I told my students about it and invited them to take up a collection for food and toiletries. The volunteers would not only be going around talking to homeless people, we'd be giving out small bags with snacks, drinks, toothbrushes, etc. The students had lots of grand ideas, but the execution wasn't so hot. We did get some supplies together and two of the students even offered to drive them to the county office in Somerville which was great.
Two days ago (Thursday), Kristen and I made our way to volunteer without knowing exactly what to expect. Kristen is much more experienced volunteering with the homeless, but those instances were usually at shelters or food kitchens not wandering the streets talking to people.
We picked up our backpacks of supplies, a map and nametag and then set off walking the streets of Somerville looking for homeless people. Our biggest fear was walking up to someone and asking them to take our survey only to find out the person was not homeless. To help us identify homeless, this checklist was provided:
- They are typically by themselves.
- Clothing may be dirty, inappropriate for the weather or layered.
- Actions which indicate one is under the influence or responding to voices.
- Lack of eye contact with those they may encounter.
- They may carry bags (black garbage bags, paper or etc.) filled with belongings.
At some point during our two-hour shift, we say people meeting all of these descriptions. We headed to the Somerville train station where we were told there was a "tent city" beyond the furthest parking lot. We decided to head into the trails that go into some woods at the edge of the parking lot figuring that was a likely location. We walked for a bit into the trails and observed old fire pits, empty liquor bottles, discarded blankets, etc. so we figured we were in the right area, but we didn't actually see anyone. We headed back to the parking lot and saw a man with a bag heading through a fence. Figuring he would lead us to the right area, we followed him, but by the time we got to the fence we couldn't find him anywhere in the wooded area, which was a bit frightening. Either way, he was homeless person #1 for our chart.
Next, we decided to walk along the train tracks. We encountered a second man here. When I started the spiel, he quickly said he didn't want to talk to me without slowing down. We spent some time along the tracks and even saw our third person but he too disappeared before we were close enough to say anything.
After an exhilirating run across the tracks, we walked along an almost completely abandoned shopping center. Here we found a man with a very full beard and lots of layers of clothing even though it was pretty warm. He was walking with his eyes downcast and may have been muttering to himself. I said "excuse me" and asked if I could speak with him for a few minutes. He wanted no part of it.
After a brief stop at the United Reform Church where outreach programs are offered at certain times, we walked along the main drag, through some side streets and talked about how poorly we were doing at getting our surveys filled out. So far we had seen 3 homeless people and had administered the survey to none of them.
Our walk took us back to train station and we decided to make one more trek through the wooded area. We came across the first man we saw again. This time, he was in an area clearly reserved for him with wood set up like seats, lots of beer and an American flag proudly standing on a pole. We decided not to say anything to him since he clearly didn't want to talk to us. Instead, as we walked by he called to us. He told us "you shouldn't walking here." Kristen and I agreed with him very much when he said that. Turns out, he meant we shouldn't be walking there because of ticks. This was the hook (no pun intended) we needed. He was willing to answer our questions.
We spent 10-15 minutes giving him the survey from a distance (by his request) and also asked a number of questions just to get to him better. He is 56 years old and has been homeless for about 2 months. He does volunteer work for the Samartin Homeless Interim Program (SHIP), including working with SHIP's mobile food kitchen when it was distributing food to the workers at Ground Zero following 9/11. He served in the United States military for 8 years including at least one stint in Vietnam. When asked if he ever received services, he rattled off a list of hospitals and treatment centers throughout the region including Greystone (a psychiatric hospital) and Lyons (a Veterans Affairs hospital). When asked if he receives any veteran's benefits, he said he wouldn't take them even if he was eligible. He did not elaborate on why that was. We also gave him an opportunity to tell us anything else he thought we should know. He told us to ask why there is a shelter available to women in Somerville (the Agape House) but not one for men. When we brought that question back, the Project Coordinator for Somerset County Community Development (the person running this event) said she wondered the same thing. Because this man we were talking to indicated about 5 other people live in the same area, we asked him if we could leave a few bags of supplies for all of them. The entire time we had been talking to him, he was drinking a beer and pacing the area he'd set up for himself. He was well-spoken, relatively clean cut considering, and very knowledgeable. He was showed a lot of pride and said he'd be fine and he didn't need anyone's help that programs should be helping the kids that are on the streets instead. His demeanor changed when we gave him the bags with some basic supplies and snacks though. After all of his criticisms of the public offerings, he then told us to please tell them thank you for the bags when we got back. He was genuinely appreciative and as Kristen and I walked back out of the woods in silence (very concerned about ticks I might add), I think we both had the same idea - that time talking to this one man made the whole process worthwhile.
When we got back to the office, we still weren't sure if our 3 observed homeless and 1 survey were good enough. We were feeling guilty that we didn't get more. The staff was ecstatic! In the morning all the volunteers returned with 0 homeless observations yet we had 4. We had no idea while on the streets, but it turns out we were more successful than anticipated.
I know this post is ridiculously long, but I have a feeling at least a few of you are still reading. It was a good experience and one that I can bring back to my students. The coordinator of the project plans to send a thank-you to my classes for their donations and offered to speak to them as well so we're working on making that happen.
I'm thinking that I need to make a concerted effort to do some more volunteer work. I looked into that SHIP program that this homeless man worked with. It seems like they run a great deal of services out of Somerville and I'm sure I could find something to offer them if they needed my help even if it was only once a month or something like that.
