- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
- 2-3 annotations.
This week, I interviewed someone working at Preble Street for about an hour, and it was really insightful to get more information about the day-to-day experiences of a worker there. Moreover, she also talked about how the city will be taking over the managing of the shelter, potentially affecting the operations there. She spoke more specifically about fighting back against “a larger structural force” that appears to be trying to hide the problem of homelessness in Portland. She discussed about investors and this traditionally high-ranking officials valuing industrialization and profit, as well as real estate, to attract new contracts for luxury buildings. Moreover, when discussing about housing shelters for those experiencing homelessness in Portland, she describe the experience as being “frustrating” as “even of folks do get approved for housing vouchers, they can’t necessarily use it” based on the high living costs in Portland, as well as the inherent stigma from the landlords that is associated with homeless populations. Thus, as a result of this, she discussed about how such a “broken system” can “set back people back for months, sometimes years.” This interview, overall, was very helpful for me that will definitely aid in complementing my research as it serves as a case study and a practical application to the theoretical aspects and framework that I am intending to look at through this project.
In addition conducting this interview, I also consulted three other books that further provided a contextual understanding for my project. The book The Homelessness Industry: A Critique of US Social Policy further reinforced the historical approaches that I had found in my previous research efforts, but this book in particular made explicit connections to neoliberalism during the Reagan administration in relation to poverty and homelessness. This is based on the idea of “trickle down” economics and emergence of highly profitable industries providing jobs and other opportunities. In addition to this book, I also read the book Homeless not Hopeless: The Survival Networks of Latino and African American Men from which I got a greater sense of understanding regarding the role of social networks playing a role in ethnic group differences in the experiences of homelessness. The author suggests of these informal networks playing a role in finding emotional and financial support, as well as in the ability to find kinship and create a sense of collective identity amongst themselves. Finally, the last book that I read this book was termed Homelessness and Social Work: An Intersectional Approach that served as a shift in my research into understanding the role of social work and their experiences assisting such populations. More specifically, this book focuses on how social work has historically generalized the treatment of marginalized groups and the need for a more intersectional approach (i.e. considering race, gender, SES, psychological distress, trauma) when examining these populations emerging as a product of structural inequalities.
From these books, I was able to gain a much more stronger foundation in understanding the ways in which deviancy of homeless populations has been constructed historically based on the priorities set forth in furthering one’s neoliberal ideologies, while at the same time also examining survival networks among these individuals and ways in which social services can aid in working with such marginalized populations. Apart from this research, my interview has indeed made me realize of the very real consequences of such processes in a city very closely to where I am. It has made me much more interested in delve further into criminalization in Portland, ME, as well as the barriers for accessing resources in Portland. I also became interested to delve more into the ways in which nonprofit organizations and shelters provide services and their perspectives on dynamic nature of Portland. While there were no specific challenges while collecting this data, my next steps include: interviewing someone from Homeless HealthPartners to gain a different perspective and to look more into Portland as a case study by examining its homeless populations, criminalization laws, gentrification, and those social services providing aid.
Beck, Elizabeth., Twiss, Pamela. The Homelessness Industry: A Critique of US Social Policy. Lynne Rienner Publishers. 2018. Print.
Molina-Jackson, Edna. Homeless not Hopeless: The Survival Networks of Latino and African American Men. UPA (1705). 2008. Print.
Zufferey, Carole. Homelessness and Social Work: An Intersectional Approach. Taylor and Francis Group. 2017. Print.