I met Ms. Dash when I started working for Immigration in New York. She worked in one of the other departments and I would see her while I was delivering mail (I worked inthe mailroom and her name is NOT Dash). She was a few years older than me but we became good friends. I would occasionally call her "Mom". She had a warm motherly way about her and she was very open and frank when she spoke.
For about two years I saw Ms. Dash and I eventually found out she had a problem with her kidneys and she needed dialysis a couple of times a week. I learned she lived in the Bronx. I also learned around 1997 that she was homeless.
That marked the first time I ever heard about a person working and living on the street. I mean I never thought it was impossible but Ms. Dash was up close and personal. I am not even sure HOW I found out and I am positive I heard it from her.
Based on her accounts even though she earned a decent salary working for the federal government, her bills and her rent were more than what she brought in and she was homeless. Homeless in that she did not have an apartment or home or condo or room to acll her own. No lease with HER name on it. She managed to bounce from relative to relative to bathe and occasionally get something to eat but Ms. Dash had no place really to go
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Daisy Littlebear interview part 1
12/11/2010
Daisy Littlebear is a good friend of mine I met over 10 years ago. She is the wife of one of my best friends. I first met Daisy by chance. I was walking through Coney Island during the summer of 1999 and I ran into Mike (her now husband). I believe it was then I found out that they were an item and that she had given birth to their son (and my Godson). I think it was then that I found out that they were homeless for awhile. It was my first time meeting Daisy as I mentioned but I would never have expected that fate to come to Mike.
For my project the two of them were kind enough to relive their experience and share it . I had to break it up a bit, due to my just learning how to upload video, lol.
Daisy Littlebear is a good friend of mine I met over 10 years ago. She is the wife of one of my best friends. I first met Daisy by chance. I was walking through Coney Island during the summer of 1999 and I ran into Mike (her now husband). I believe it was then I found out that they were an item and that she had given birth to their son (and my Godson). I think it was then that I found out that they were homeless for awhile. It was my first time meeting Daisy as I mentioned but I would never have expected that fate to come to Mike.
For my project the two of them were kind enough to relive their experience and share it . I had to break it up a bit, due to my just learning how to upload video, lol.
Lisa Squire
She eventually got married and had a second son. She and her husband moved to Maryland and though the marriage failed and she got a divorce Lisa still managed to survive and work and do what she needed to do. Her oldest son overcame his challenges and not only graduated from regular high school taking regular classes but he took some classes in college. Lisa was born again into the church and had her children dedicated to the church. Her eldest son became my godson.
Eventually Lisa moved back to New York City with my godson to pursue a culinary career. The two of them had to move in with her mother which may sound easy but her mother is a senior on a budget and the apartment was very small when it housed just her mother. Imagine how tiny it is with three people.
I included Lisa in this blog because technically she is homeless and her situation is similar to a lot of Americans. People who lost their jobs or could not find work or an apartment after graduating from school. People like Lisa and my godson are forgotten because they have a place to lay their heads, but in all reality they are homeless because they are not on a lease and if at any time her mother God forbid passed away or demanded that they leave, the two of them would be among the thousands sleeping on the street.
Lisa allowed me to interview her and I thought what she had to say was interesting.
LINKS 12/27/2010
doing some research online I came up with a few links found on NYPIRG's website:
Coalition for the homeless: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/
NYC Coalition Against hunger: http://www.nycah.org/
HANNYS: http://www.hungeractionnys.org/
City harvest: http://www.cityharvest.org/
Food Bank for NYC: http://www.foodbanknyc.org/
Housing First: http://www.housingfirst.net/
The Door (teens): http://www.door.org/
New York State Soup Kitchens and Shelters Bowery Mission (Manhattan): http://www.bowery.org/
American Red Cross of Tompkins County: http://www.tompkins-erdcross.org/
The HUC-JIR Community Soup Kitchen huc.edu/news/soup.html
City Mission of Schenectady: Food, Shelter, Clothing: http://www.citymission.com/
Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County: http://www.hsctc.org/
Coalition for the homeless: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/
NYC Coalition Against hunger: http://www.nycah.org/
HANNYS: http://www.hungeractionnys.org/
City harvest: http://www.cityharvest.org/
Food Bank for NYC: http://www.foodbanknyc.org/
Housing First: http://www.housingfirst.net/
The Door (teens): http://www.door.org/
New York State Soup Kitchens and Shelters Bowery Mission (Manhattan): http://www.bowery.org/
American Red Cross of Tompkins County: http://www.tompkins-erdcross.org/
The HUC-JIR Community Soup Kitchen huc.edu/news/soup.html
City Mission of Schenectady: Food, Shelter, Clothing: http://www.citymission.com/
Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County: http://www.hsctc.org/
Last Images
These are the last of the images I took with my cell phone. I felt bad in taking them but once again I felt that the pictures were more of a powerful statement.
