A teacher without housing

When the Housing Justice Collective was formed, we realized that before we could push for positive change or work to encourage the city and county to do so, we needed to find out more about the specific challenges our unhoused community members face. To do this we held several small discussion groups over the course of several weeks, with both homeless people and the outreach workers that try to assist them. This is one of the stories we heard.

At one of our discussion groups, we met S, a young black woman that is a teacher. Forced to move back to Ithaca due to a child custody case, she could not find full-time work, and, with a child, adding a 2nd job would require childcare. After living in a number of disastrous apartment situations (1 was foreclosed on so the utilities suddenly turned off, another she and her child were terrorized by a neighbor), she moved into a friend’s house who allowed her to stay there while they were away, and she had a letter from them saying the place was only available until a certain date. She applied to DSS but was told she needed a letter from her previous landlord that she didn’t live there, and a letter from her mother that she couldn’t live with her, etc. etc. She was repeatedly asked if she had showered! Seemingly a  ploy to try to get her disclose she actually had a place to stay, and with racial undertones. She was denied housing assistance  at first, eventually approved, but was not given an application for Section 8 housing, she had to ask (many would not realize they had to do this). She noted the difficulty of trying to remember every place you have stayed for the last few weeks when you have been unhoused, and needing an advocate to get through the system. At last contact she and her child had been placed in a motel on a list for housing.

Stories of Homelessness

Housing is a Human Right. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including foods, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Martin Luther King said “…it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” It is our duty and responsibility to provide the “boots” to help our unhoused community members lift themselves out of homelessness. This may include mental health assistance, substance abuse treatment, a living wage, job opportunities, food and rent assistance, etc. and yes, this all costs money - but the downward costs of having a large unhoused, ill, and hungry community are far more.

Several members of the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission joined with members of the Alliance of Families for Justice and Friends of AFJ to form the Housing Justice Collective, now an independent group of community members concerned with housing and homelessness. Over the last few months, we met with approximately 20 unhoused community members and outreach people that support them, and asked for their stories. What caused them to become homeless? What could have prevented it? What do they need now?

The causes of homelessness are diverse. Clearly the lack of affordable safe housing is the most pressing issue. Besides the high monthly rents, saving up enough money for a security deposit can be a major obstacle. Evictions (often due to no fault of their own but building sales, landlord bankruptcies, etc.) and people fleeing domestic violence situations add to this. Untreated mental health issues and drug addiction, which often go hand in hand, both contribute to and can be a result of homelessness, creating a cycle difficult to break. Given the current dearth of facilities in the county, finding addiction treatment and rehabilitation can be a challenge, even if one feels ready, all while navigating insurance issues. Addressing mental health issues requires awareness and willingness on the part of the sufferer, and then there are similar challenges of finding help and navigating insurance.

We will be sharing some of the stories we heard in hopes that community members will recognize that the unhoused population is not a monolith – these are diverse people with unique needs and a diversity of problems that caused them to become unhoused. We appreciate that Tompkins County and the city of Ithaca are working hard to deal with this crisis. But the problems cannot be solved without the support of the community, who must be able to recognize the humanity of our unhoused community members and the diversity of the challenges they face.

 By Theresa Fulton