No Longer Homeless by David Wagner

Author:David Wagner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

Rick: works, no housing subsidy

Violet: works, owns home (earlier had a housing subsidy)

Wally: veteran’s pension, housing subsidy

Tyrone: veteran’s pension, housing subsidy

There are many differences between the subjects interviewed in Los Angeles and in Portland. Importantly, as noted, the locale for many of the interviews in Los Angeles, though not all, was Skid Row, which has an unusual amount of low-income housing preserved from destruction. A number of the subjects above are currently in single room occupancy apartments, and others had been previously. In the immediate area near Skid Row as well, there are more lower-rent apartments available than in many other areas. Also, because several formerly homeless people are many years past homelessness, they have moved on and no longer need the same amount of help (for example, Violet, who now owns her own home, says she was greatly helped by a subsidy when she moved from homelessness to housing). Second, more of the LA interviewees are working. It is hard to know whether this represents a better employment picture in that city or means that some formerly homeless people have not been successful in achieving social benefits. Certainly, jobs like Amelia’s and Shirley’s as fill-in workers for factories are very rare in the New England area. Others like TRO and Rick are busy in acting careers, which is their dream and the reason they came to Los Angeles in the first place. Finally, there may be either a real or perceived difference in the amount of mental illness in the sample. Since mental illness is one of the more frequent pathways to receiving disability or SSI, it may be that Portland has a larger number of people in this category or it may be the numbers who are willing to go in and declare themselves as having a mental disability are greater.

It is important to know, particularly for citizens who think life on social benefits is easy, that quite a few people told me they had either rejected social benefits or at least had great ambivalence about them. Mary in Los Angeles “refuses to bother” with general assistance and other forms of welfare because she would have to account for the small sums she makes off the books (writing, teaching classes, massage). Reggie, whose work varies from playing drums with a band to selling nutritional supplements, has taken the same path. Three people interviewed, Sally in Los Angeles and Ian and Millie in Portland, told me they had been told many years ago they would each have qualified for disability benefits. Millie was perhaps typical in stating, “It was a hard decision for [me] because [I] considered myself prideful, and you know this [is] not who I am. I had to ask myself if I really wanted to sit home and collect a check.” Although Social Security disability comes from tax money collected from payroll tax and is a right, many people do not think they should collect it.

On the other side are many who are still engaged in fights over benefits.

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