. Only about half of them were doing drugs at the time of the interview. I've written before about why it is comforting to those who are housed to believe that drugs lead to homelessness. It makes them feel safe and secure in the knowledge that they won't ever wind up homeless as long as they don't do drugs. But this just isn't the case.

Some people have suggested that the homeless "get a job." For one thing, 40% to 60% of homeless people already have jobs. They just don't make enough to afford both rent and food. Here in Portland, a studio apartment costs over $1100, which a person only making the local minimum wage ($15 per hour) could never afford. Some argue that those making minimum wage should "get a better job" as if they were lying around in the street. Some people don't have the education -and can't afford the education- to get a high-paying job. Another barrier to employment is the lack of a phone, an address, and a photo ID. One of my friends is trying to get a copy of his birth certificate, but the state of Colorado charges money for one, making that out of reach. 

Another thing I have learned by living in a shelter is that homeless people have next to nothing, but they will share it with you. I have seen one man hand over his coat to another man because he was only wearing a t-shirt in February. I have been given all kinds of things. Multiple unsheltered people have shared their pot with me. When dinner is served here at the shelter, some of us -including me- take their plate outside and split it with somebody who has no food. Those of us who are living in extreme poverty are the most generous people alive. 

There are certain things that are taken for granted by those with homes. Garbage cans, running water, a place to plug in your phone. Food whenever you want it. The homeless have none of these. They try to gather up their trash and at least put it in a bag, but they have nowhere to throw away the bag. They use their limited food stamp money to buy bottled water. They use portable chargers if they know somebody who can charge them. It might surprise you to learn that only about 15% of homeless people are on food stamps, so food banks, which provide items that need to be cooked, and whatever they get for handouts are their only source of food.

On the topic of handouts, panhandling is not exactly lucrative. You can make about $25 per day here in Portland. That's not much. It has to cover food, probably cigarettes, and whatever other needs they have every day. Some of them have pets with them, mostly dogs, that serve as protection as well as companionship, and they need to be fed, too. Collecting cans, another of the few occupations that are available to somebody with no way to get a "real job," is easily the lowest paying. You can work for eight hours every day, most of it spent walking, and make about $20. It's illegal to dig through private curbside bins (Yeah, it's against the law to steal trash.), so you're limited to public trash cans and whatever you find lying around. Imagine putting in a full day's work and making less than three dollars per hour. That's how extreme poverty can be. 

You know what you can do to help? Talk to the people you see on the sidewalk with a sign. You don't have to give them anything if you don't want to, but simply acknowledge their humanity. Maybe even ask if there's something you can get for them. One of the panhandling women I encountered asked if I could get her a jar of Nutella. That was all she wanted, all it would take to make her day. So I bought her the big jar. 

Everyone is human. Nobody is beneath you.