Research Focus Group Report

July 21, 2003

This focus group was held at the Bureau of Housing and Community Development. Joe Hertzberg faciliated, Molly Rogers observed, and Orion Gray, Marla Koch, Jamie Manuel, John Marks, and Genny Nelson participated

I. Introduction

Sisters Of The Road’s Community Organizing Project has two components: 1. Research, and 2. crossroads, a People’s Organization.  Crossroads is committed to identifying and implementing immediate and long-term solutions to problems faced by homeless people both in Portland and nation-wide.  Launched in October 2001, the Research Component was based on conducting one-to-one interviews with 600 currently and previously homeless individuals and asking them to describe the breadth of their experiences.  The purpose of these interviews is to understand their perceptions of the causes of and solutions to homelessness, successes and barriers in accessing services, recommendations for changes in the service systems, and the personal and societal consequences of homelessness.  To date, the Community Organizing Project’s staff and volunteers have interviewed 488 people experiencing homelessness.  The Research Component will continue until the goal of 600 interviews recorded, transcribed, coded, analyzed, and information published is realized.

To draw out preliminary findings of the Research Component, Joe Hertzberg facilitated a focus group with volunteers and staff on July 21, 2003.  Participants were asked to reflect on and summarize what they have learned through the numerous interviews of currently and previously homeless individuals.  This report captures just a glimpse of the breadth of findings through these interviews and cannot replace the pending in-depth analysis. 

I. Underlying Themes

• Everybody has a unique story to tell.

  Listening to the story is the beginning of the solution to ending homelessness because it acknowledges that the person’s experience and knowledge are important.

• The current homeless system is focused on maintenance and survival, not ending homelessness.

  Homeless people look to services to survive each day, but there is little expectation that there are services to help them eventually end their homelessness.  Some of those interviewed perceive that they are fodder for keeping the system alive.  Interviewees feel beaten down from daily interactions with service providers and beaten down from being harassed by police for sleeping, sitting, standing, etc.

• People are homeless in many different ways and for many different reasons.

  Sometimes there is a specific precipitating event to homelessness, such as loss of job, illness, or death of a close family member or friend.  Some people drift in and out of homelessness.  Many people are only a few steps away from homelessness, and some homeless persons need ongoing support.  The length of time people experience homelessness in Portland varies widely from person to person.  National reports cite that the average time a person is homeless is six to eight weeks, but our research indicates an average of one year. It is unlikely that Portland is simply statistically aberrant. The gap between those two figures likely resulted from the use of different methodologies and deserves some investigation.

• Homeless people who live on the streets of Portland have a strong sense of community.

  Interviewees felt a sense of security with each other.  They “watch each other’s backs.”

II. Why are people experiencing homelessness?

• Trauma.  Traumatic experiences in childhood are almost universal.  Homeless persons often carry a wound that is always open and impacts their view of the world.  Issues such as abandonment, childhood instability, and physical and/or sexual abuse, come up often in interviews.
• Disintegration of family.  Alienation from family erodes the support network.  People do not look to family for assistance for different reasons: abuse, tension, or shame in having family know that they need help.  Many people in society are poor, but the ones who end up homeless lack a support network of family and/or friends to help them weather tough times.>/li>

• Lack of social awareness.  Some homeless people have poorly developed social skills. This can erode a person’s support network, by wearing out welcoming family and friends during times of need.
• Criminal records.  Any form of record makes it difficult to find housing or employment. This is true not only for convictions, but also outstanding warrants, tickets issued during times of homelessness, custody issues, inheritance issues, child support, etc.  Homeless persons are frequently ticketed or arrested for trespassing, camping, drug violations, prostitution, or offensive littering. Many believe that these laws are enforced without cause.  For example, interviewees said that they had received littering tickets for trash that was not necessarily theirs, but was left near them.  They felt that the police just wanted to give them a ticket.  Other examples are that homeless people said they have been excluded from parks, prostitution-free zones, and drug-free zones without any proof that they have violated park rules, engaged in prostitution, or violated drug laws.
• No housing.  There is a lack of affordable housing available to people earning 0-30% of median income. This includes people working full time at minimum wage, earning $1080 a month, and people collecting Social Security checks, averaging $540 per month. Lack of deposit or move-in costs makes it impossible to get into housing, and spending money on hotels and other short term shelter options often keeps the working homeless from saving money for move-in costs.



“I am doing day labor and that is not enough money to actually put me into a place at all, you know, at the best I can rent a room for the night or something like that… but unless I just save my money up, you know, working day labor and sleep under a bridge for a couple of weeks I am not going to have enough money; that is the only way I see that I am going to get off the street… that is the bottom line…”
• Mental illness.  Some homeless people struggle with mental illness, and if left untreated, this becomes a roadblock for getting out of homelessness.  Many homeless persons with mental illness remain homeless for a long time.  Changes made to the Oregon Health Plan last February require recipients to pay premiums to maintain their coverage and to make co-pays to fill basic mental health prescriptions. For people suffering from depression, bi-polar disorder, and schizophrenia, the medicines can mean the difference being able to function in society or not. In some cases people with no income have collected recyclable cans just to make their monthly premium payments. In other cases, they have simply lost their coverage.

III. Barriers to getting people off the street

• Services are provided in a way that degrades and disrespects the dignity of the person.  Service providers often treat people seeking services as though they are not important.  Many service agencies use a charity model, but this approach can make homeless people feel like victims or start believing that they are owed.  Religious requirements made by faith-based service providers, such as listening to a sermon before receiving a meal, sometimes creates resentment. Sometimes people who are homeless experience damage to their self-esteem from interacting with service providers.  They start asking themselves, “Why do they treat me like a criminal or make me humiliate myself to get basic services?” or “Why does everyone make my life miserable while I wait for housing?”
• Surviving the day on the streets of Portland is a full-time job.  One can find food, clothing, and showers, but every service requires standing in line.  The time between standing in line is spent walking to the next service.  This does not leave time to do the things necessary to ultimately end one’s homelessness.  Many of the people interviewed are much more concerned with where they will sleep tonight or where they will get their next meal than with what they will be doing in five years.
  