I don't think I can say it enough. In the richest country on the globe people should not have to be living like this.
Homelessness is a difficult topic to deal with and it has been tackled during the years. I doubt if it is a problem that private companies can tackle. I think it is more of a government situation.
I don't think I can say it enough. In the richest country on the globe people should not have to be living like this.
Homelessness is a difficult topic to deal with and it has been tackled during the years. I doubt if it is a problem that private companies can tackle. I think it is more of a government situation.
The Grand Central Shuttle 12/11/2010
Even though pictures supposedly speak a thousand words I don't think this photo said enough.
I was riding the Grand Central Shuttle Saturday night and I entered a car with a displaced lady sleeping in the corner. At this time of the year it is not hard to find people sleeping on the train since it had to be in the twenties outside and the subways and the stations are the warmest places to go and not have to buy something to stay there.
What the photo dies not show (I tried to take a video) is that the lady had that part of the car to herself. And while that is not new I was surprised the lady did not smell offensive like a lot of folks will do. She was just there and the passengers were as far away from her as Superman is to kryptonite.
She was inappropriately dressed for the weather though (so I wasn't sure if she was mentally ill or just down on her luck).
And while the picture let's you see her in shorts and in a light jacket it does not show the cuts and scabs on her exposed legs. It may not show you how deep her head was buried so you couldn't see her face. I was able to make out that it was a female.
Penn Station 12/10/2010
Eric Sheptock 3
An interesting interview on MSN with a newscaster I thought was not that helpful. Each time I see Sheptock he is more inspirational.
Daytona Beach pics 12/23/2010
I took these pictures once again with my cell phone. Granted the photos would come out better with a standard digital camera but out of respect I use the cell phone. Granted, it seems disrespectful to take their picture inthe first place but I think you hit the point better with an image. This is how people are living.
There were actually more displaced people in the area when I took this shot but when you are trying to be discreet you cannot actually take a group photo.
On this day the temperature finally warmed up to near 70 degrees. quite a few people conjugated by the library, both outside and inside.
As mentioned these displaced people are not bothered as long as they do not sleep. Interestingly though as I approached the library some people were sitting by a tree not too far from the door. The security guard for the library came out and instructed the folks to move further down the side of the library. I specifically heard the guard tell them that as long as people could not see them it was ok.
There were actually more displaced people in the area when I took this shot but when you are trying to be discreet you cannot actually take a group photo.
On this day the temperature finally warmed up to near 70 degrees. quite a few people conjugated by the library, both outside and inside.
As mentioned these displaced people are not bothered as long as they do not sleep. Interestingly though as I approached the library some people were sitting by a tree not too far from the door. The security guard for the library came out and instructed the folks to move further down the side of the library. I specifically heard the guard tell them that as long as people could not see them it was ok.
Daytona Beach 1 (12/22/2010)
I always knew about the homeless situation in Daytona Beach, Florida. My mother moved to Daytona from New York back in January 1996 and I visited around Easter. Walking around the city I went looking for bookstores and somehow ended up finding Daytona Beach's red light district (innocently I assure you) along Ridgewood Avenue.
Ridgewood runs North-South and I quickly realized that lot of the pople there simply had no place to go. Most of the traffic on Ridgewood was around the Popeye's and Burger King, which is also around the corner from the Greyhound station. All three places are within a half mile of the Volusia Public Library (where I am typing this).
Today I took this photograph (cell phone once again) of these transients who were outside of the library while I was coming in and eventually made it inside and sat close to me. The gentleman on the right (call him Mark) was complaining about how he and the rest of his friends were harrassed by the police for stretching out and even sleeping.
As I eveesdropped I learned that they come into the library often and it is apparently known the guys are in fact homeless. They can use the library whenever they want as long as they do not sleep or stretch out. during the conversation it seemed like they found the police of Daytona abusive and the Volusia Coalition for the Homeless useless.
