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Street Spirit Volume 20, No. 6 June 2014 Donation: $1.00 A publication of the American Friends Service Committee JUSTICE NEWS & HOMELESS BLUES IN THE B AY A REA On Our Way Home: Documenting Life on the Streets Homeless photographers cre- ate an eye-opening exhibit to document the dire conditions endured by people living on the streets of Oakland. by Lydia Gans mong the many galleries and out- door shows, food vendors, per- Aformers and general fun activities on Oakland’s First Friday in May was an exhibit at Uptown Body and Fender called “On Our Way Home.” It is a moving and inspiring series of photographs and state- ments by and about the lives of eight for- merly homeless men in Oakland. In contrast to most displays in galleries and museums, the photographers in this case were not professionals living in com- fort and security while standing back and documenting the lives of “others.” They were homeless or recently homeless senior men who had lived on the streets and personally suffered the inhumane conditions they were documenting. Each photographer had experienced the trauma of not having a place to rest and “A Need for Advocacy.” Guitar Whitfield took this photo of a homeless man in a nearby park. " I want everyone to Guitar Whitfield sleep, a place where they were safe from photo inclement weather and hostile attacks, a have a decent life in America. People are running around hungry and homeless. People need to help one another.” secure place to keep their possessions. They had experienced the deprivation of poverty We must make it possible for as they wandered from place to place with their shopping carts, trying to obtain food all people to find their way and get their most basic needs met. home. It often takes years to They were caught in a web of hope- find decent housing. lessness and loneliness, all too often despising their own lives. Their lives changed when they enrolled pated in the project. They went out in the in the winter shelter program at St. Mary’s neighborhoods to take pictures. Senior Center in Oakland. St. Mary’s For six weeks, they met weekly after Center serves as a temporary home and lunch with Susan Werner and Taryn provides meals, health care, help in find- Evans to share their experiences and ing permanent housing, and various pro- select their most compelling photographs grams and services. It also provides a to be prepared for the exhibit. Then Evans community where the seniors acquire the had their images enlarged and Werner had skills and develop confidence in their own them framed and prepared for the show. ability to redirect their lives. The show is one way to bring aware- Artist and photographer Taryn Evans ness of the situation of poor and homeless developed the concept for the photogra- seniors to the public. But just as impor- phy project. She found that Oakland has tant, if not more so, is the huge positive the highest percentage of homeless effect that creating this exhibit has had on seniors in the country. the men who participated. It was this “It was just astounding,” she recalled. experience that made it possible for them She became determined to make people to look back and talk about what their aware of the extent of poverty on the lives had been like on the streets. streets of Oakland. “I want to bring the Werner explained, “I think that when everyday lives of homeless seniors living we go through traumatic experiences, it’s in Oakland, California, to the public.” hard to take a look at oneself when you’re Evans secured a grant to provide a num- still in it. So here they had had an experi- ber of homeless seniors with disposable ence and moved through it, so their cameras and pay them a stipend to go out reflecting was based on the security and and take photographs. The aim was to pre- the accomplishment and the safety of their pare an exhibit that would tell the public, in own home. That makes such a difference words and pictures, about the plight, as well for someone to be able to talk about such as the humanity, of people who are poor a difficult experience.” and homeless in our community. The photographers write and talk of Evans connected with St. Mary’s how their lives have changed, what they Center. For Susan Werner, art facilitator have learned and can give back to the and social worker at the Center, it was an community. The title of the show, “On ideal opportunity. Eight men who had Our Way Home,” Werner recalls, seemed gone through St. Mary’s program partici- See On Our Way Home page 6 “Heavenly Threshold.” A homeless man in a church doorway. Pedro Del Norte photo 2 S TREET S PIRIT June 2014 First Bay Area Transgender Shelter Aims National Campaign for Youth Shelter to Open Doors with Community’s Help he National Campaign for Youth Shelter is being launched in part- ue to the harassment, abuse, nership by the National Coalition and neglect they have encoun- T for the Homelessness and the Ali tered in shelters, transgender Forney Center. The New York-based people in the Bay Area have Ali Forney Center has worked with Dbeen forced to live on the streets. numerous organizations to put together Transgender women are specifically a huge rally for LGBTQ youth experi- impacted by the lack of safe or afford- encing homelessness. able housing, while experiencing high LGBTQ youths are disproportionate- rates of discrimination in employment ly over-represented in the homeless and education. youth population, with as many as 40 With the help of the community, all of percent of the nation’s homeless youth that will soon change. Queens Cottage being LGBTQ. It is important to Shelter and Transitions House, a trans remember this devastating statistic dur- housing advocacy group, plan to open the ing Pride Month and to band together to area’s first housing program for transgen- effect change for ALL young people. der women. Queens Cottage Shelter and Over the course of the campaign, we Transitions House are partnering with are determined to see: local organizations, including the SF 1. A federal commitment to provide LGBT Center’s Trans Employment ALL young people, ages 24 and under, Program (TEEI), an initiative that pro- with immediate access to safe shelter. vides career and educational services to 2. An immediate commitment to add the trans community. 22,000 shelter beds along with appropri- Breezy Golden-Farr, founder of ate services — a five-fold increase over Queens Cottage Shelter, and Clair Farley, the current level of resources. Transitions House founder and associate 3. A more accurate and comprehen- director of economic development at the sive effort to count the number of home- SF LGBT Center, recently started a less youth in the nation in order to deter- crowdfunding campaign on mine the number of beds that are needed IndieGoGo.com. over the next decade. Initially, Queens Cottage Shelter’s goal In order to see improvements in the was to raise $5,000. The community took “When’s the Last Time You Slept on the Street?” A question raised by demonstrators lives of young people experiencing home- interest in this one-of-a-kind project, and calling for shelter, housing and services for transgender youth who are homeless. lessness, we must all work together and Queen’s Cottage Shelter raised almost speak out! Please use your voice to help $10,000 by the end of the first week. A first of its kind, Queens Cottage Contact Transitions House and others understand the gravity of this issue. Queens Cottage Shelter and Shelter will be the only shelter for trans- Queens Cottage Shelter For more information, please visit the Transitions House hopes to make their gender women in Oakland, Calif. In part- Clair Farley, SF LGBT Center National Campaign for Youth Shelter dream a reality with the continued support nership with Transitions House and the community, Queens Cottage Shelter Email: [email protected] web page: http://www.nationalcam- of crowd funders. The organizations hope Phone: (415) 865-5632 hopes to open its doors and provide stable paignforyouthshelter.org to raise $20,000 to offer shelter, food, IndieGoGo.com Campaign: housing and referrals to community connections to local resources and a safe https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/trans- — from The Advocate by the National resources to trans women in the area. haven to transgender women in the area. housing-now-queens-cottage-shelter Coalition for the Homeless. The Ruthless Elites at the Top of the Pyramid common humanity makes it far more dif- become nice guys. “on foot,” I usually just give them some The gross inequality of our ficult for this evil to be performed. It can be humiliating to beg for help. coins from my pocket and maybe a word Thus, anyone who opposes govern- This is especially so if you are trying to get of encouragement. society, and the hoarding of ment policies becomes a traitor. Innocent assistance from a mean and ungenerous I get offended when a wealthy person vast amounts of wealth, people in other countries and now here in person. If you ask for help, you risk discov- accuses someone else of having “a sense demonstrate the short-sight- the United States are suddenly “enemy ering whether someone is willing to treat of entitlement.” Certainly, that person’s combatants.” People of lower socioeco- others well, when they believe they could fortune came about because they weren’t ed heartlessness of the eco- nomic status have become “white trash,” get away with stomping on you.

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