Interviews

How is the homeless population disproportionate? 

The population is disproportionate by race as it appears to be African American and then latinix/hispanic people that experience the most amounts of homelessness. 

How is the homeless population disproportionate in the LGBTQ community? 

In most cases about gender, it has to do with gender expression and family issues. It's about expressing when they come out: how they speak, how they look, identification, pronouns, school, church, domestic violence and abuse. After leaving a home, they will go to other homes, foster families, or couch surfing. 

How does family and roommate conflicts lead to homelessness? 

Living together can lead to many conflicts. They are issues like: overcrowding, discord, different habits, tension, and disputes.  All of these can lead to conflicts within the household and kicking someone out. If someone is staying with someone else, they may receive the “you‘re living with me”. Also, if someone else in the family needs more help than you, they may be the higher priority and replace you. Another more prevalent general issue would be domestic violence, eviction, 

What is the process that Homes for the Homeless has for helping those to exit homelessness?

First, a needs assessment is done and they are assigned a caseworker. The caseworker is a point person in the shelter helping them with all of the services. The person receives an individualized living plan for the family in order to have a set plan for the future. There are housing vouchers, city and federal programs that all provide help. There is also a housing specialist that work to find landlords and apartments that are willing to accept people trying to exit homelessness. Additionally, there is an employment specialist that help with job finding that can be used to help get rid of debt. There are referrals to mental health services, and help. For on sight services, there is a recreation and afterschool program that helps with the children. Thee is also a drop in daycare that is coordinated with the local school system that parents can drop their kids at if they need to have a job interview or look at housing. For those needing extra services permanently, they can live in supportive housing to ensure that they aren't fully independent. 

What are the main stigmas around homeless people and how does it affect them? 

For single adults, there tends to be more PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), mental illness, and substance abuse. For those living on the street, it's a combination of those and not taking medications, therefore leading to people thinking they are "off the rails" or "insane". As people don't see family's in shelters as much as others, these stigmas exist more inside the shelter and tend to be a bit more prevalent. Homelessness tends to come from intergeneration poverty and breaking the cycle is very difficult. They face issues with overcrowding, discord, living with people that are already in poverty. There are also issues which can lead from systemic racism. Many poor people are not treated very well in a bureaucratic system, which can lead to an overall distrust of the systems and receieving help. This is integral to helping them with resources; to meet them where they are at instead of coming at them with just one option or way. 

How do identity and stereotypes affect someone experiencing homeless and the public view? 

Stereotypes are disservice to people because there are  more people experiencing homelessness than the person on the street or mentally ill person on the subway. There is such a stigma that groups homeless people together where people only see one example or one person. In most cases someone wouldn’t know the difference between someone experiencing homelessness and the one that isn’t, only in stereotypical cases you can see as there are not many telltale signs. For adults, they known that they want something better for their kids, they want to live in a safe place. They know that there is more out there for them. There is the idea that homeless people chose and want to be homeless like, “its your fault”, “you did something wrong”, when in reality that's not the case most of the time. 

What appears to be the solution?

The solution would be for more people and more media paying attention to homelessness. Although the stigmas and stereotypes are very prevalent, there aren't a lot of perspectives about homelessness widespread in the media. There should be more involvement with different homelessness organizations so that people can help more often. There needs to be a way that people can see the different types of homelessness, which would most likely be through word of mouth or physically acting on it. Experiencing other people and gaining personal connections can be a a stereotype breaking experience. These little opportunities can mean a lot. 

How did Covid impact the way that the shelter ran? 

During the high point of the pandemic, covid impacted the services the shelters had because shelters are a lot of people in a small space, very densely populated. Families would have their own room because it is easier and better for them to not be so involved with others. For the kids not being able to socialize because they were not in school, there was a lot of stress and annoyance because of the little interaction. Covid also made it more difficult to exit homelessness- jobs, housing, etc. With evictions being protected, there were less homeless people although more people were laid off. There were also venders but that put wifi in the shelters to allow kids to have access to the internet in order to do online school. 