There is a rumor in Daytona Beach as well as New York City that New York gathers up a lot of their homeless during the winter and ships them to various parts of the south. An older native of Daytona Beach shared that with me a year or two ago.
They complained about the lack of sleep they get and how they actually get sick from the lack of rest. The conversation ultimately went nowhere, but it did leave me wondering exactly where we thought the homeless were going to go.
Ridgewood runs North-South and I quickly realized that lot of the pople there simply had no place to go. Most of the traffic on Ridgewood was around the Popeye's and Burger King, which is also around the corner from the Greyhound station. All three places are within a half mile of the Volusia Public Library (where I am typing this).
Today I took this photograph (cell phone once again) of these transients who were outside of the library while I was coming in and eventually made it inside and sat close to me. The gentleman on the right (call him Mark) was complaining about how he and the rest of his friends were harrassed by the police for stretching out and even sleeping.
As I eveesdropped I learned that they come into the library often and it is apparently known the guys are in fact homeless. They can use the library whenever they want as long as they do not sleep or stretch out. during the conversation it seemed like they found the police of Daytona abusive and the Volusia Coalition for the Homeless useless.
There is a rumor in Daytona Beach as well as New York City that New York gathers up a lot of their homeless during the winter and ships them to various parts of the south. An older native of Daytona Beach shared that with me a year or two ago.
They complained about the lack of sleep they get and how they actually get sick from the lack of rest. The conversation ultimately went nowhere, but it did leave me wondering exactly where we thought the homeless were going to go.
Oh Canada
There is a cab driver here in Daytona Beach who has been selling me on Montreal for months. It started with a discussion last month on how much there is to do there (he was born in Montreal and moved to Florida and is married). I nulled it over and I am considering it. I saw the same cab driver a couple of days ago and made it a point to remind him of our conversation. This time though I thought about health care. A few people in the United states think that the big debate over health care being better in Canada is just a joke. The selling point for some republicans is that you don't get the same quality of health care in Canada as you would in the United States and you have to wait longer to be seen.
So I asked this guy if health care was any different.
He then told me about his diabetic mother getting an infection on her foot and being told by a Canadian doctor essentially not to worry about it. A few months later the infection spread to her calf and she couldn't walk. By this time her husband asked a physician friend to check in on it. Turns out it was a few steps away from spreading upwards. They managed to catch the infections in time.
According to the gentleman, Canadians DO get health care. However a lot of it is based on need. Urgent care naturally comes first and certain specialties take a backseat. You may wait a while for elective treatments.
He seemed to like that better than the $650 a month health care package he shares with his wife. According to the driver he hurt his back and the insurance company refused to pay. The hospital wanted their money and they, along with a few other debtors threatened to put a lien on his house.
He told them to wait their turn.
So I asked this guy if health care was any different.
He then told me about his diabetic mother getting an infection on her foot and being told by a Canadian doctor essentially not to worry about it. A few months later the infection spread to her calf and she couldn't walk. By this time her husband asked a physician friend to check in on it. Turns out it was a few steps away from spreading upwards. They managed to catch the infections in time.
According to the gentleman, Canadians DO get health care. However a lot of it is based on need. Urgent care naturally comes first and certain specialties take a backseat. You may wait a while for elective treatments.
He seemed to like that better than the $650 a month health care package he shares with his wife. According to the driver he hurt his back and the insurance company refused to pay. The hospital wanted their money and they, along with a few other debtors threatened to put a lien on his house.
He told them to wait their turn.
Eric sheptock 2
This was not intended originally for my blog but it caught my eye and I thought it was quite a creative song on the former President
STATS 1
Here are some interesting stats on Homelessness in New York City, according to www.ysop.org/statistics.htm
- Each year 100,000 New Yorkers experience homelessness
- Each night over 38,000 homeless individuals sleep in the New York City shelter system. This figure includes more than 16,000 children and 8,000 single adults. Thousands more sleep on city streets and public places.
- Nearly 1 in 20 New York City residents have experienced homelessness.
- There are over 1,000 soup kitchens and food pantries in New York City and 2, 700 in New York State serving 2 million New Yorkers annually. They will serve 60 million meals this year to hungry men, women and children and every day have to turn away over 2,500 people.
- It is estimates that between 40% and 50% of homeless single adults residing in the municipal shelter system have a chronic mental illness.