  
  “But most homeless people, they walk a lot and they stay not generally in one place because that is not cool.  You wind up getting into some trouble with the law.  So, you keep moving…. that is any city I have ever been in…. but homelessness as a whole, I would say is a job, I mean, you do a lot of walking, you go and you do a lot of searching.  You are trying to find an agency that is going to help you, okay, so it is footwork, a lot of footwork.”
• The cumulative effects of homelessness make it more difficult to exit homelessness.  The cumulative effects of homelessness include sleep deprivation and lack of personal hygiene.  These things, as well as lack of a telephone or address, make it difficult to find work.  Without an income from work or another source, people cannot find housing.
• Services are inaccessible.  Interviewees feel that services are not accessible to them.  The supply of services often does not meet the demand.  While some people report not receiving services, because they were unable or unwilling to jump through the hoops required for the service, others jump through all of the hoops only to find out the service is not available or that they will have to wait a number of weeks or months to receive it. One interviewee described it this way, “Well, I have jumped through all their hoops for 5 months and I am still homeless.  I got to get out of TPI on the 25th of this month.  I do not have a home.  I got the promise that maybe I might get one, but right now I do not have one.  I do not have a place to go; I’m going back to the streets.”
  
  
  Homeless people cannot access services without identification, but sometimes they lose their essential documents because their packs are stolen or taken by the police. Homeless people with warrants or mental health issues often fear showing identification to any authority figure.
  
  
  “There’s a lot of homeless people that just maybe they have warrants, maybe they don’t. Maybe they just don’t feel that they should have to tell you their name to be able to have a bed for the night. Maybe they don’t want to give you that Social Security number, especially with so much identity theft going on nowadays. You write down your Social Security number and your birth date and your name on a piece of paper, and you get a mat over here in this building. Well, I don’t know what happens to that piece of paper later on down the line. Where does it go? What’s done with it? Where is this information out there floating around? Who has access to it?  The way I understand it is that even though they’re a non-profit organization, they get a Social Security number, and it has to do with funding, to show that they helped this many people on this night. I don’t know, maybe it’s federal funding. Maybe it’s from other individuals. I’m not really sure. I’ve never looked into it. But, that was one of the things about Baloney Joe’s. You weren’t asked to sign a piece of paper. They didn’t care what your Social Security number was. If you wanted to be anonymous, you could.”
  
  There is a widespread perception that everyone is denied for social security disability the first time he or she applies. First hand experience and anecdotes frequently support this perception.
  
  
  “I filed for social security one time, got turned down and so I did not file anymore… so much red tape and I was real bad sick of it, damn chemo and I was baldheaded and I just could not get any help and I was like kind of pissed, you know, I do not know, it is like I had always been the breadwinner, you know, and I cannot believe that we actually treated people this way, this is what floored me. .. I waited 9 months for social security, just knew I would get it, I paid my taxes, never cheated on them….”
• Shelters are not meeting basic needs.  The regulations and structure of the shelters make it challenging for homeless persons to meet a basic need – sleep.  It is challenging to sleep with so many people in the room snoring, coughing, and farting.  It is impossible to get enough sleep because people are awakened so early.  There is no place to catch up on lost sleep during the day.
• Important services are not coordinated.  Emergency assistance, such as food and hygienic care, are not coordinated, making it difficult for homeless persons to get both a meal and a shower in one day.  “Showers that are available conflict with the times meals are available.  One has to choose.”


• Bathrooms are inaccessible.  As one interviewer said, “It’s difficult to find a bathroom in this town, and fines are imposed for those who are caught relieving themselves in parking lots.”
• People face psychological barriers to confronting their homelessness and seeking ways out of homelessness.  It is difficult for some people to think of themselves as homeless. Some people would rather use up their savings than to seek emergency shelter.  Drug addicts frequently do not identify themselves as homeless; they are simply in search of their fix. People who are homeless frequently do not see opportunities for themselves.  When they hear about a job training program or other program, they believe it is not for them.
• People who are homeless have a hard time competing in the job market.  Particularly in this economic downturn, jobs are scarce and persons experiencing homelessness have difficulty finding work for a variety of reasons: mental illness, low IQ, damage from emotional wounds, and damage from health problems or disabilities.  Even the people who are very employable generally need more than six to eight weeks to navigate their way out of homelessness.  It is difficult to find work or regain your health while living outdoors.

IV. Recommendations by Interviewees

A. General recommendations:

• Provide basic facilities.  During the day, people need access to lockers, bathrooms, showers, and laundry.  These simple things make people’s lives easier.
• Find places for homeless persons to sleep.  Numerous ideas were suggested, such as change the delineation between sleeping and camping and find places close to services where people can sleep without being harassed.  Develop a system for a homeless person to sign an agreement with a property owner to sleep on the property as long as the person abides by the contract.  Allow people to sleep in vacant properties.
• Provide voice mail.  The ability to leave and receive messages is essential for job seekers or people who would like to stay connected with family and friends.
• Offer information and resources at more places.  When poor people arrive in Portland, there should be resources available at points of entry, like the bus station or train station.
• Change screening criteria in subsidized housing.  Subsidized housing criteria screen out people with criminal records or histories of eviction.  Eliminate these barriers to getting subsidized housing.

C. Long-term recommendations: