Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Words Will Form Your Perception of Me

I want to focus in on some common perceptions and assumptions about homelessness and use my sources to complicate these perceptions in unique and perhaps unheard-of ways that will give a whole new outlook on homelessness (to whomever I am able to reach through my presentation.) I am not sure if I should focus in on one thing or multiple things. Personally, I would like to look at all of these things, as they all fall under the category of perceptions of homelessness and I think they are the most important topics to highlight and complicate. My challenge is just figuring out how to integrate them into each other or into one bigger idea. I think I have made it clear that homelessness is a complex issue (and you can even see this in my post below, which is my Verbal Portrait.) I am leaning toward looking at how "forms of literacy" and forms of literature as well as use of language may shape perceptions about homelessness and about the causes of homelessness.

I want to highlight some topics such as forms of literature on homelessness by using Toxic Literacies (Taylor) to look at how forms and applications of "the system" control the lives and limit the choices of the homeless who are actually trying to work their way out of homelessness. I am also going to use different forms of literature from Shalom Community Center in order to integrate my agency into my paper and in my final project.

I also want to examine how language used in these two different types of literature can reinforce or complicate perceptions on homelessness. I am also going to examine the language used in my sources that describes those experiencing homelessness and also that describes those who are not experiencing homelessness.

"Causes of homelessness" is one of the most commonly discussed aspects of homelessness among "the housed" (a.k.a. those who are not experiencing homelessness) and there is so much that can be brought to light here (even though bringing these issues to light may only further complicate things.) I also think it is important to see how those experiencing homelessness talk about themselves and others in their situation and perhaps cite, using statistical data, what the most common causes of homelessness are. Using real people is the best source in my opinion. My interview for the Verbal Portrait will be one example of this type of situation. I have sources that have a negative view of people's own choices leading them to homelessness (i.e. "laziness".) These sources are some of those that I used in my Verbal Portrait, such as Public Beliefs About Homelessness (Lee) and Perspectives of Employed People Experiencing Homelessness of Self and Being Homeless: Challenging Socially Constructed Perceptions and Stereotypes (Shier). I even found an article that has President Reagan reinforcing such ideas that laziness and poor choices are what lead people to homelessness, not his presidency nor the economic state at the time. Another interesting source I found, Housing Patterns of Homeless People: The Ecology of the Street in the Era of Urban Renewal (Wasserman) shows those experiencing homeless as key stakeholders in urban communities with goals, concerns, and desired boundaries similar to those who “legitimately” live downtown.

Obviously, there are countless different views on homelessness and, of course, different forms of language to go with each of them. There's American pop culture and media perceptions, perceptions of middle class individuals, perceptions of political figures in high positions, perceptions that agencies like Shalom try to put out into society, and these are all molded to some degree by language use. I want to use my sources in two ways: as pieces of information about perceptions of homelessness and about certain statistics, and forms of literature in order to analyze the language used in each one. In this way I can integrate use of language and forms of literature and the information presented in Toxic Literacies into my interest in how perceptions are formed about the causes of homelessness.

The Gray Area: Perceptions Associated With Homelessness Are Not Black & White

“What is the best part about being homeless?” The paradox this question brought forth actually caught me by surprise and I found myself feeling a bit sheepish after the words left my mouth. I became aware of myself silently wondering, What could possibly be positive, let alone “the best,” about being homeless? In fact, I had just assumed that I would not be given an answer at all. Nonetheless, before I could even consider retracting my question, Mike McNabb, a man experiencing homelessness along with his wife, April, was already feeding me an answer. “Freedom from responsibility,” he began assuredly and quietly, “I would say is the best thing.” I was a bit taken aback at how quickly Mike responded to my question, without hesitation. Why was I so surprised that Mike was able to answer my question, and so promptly? Would any other informant in Mike’s position have answered the same way? These silent questions raised as repercussions of my voiced question were some sort of indication of a clashing of worlds, some sort of misunderstanding along the line. Mike’s answer to my question, his responses to my other questions, and his attitude toward his own situation draw attention to the complex mismatching between self-perceptions (inside perceptions) and common other-perceptions (or outside perceptions) associated with individuals experiencing homelessness. What is often not realized is that there is a large gray area that does not lie between ‘homelessness’ and ‘housed,’ but rather this gray area is homelessness.

Mike sat across from me at a small table in the Shalom Community Center for those experiencing homelessness. We were in a communal sitting area: a room with gray cement floors and walls with a few gray tables scattered around accompanied by small gray plastic chairs. The room was chilly and a little damp, but the sun shone through a nearby window and glass door from the entrance. There was little company today, as the weather was on the warmer side and everyone was most likely out enjoying the sun. The few other guests who stuck around sat at other tables observing us and listening to our conversation. Mike did not seem to notice the spectators, or perhaps he did not care if they were listening. I tried not to let it intimidate me. Mike was wearing a worn-down gray hoodie and jeans that were faded from wear, not from style. When I looked at him, he looked so tired, but this exhaustion seemed to be much deeper than just from lack of sleep. I offered him one of the two cups of coffee that I brought, but he insisted that his wife, April, have it instead. April sat to my left at the table, wearing a Native American style cloak, and eagerly accepted the coffee. Her hair was gray and braided; her eyelids hung heavily, but there was life to her blue eyes. April was louder than Mike when she spoke, but Mike did most of the talking—quietly. Mike was very soft-spoken and calm. He had a sort of unwavering patience that seemed as though it had been painstakingly tested, and had not faltered even yet.

A soft smile crept across Mike’s face when he uttered those three words: Freedom of responsibility. My own unspoken questions that were provoked by Mike’s unexpected answer still prevailed and were creating a cascade of new questions: Why am I even asking all of these questions in the first place? Why is Mike’s answer so seemingly controversial? Perhaps because even since the Middle Ages, Anglo-Americans have stigmatized poor persons in ways that were demeaning and separated them from society (Phelan 323). There were negative attitudes toward those in poverty and a tendency to blame the poor for their circumstances. Even in recent times, although much less harshly, there still exists an inclination in the public to blame the poor for their condition (Phelan 323). Public perception during the early and mid-20th century considered the homeless man living in “skid row” districts of America’s major urban centers as “lazy” and uninterested in permanent work (Shier 14). So it seems the term “homelessness” rarely conjures up any positive emotions, at least not in those who have only “seen and heard” homelessness rather than actually having suffered from it. And yet, on this very day, a man experiencing homelessness tells me, with a smile, that one of the greatest rights humans have fought for throughout history—freedom—is the best thing about homelessness.

Mike’s take on homelessness may very well be the sole result of actually living and experiencing homelessness. That is not to say that he is content with his current situation, but he remains hopeful rather than overwhelmingly defeated. It has been shown that the stigma associated with homelessness negatively influences the emotional well-being of those in society who are homeless (Shier 14). Mike’s ability to find positivity in his all too commonly stigmatized situation may very well be an indication that his own perceptions of homelessness are separated from other-perceptions by a gap that can only be filled through actual experience or directly working with those experiencing homelessness.

The conversation continued on to what, exactly, led Mike to this place in his life. He had not always been homeless, he told me. He came from a family with a mother who was a doctor and a stepfather who was an air traffic controller. This fact in itself challenges other-perceptions (which are often based on common trends), seeing as people in poverty tend to stay poor (Beegle 12). In this case, however, Mike was the first generation in his family to experience poverty, despite his background of a financially comfortable upbringing.

How could Mike have ended up where he is today? Other-perceptions of homelessness in American society and media have long stressed laziness, immorality, wanderlust, heavy drinking, and other character deficits as reasons for descending the social class ladder (Lee 254). Contrary to this negative image given off by the media and culture, recent studies have shown that more than half of Americans not experiencing homelessness are more likely to cite forces out of one’s control and mental illness as the top two underlying causes of homelessness (Lee 257). I asked whether Mike believed that he was experiencing homelessness due to his own choices that he had made leading up to this point or whether he thought homelessness was a burden forced upon him. He did not seem displeased in any way when I confronted him with this inquiry—rather he looked at me thoughtfully, as if no one had ever asked him this before.

Mike explained to me that his homelessness was a result of his “tastes” exceeding his budget. My attention was caught, again, by his seemingly unexpected answer. Mike was claiming responsibility for his own circumstances. Mike’s perception of his own causes of homelessness was agreeing with American media. I thought he would have been more defensive, since he had told me earlier that the view others and the media have of homeless individuals is “so unreal and so negative—they think we are all thieves, criminals, lazy people.” I think what many forget—myself included in this instance—is that homeless individuals are not deviant, so they do not need to be coerced; they are not so socially excluded that they need to be re-skilled (Radley 274). Outsiders often set the homeless apart and make assumptions about how they will act or respond, which perhaps may be why I was so surprised that Mike did not respond defensively. Coming from a seemingly normal background, why should he act any different than a housed person would?

Mike also brought up a motorcycle accident he was in before becoming homeless that resulted in a head injury that required hospitalization as well as symptoms such as lack of attention, inability to focus, and forgetfulness. He told me that he was unable to keep a steady job due to these mental deficits. This underlying attribute to what led Mike to his current situation corresponds with the aforementioned growing other-perceptions of Americans that cite forces out of one’s control as a main cause of homelessness.

Clearly, the relationships between insider perceptions and outsider perceptions—and even between outsider perceptions from different sources—do not unite piece by piece to create any one big picture. There is no simple two-way contradiction between perceptions from homeless individuals and perceptions from housed individuals. We see that Mike falls into step with the conventionalized imagery of his situation. And yet he steps out of line from long-standing assumptions and contributes to the growing awareness that homelessness is not always self-generated. In the midst of an overwhelmingly downtrodden outlook on the causes and experiences of homelessness, this man smiles and savors a freedom of the so often called “burdens” of a financially stable or privileged life. His own life and perceptions demonstrate that there is no black and white translating to ‘homelessness’ and ‘housed.’ There is a vast gray area that exists and it is homelessness.

Works Cited

Beegle, Donna M. "Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty." Talking Points 15.1 (2003): 11-20.

Lee, Barrett A., Sue H. Jones, and David W. Lewis. "Public Beliefs about the Causes of Homelessness." Social Forces 69.1 (1990): 253-65.

Phelan, Jo, Bruce G. Link, Robert E. Moore, and Ann Stueve. "The Stigma of Homelessness: The Impact of the Label "Homeless" on Attitudes Toward Poor Persons." Social Psychology Quarterly 60.4 (1997): 323-37.

Radley, Alan, Darrin Hodgetts, and Andrea Cullen. "Visualizing Homelessness: A Study in Photography and Estrangement." Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 15 (2005): 273-95.

Shier, Michael L., Marion E. Jones, and John R. Graham. "Perspectives of Employed People Experiencing Homelessness of Self and Being Homeless: Challenging Socially Constructed Perceptions and Stereotypes." Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare 37.4 (2010): 13-37.