My problems with the information…there are over 1,000 soup kitchens and pantries in New York City and I couldn't tell you where two are. I personally know people with no homes to go to and they couldn't tell me where a fraction of the 1,000 are and get their meals the best way they can. From those who go to social services they damn sure don't get the information there
December 10, 2010
There is not much to be analyzed in this photo. I used my camera phone for this one. I am not certain whether or not this gentleman was drunk or sick but it is safe to say that he did not want to be in that spot.
Sadly, nobody bothered to see if the guy was alive or not while I was there.
Sadly, nobody bothered to see if the guy was alive or not while I was there.
This was taken at Grand Central Station by the 4, 5, and 6 trains.
I have been in a situation where I have seen a person out cold on the subway or street and I will stick around to see if the person is breathing. On one occasion I even told a cop that someone was out and I couldn't tell if the person was breathing. Once I tell I leave. I realize I am limited in what I personally can do (at least for now) and people generally seem indifferent to folks sleeping on the street.
Eric Sheptock 1
In doing my research for my final project I came across the name Eric Jonathan Sheptock. Actually the father of one of my other godsons passed the name and an article to me and I decided to do further research on him. Mr. Sheptock lives in Washington DC and is a homeless advocate for the homeless. He has two blogs, a Facebook account and a Twitter account with over 700 followers. I was recently added on to his Facebook page. He actually is becoming inspiration to create the webpage or blog I talked about doing years ago. Here is a clip from Youtube
Facts and figures
According to the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), thirty one million Americans now live in hunger or on the edge of hunger (State Government Responses to the Food Assistance Gap 2000, Third Annual Report and 50 State Survey, December 2000)
The report goes on to say that hunger can be hard to spot and that it's not only a problem solely facing the homeless. "It's easy to harden a heart against drunks and drug users, the mentally ill and the lazy asking for handouts. But many of the people frequenting the food pantries have fallen on hard times.
The report goes on to say that hunger can be hard to spot and that it's not only a problem solely facing the homeless. "It's easy to harden a heart against drunks and drug users, the mentally ill and the lazy asking for handouts. But many of the people frequenting the food pantries have fallen on hard times.
What am I doing?
A few years ago I came up with the idea to create a website which would have information for displaced people and people seeking shelter and food. The idea was that a person in need would access the site through a friend or at the library or any place that offered the Internet. If you were on the street then the site would serve as a database and offer information about shelters and other information that could help. If you had a place but you were hungry the database would let you know about soup kitchens and food pantries out there.
Between work, family life and other things I never worked on the idea. Plus I felt after a while that if a person had access to the Internet then they probably would not be homeless or in that type of need. I realize years later I was wrong. Being homeless does not mean you have no access. For the most part it means you have no home. Depending on your situation you may be able to get to a library or a friend and you might even be able to access information from your job.
I am of the belief that no one deserves to live on the street. In the richest country in the world there is no reason for people to be homeless, be hungry or be without health care
I am blessed to have food, health care and affordable housing. However I am not blind to what goes on outside. This blog actually started as a class project at City College, but I rapidly realized that I could use this to list resources to people who may not have them. I could also use this blog to bring awareness to the fact that people are struggling. It's not intended for some of the images to be offensive or exploitative. I learned though from taking journalism years ago that you need images to better bring home your point. So from time to time you will see pictures I am not proud of.
If in reading my blog you should have information you want to share please email me or leave comments.
Between work, family life and other things I never worked on the idea. Plus I felt after a while that if a person had access to the Internet then they probably would not be homeless or in that type of need. I realize years later I was wrong. Being homeless does not mean you have no access. For the most part it means you have no home. Depending on your situation you may be able to get to a library or a friend and you might even be able to access information from your job.
I am of the belief that no one deserves to live on the street. In the richest country in the world there is no reason for people to be homeless, be hungry or be without health care
I am blessed to have food, health care and affordable housing. However I am not blind to what goes on outside. This blog actually started as a class project at City College, but I rapidly realized that I could use this to list resources to people who may not have them. I could also use this blog to bring awareness to the fact that people are struggling. It's not intended for some of the images to be offensive or exploitative. I learned though from taking journalism years ago that you need images to better bring home your point. So from time to time you will see pictures I am not proud of.
If in reading my blog you should have information you want to share please email me or leave comments.
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