Contrary to some beliefs, the homeless are not dangerous people, nor have they chosen their unfortunate situation.
This was the consensus among various members of the community who came to the University for Friday night’s Hunger Banquet and Volunteer Fair, which was hosted by OSPIRG, FOOD for Lane County, Shelter Care, St. Vincent de Paul, and Catholic Community Services. Mayor Kitty Piercy, who is a strong advocate of promoting services to combat hunger and aid the homeless, was also present.
The banquet was “an effort to address the problems of homelessness, and also to address the solution,” said Angela Douglass, who coordinates the hunger and homelessness campaign for Lane Community College’s chapter of OSPIRG.
Feast participants were divided into a hierarchical order as a visual representation of the disparity between the rich and the poor. Participants eating rice on the floor were said to represent the 60 percent of people in the world who are poor; those eating rice and beans on chairs represented the 25 percent who are middle class; and the people eating at a table symbolized the 15 percent of the world’s population that is made up of rich people.
A few OSPIRG volunteers discussed their participation in a “Food Stamp Challenge” in which they practiced living on $21 per person per week for food – often the same amount of food stamps allotted to a poor family of four. Many came out of the challenge expressing their inability to eat high quality, nutritious food on such a budget. By the third day of the challenge, many started to experience hunger pangs, since their diet mainly consisted of soup and peanut butter sandwiches.
“You are living in a society that expects you to live up to a certain standard,” said Liza Rosa Diaz, a former homeless woman, who was teary-eyed in expressing her past inability to live up to that standard. “It’s really scary because you want your children to be successful,” she said.
Even those who are working have trouble keeping food in their stomach because “people can barely afford to live on minimum wage,” said Douglass, who believes that one of the main causes of homelessness is inadequate affordable housing. In fact, many people living on minimum wage are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.
“Most people become homeless because of the parade of horrible things that have happened to them,” said Richie Weinman, City of Eugene urban services manager, after debunking a number of far-fetched myths surrounding the reasons why people become homeless, the most common being that homelessness is a choice.
Many people also believe there are a sufficient number of social services for those who seek to find them, when in fact, “Not even close do we have enough social services to serve the thousands of homeless,” Weinman said.
He projected that the reason for this was the slashing of the government welfare budget during the Reagan era.
“Homelessness is costing us all a fortune,” Weinman, said, pointing out that it costs anywhere from $300 to $400 per day to send a homeless person to the hospital or jail, but it would only take about $850 a month to provide the person with permanent housing.
“The real answer is to create permanent, affordable housing,” Weinman said. With 100,000 homeless just in Oregon, creating housing would be a feat. “We know exactly how to do it, it just costs a lot of money,” he said.
However, he made it clear that the cost of creating housing would cost far less than the war budget.
Weinman suggested a number of ways to combat hunger and homelessness in an effort to create a more habitable community. He emphasized the importance of treating the homeless as people, acknowledging them and being nice to them. He also suggested getting involved with a non-profit organization or to personally help individuals seek the services they need. Change is not always required on a federal level, which is why Weinman recommended putting pressure on local political leaders or city council members.
“It’s too late for us to make it better. It’s your turn now,” said William Wise, emergency services director of St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County. To find out more on how to get involved, visit http://www.ospirgstudents.org