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According to The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, on an annual basis, at least 2.5 to 3.5 million Americans find themselves in situations where they either stay in shelters, transitional housing, or public places that aren't designed for human habitation. The primary reasons for homelessness are: "(1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, (4) mental illness and the lack of needed services, and (5) substance abuse and the lack of needed services.", in the order of importance.
Statistics like this translate people into numbers, while each individual in this 2.5 to 3.5 million Americans could have a unique and complicated story to tell. How does this relate to the life of socially privileged college students at Brown? Could there be a deeper connection between the lives of students and the stories of unhoused individuals?
This is a story of how the life of a Brown student and her legacy intertwined with people experiencing homelessness in Providence, Rhode Island.
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND -- HOPE, a student organization at Brown, focused on alleviating the living conditions of homeless people in Rhode Island while tackling discrimination and stereotypes against those who experience homelessness.
In the year of 2012, Rhode Island passed a Homeless Bill of Rights, making it the first state to do so. The bill entitled individuals who experience homelessness to the same rights, benefits, and social services as non-homeless people. However, despite this legal protection, advocates claimed that homeless people still face prejudice and bias, both at the personal and systemic levels. This discrimination made it challenging for them to obtain the services and resources that they were entitled to.
A picture of HOPE organization members
HOPE, which was short for Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, was an organization established by Brown students that operates under the University's Swearer Center, which is the center for public service and community engagement. It comprised over 100 students who worked with community partners to promote structural reforms that sought to provide fair treatment for individuals experiencing housing insecurity. These students engaged in outreach and collaborated on various projects aimed at achieving this goal.
Olivia was a senior student who concentrated on Biological Anthropology with a dream to become a doctor. She belonged to the Tuesday Outreach group, which was known as one of the most active branches of HOPE. Every Tuesday, four students including Olivia would go around Brown and downtown Providence to give out supplies for the unhoused citizens. Many of them lived on the streets and the shelters downtown, while some had a complicated past of being undocumented immigrants, refugees, and criminals.
Olivia was the only contact on many homeless people’s phones, such as B, a homeless man from Gambia who often slept beside Chinatown.
Picture of Thayer Street, where B is often seen
There was a long story between Olivia and B. Olivia’s father, who attended Brown University more than a decade ago, was working at a restaurant near Josiah’s, one of the dining halls of Brown. Among his many colleagues who serve as waiters, there was B, an African immigrant from Gambia who came to the United States after seeing an advertisement about an international educational program here. B has wandered around Rhode Island and finally got a job near Brown to support the finances he needed for his studies. This was also what Olivia’s father was doing at the time.
Years passed by and Olivia entered Brown University in 2019. The river of life took her back to her father’s ex-coworker, who was now homeless and asking for money beside Chinatown on Thayer Street.
Olivia found out that B was her father's co-worker about two years ago, in her freshman year when she was making a phone call with her father to chat about her recent school life. She mentioned that she was working with HOPE and that one of their African clients was B. Hearing B's name, Olivia's father was stunned----"Cause there're not many people from Gambia around Providence that are named B, right?" Olivia said excitedly. Her father immediately asked her to video-chat with him the next time she worked with him.
Then it happened: on Thayer Street, through a video call, Olivia's father saw his old friend B whom he hadn't met in about twenty years. Afterward, Olivia's father came to Brown on the Visitor Weekend and met up with B in person.
"You see, people are all connected together," B said with a sense of nostalgia. HOPE also believed that no one would be entirely irrelevant from others, which was a part of their reasons for doing homeless outreach----making sure that everyone in the community is being cared for instead of neglected.
"The people who experience homelessness might seem to be far away from us sometimes...since most students at Brown are way more privileged to receive an expensive education. But...(in reality)...there could be thousands of connections between us. It's just that we don't know because we rarely talk to them." Reflecting on the journey of discovering her father's relationship with B, Olivia said thoughtfully. Students at Brown walked by people like B every day, not knowing how deep their stories go.
Olivia and B still chatted with each other every week on the Tuesday homeless outreach activity.
This Tuesday, Olivia's outreach group went around Brown and Providence Downtown as usual, handing out food and daily necessities to unhoused individuals. When they came up to B, they first noticed the thing that hung over his head. "Wait, B! Is that a hat!?" Olivia laughed and greeted B happily. The hat that B was wearing was made up of a strip that wrapped around his face and a rough cardboard that stuck out over his head to provide shade under the intense summer sun. "Yes, ah...handmade hat!" B stroked the cardboard and spoke with a heavy Gambian accent, proudly showing his friends the unique handcraft he had done. G laughed at B amusingly as he patted on B's hat, while the outreach team gave words of appreciation and then agreed on finding B a new hat for the next outreach activity.
Photo of the HOPE outreach team handing out supplies for homeless people in Downtown Providence
Olivia also noticed that B was wearing two shoes that were of different sizes and brands. “Look at your shoes, B, they’re different!” B lowered his head to look at his shoes and laughed. He took them off and they appeared to be significantly larger than his feet. Olivia took out a pair of new shoes from the bag that the outreach group carried and gave them to B, "Try these!" B tried to squeeze his feet into them but they were too small. "We'll get you some suitable shoes next time!" Olivia and the other outreach member exchanged a look with a smile and said.
Near the end of the outreach, Olivia began telling B and G that she was soon about to graduate and that it would be more difficult for her to visit them often. Although G already knew about it beforehand, he still let out a cry and hugged Olivia tightly. "You know I'll miss you." B, on the other hand, seemed a bit bewildered by the news. He paced around quickly and nervously to digest the information. Olivia patted him warmly on the shoulder and told him that they would be in contact and she would still come visit sometime in the upcoming months. B still looked a little anxious but he accepted her words and kindly congratulated her for graduation.
After the outreach activity was over, I sat down with B at the table across Chinatown as he unfolded his long story before me.
When he was thirteen, he came to the US via a program and a scholarship for international students. "In my country, there were not many learning opportunities, so many people go out to study." B lived in a host family and went to a public high school for almost a year, and then decided to transfer to a better boarding school, Mosses Brown School. With a fair GPA, he got in with a scholarship. After graduation, he then entered the Community College of Rhode Island. After that, he got into URI (University of Rhode Island) to study Sociology, Anthropology, and Communication, with a dream at the time to become a teacher. However, he never got the chance to fully realize this dream. "I did not get a master's degree...it's better to get it if you wanna be a teacher."
To earn money during his years at Community College of Rhode Island, B worked at Ruby's Diner, where he met Olivia's father. "They serve very good breakfast there! Students used to go there all the time...it was their favorite!" B talked about Ruby's Diner with great enthusiasm. It was also around his time at Ruby's Diner that he met his wife who was from England and then got married. Unfortunately, his wife died years after from a disease, leaving B with a daughter who was now 41 years old.
Rubu's Dinner, where B and Olivia's father used to work
Photo of Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology on campus
B changed multiple jobs in his life and mainly worked in the service sector in restaurants.
Sometimes he would also do a seasonal job at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology affiliated with Brown University, which is located beside the main green of the campus. Given that B studied Anthropology at University and that he is originally from Gambia, the hiring manager at the museum let him work in the sector of historical expositions related to Africa.
Although not being able to become a teacher like he wanted to, his jobs all worked out pretty well until he was beaten down by a stroke. Although the stroke was "not too bad"-- it did not hinder him from getting out of bed, B's illness still remained for years, making him unable to work. The unemployment went on for ten to fifteen years. Refusing to rely on his daughter, B became homeless and started to live in a community shelter.
"You see, this...(the situation of becoming) homeless, could really happen to anyone. You'd never know" Olivia signed.
"You never know what life will get you. The only thing we can do is to live today happily." B said with a sense of optimism. Even when talking about his greatest grief, B looked at me with hopeful eyes.
"I have met kind people... Seeing friends like them, why not be happy?" B referred to HOPE students as "friends" and used his not-so-fluent English to paint a picture of a life that although filled with hardships, was full of the strength and hope to live in the moment. This was also the mission of HOPE, to not just help but also to build sincere and empowering connections with the ones who were in search of a home, sending the wish that more people on the streets of Providence could feel like home.
Xuanjie (Coco) Huang, a freshman at Brown who intends to concentrate in International and Public Affairs and pursues a career in nonprofit and humanitarian journalism.
Commentary
As a student interested in the social and nonprofit sector, I wanted to know more about how marginalized individuals find a place in society and how can people offer help to them. As I walk the streets around Brown, I often see homeless people that I never got a chance to know enough about. Homeless people are usually exposed to high health risks and personal security risks. I feel the urge to dive into their life stories and provide insights about how might people become unhoused, how society plays a factor in it, and most importantly, how these people each have their own unique and unbelievable experiences that can't be summarized by labels or stereotypes. Thus, I interviewed 3 homeless people around Thayer Street and Downtown to tell their stories, along with some student social workers and volunteers who are tackling this social issue. It challenged me to keep the stories objective and external as they were personal and emotional, but it was also rewarding to see that my interviewees were very open to me and brave to show their vulnerability while telling personal stories. They need a voice in society, and their voices are worth hearing.
Source list:
Interview with B, May 2nd, 2023
Interview with B, May 3rd, 2023
Interview with Olivia First, May 2nd, 2023
Interview with Olivia First, May 1st, 2023
Observation on HOPE's homeless outreach, May 2nd, 2023
Obersvation on HOPE's homeless outreach, April 28th, 2023
https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-07-16/hopeatbrown
https://brown.givepulse.com/group/124224-HOPE-Student-Organization
https://www.instagram.com/hopeatbrown/?hl=en
https://ohcd.ri.gov/homelessness
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-first-1516b3176
https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet.pdf
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