How does Homes for the Homeless get funded?
Homes for the Homeless has contracts with NYC department of homeless services, contract with different services for programs, social workers, securities, kitchens, after school programing- department of youth and community and development. The rest is through donations and grants. 

What is your business?

Knock Knock Give a Sock (KKGS) is a mission to humanize homelessness one interaction at a time. This is done by turning transactions into interactions by gaining a personal connection. This is done by engaging corporate companies or local communities and have them collect socks in order to donate towards the homeless. After donating, there is a dinner between the people that donate and people living in location shelters in order to become acquainted. The example used was that if you ask adults if they can name one person that they who is homeless, and most of them can't, even if they haven't donated money. The point was to create a more meaningful connection between two very different branches of society. The leading factor to changing society is through a personal experience, which is what KKGS believes in doing. 

How do you think homelessness should/could be solved or alleviated? 

Through personal connections like groups, affinity spaces, and being personally involved. Many of the barriers in terms of housing are zoning laws, people say "we don't want a shelter here" because they don't know the people getting the help. They believe the people living next door to them are the same ones on the street or the train. Connecting people that have resources and people that need resources is finding a match and helping those exit. 

street homelessness is only 5% of all homelessness

How was the stigma of homeless people changed over time? 

Although there aren't many organizations doing the same as KKGS. If every organization was doing this same work, there would be much more significant change. 

How do homeless people get accepted in society? How society views them and people of their similar identity?

Massive disconnect when it comes to homelessness. Don't understand what homelessness really is and goes beyond. They tend to only see mental health or substance abuse but not children or family,  showing the limited view many people have on the world. Society has an ideology of homelessness that is not fully representative of the homelessness community.

How have you seen the conditions that lead to homelessness? 

Have been people flee domestic violence, hurt on construction sights, diagnosed with medical issues that without correct resources could lead to losing one's job and living in a shelter. Have also seen people after jail time be unable to get jobs or live normally due to their past. But the leading cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing. 

How did you get the inspiration for your organization? 

I was giving out sandwiches in my local community during college and a guy said, I really need some socks. After realizing her socks wouldn't fit him, she went and knocked on every door in the college and collected 40 socks within 15 minutes. By the time I was a senior in college, I had gone to over 20 different campuses and collected around 50 thousand pairs of socks. Had also realized that many college students saw homelessness in a very different viewpoint.  

What are the 4 pillars of the organization? 

1 is the sock pillar, getting the socks from different organizations and then hiring people to distribute the socks. 2 is the meet your neighbor lunches and dinners, bringing corporate America donaters and joining them with local people living in shelters. 3 is two major community events, the wood sock music festival, bringing 3 artists living at home and 3 artists living in shelters and they perform on stage side by side. The other is a happy holiday carnival where local children living in shelters come to this carnival and do a lot of the fun activities. 4 is the education pillar where schools come in and learn about homeless from people actually experiencing homelessness. 

What shelters are you connected to? 

Project renewal, HFH (homes for the homeless), Zawadi House, many different programs. 

How do you get funds? 

From individual donations and asking the corporate companies to give money for the dinners and a little more for overhead fees. 

How has the government reacted to your organization?

They have all had supportive and happy comments when engaging with the organization. We have gotten criticism from those that are not affiliated with the organization and haven't been to the event because they say we aren't building houses, just making them feel good for a little bit.

What does it mean to be accepted in society? 

There is no one size fits all. There is acceptance needed in family and workplace through discrimination and judgement, but creating a space where people feel comfortable and a part of society is acceptance. In dinners, they feel a part of society but outside of the dinner they feel like a burden. 

How do you see a split between identity in your workplace and cultural setting? 

At dinners, most of the people coming from corporate American tend to be white, and then the people in the shelters tend to be people of color so this is a gap that can be seen through social classes in everyday life. 

How often are the events?

2-3 a month.