A closer look at 'the invisible problem'

Karen Mack works at New Hope for Women, a long-term shelter for women recovering from substance abuse problems. Donna Foster is the program coordinator for Sojourner's Place, a transitional home for women with substance abuse and mental health problems. Natasha Ray is the president of Mothers for Justice, an independent grassroots organization and advocacy group for women in the New Haven area transitioning from welfare to work. Cheri Quickmire is an organizer for Mothers for Justice.

Natasha Ray: Yale takes up most of New Haven. It should play a big part in addressing these issues. I think it's extremely important for the University to be involved in what's going on in the city. I think if we're allowed to go to college without worrying about losing any money or without having to spend money—that women are forced to work for tuition and books and such—then it would probably work out a whole lot better. Because when you think about it, you have maybe thousands of families on public assistance, and they have been receiving this assistance for four or five years—say you're given this money, $600 a month, and you take all of that. Send them to college, and let them make their own money!

Karen Mack: Landlords want to run police checks and credit checks, and you're talking about a woman who has been using [drugs] over a period of five or 10 years and whose credit has gone down the tubes a long time ago. Their only goal was to get hold of drugs to get high to feel good, to deal with the pain. Some [homeless] women are really committed to turning their life around. They go out there thinking, "I'm going to get this job," and they go to apply for a job, and what can they do? They're getting doors shut on them because, "I'm sorry, we can't hire you, because you have a drug problem," or "I'm sorry, we can't rent you this apartment, because you have bad credit." I mean, come on! This is reality! A lot of women want to give up, but they can't.

Cheri Quickmire: The reason that the Homeless Advisory Commission actually exists in New Haven is because of a coalition between people who are homeless and YHHAP students. The real organizing effort happened over the last few years, and otherwise it wouldn't exist. For a few years the mayor [John DeStefano, Jr.] did nothing because no one was really pushing him. The fact that they considered thinking about adding extra beds to Columbus House was because of that collaborative effort. It wasn't about the agency making it happen, it was about the folks who were homeless who went and testified in court, who camped out on the Green in downtown New Haven. No one was paying attention to women who were homeless because they were essentially invisible. They were doubling up on housing and sleeping under the old Macy's building for years.

Donna Foster: The real answer lies not just in decent, affordable housing, which is so hard to find in this area, but also in education and work. Supportive housing isn't for everyone because of the strict criteria that are placed on it. If you're not duly diagnosed with a mental health issue on top of subtance abuse, you not going to get into Sojourner's Place. If you just have a substance abuse problem, you need help, but you're not going to get it here. Who are we to be judge and jury, to tell someone that this is what you need to do in order to get the basics, a roof over your head and meals? I think they're trying to fit square pegs into round holes too many times. It's not the answer. Supportive housing is a temporary solution. What happens after that? If you've ruined your life for nine years, how are you going to change it in 90 days? You can't.

You're told, "You need treatment," and then you're told, "Well, you can't get into treatment because you have children," and they tell you to take care of your children. You're told by your welfare worker, "You've got to get a job, because you're being cut off," and you're told by your DCF [Department of Child and Families] worker, "No, you can't go to work, because you've got to stay home and be with your kids." Their heads are spinning in 10 different directions. If that's confusing for me to hear, imagine what it's like for someone who has mental health issues. It's confusing and it's frustrating, and a lot of women just feel like there's nowhere they can turn. After the panel, the Herald sat down with YHHAP Co-coordinators Beth Rubenstein, CC '03, and Lindsay Stradley, PC '03, to find out more about student interaction with homeless women and other activist organizations. YH: Why did you decide to focus on women specifically?

Lindsay Stradley: People talk about this as an "invisible problem"—homeless women—because if there's not emergency beds out there for them, you're not going to see women just hanging around on the street. They'll stay in bad domestic situations or live with relatives, in places where there's not sufficient living space or it's just not a good living situation. We decided to shift focus to transitional housing and probably towards transitional housing for women, figuring that is where there is the greatest need.

YH: Yale students see homeless people every day, asking for money. What should they do?

Beth Rubenstein: There are many different approaches besides giving money, and obviously that is just a short-term solution. One of the projects that YHHAP runs is New Haven Cares, which is a voucher program, so that students can give vouchers for 50 cents or a dollar to a homeless person instead of giving him or her money. They can use vouchers to get merchandise, but not drugs or alcohol. The other approach is to get involved with a service project by volunteering at a soup kitchen or working at a shelter. People that don't want to get involved on an interpersonal level can work on legislation campaigns.

YH: Are the nightly shelters doing a good job?

LS: I think that there are problems with existing emergency shelters. Emmanuel Baptist has been continually cited for problems and mistreatment. Some of that exists even at other places that have better reputations. More important than funding an additional emergency shelter is funding transitional and affordable permanent housing. Until those are provided, you can build as many shelters as you want, but people will not move on from there.

BR: None of the emergency shelters right now are equipped to help people go back into the workforce and into permanent housing.

YH: How well is the city handling this issue?

LS: The current head of the Department of Human Services is a woman named Melody Peet, and she's new as of last fall, and she's great. She was even more aware of the problems within the city and the places they're funding than we were. The Homeless Advisory Commission reports to her. Clearly, she was brought in by DeStefano, who has placed an increased emphasis on homeless issues over the past couple of years.

BR: I think having continuity in someone like Peet is important because of the turnover that's happening in the student body every four years. Yale students are definitely a force in homeless advocacy. Town Hall is familiar with YHHAP and has been for many years.

YH: How can the University get involved? LS: Some people wanted the Administration to provide a building for a new shelter that Yale students would run. The most plausible and practical thing the Administration can provide is general political support. It has a tremendous amount of leverage within New Haven and should throw its weight behind these kinds of issues, like Columbus House's finding a new spot. As specific things come up, we look to Yale to see what we can ask them to do.

—Alex DeMille and Rachel Kamins

 

Annette's story I used to work at Norman's Bake-off, a Jewish bakery on Chapel Street. I worked there for eight years of my life, and then it moved out of town. I was living in an apartment on Whalley Avenue, but my rent got too high and I got evicted. I was staying at a friend's house, at least someone who I had thought was my friend. But then they told me that they didn't have enough room for me, and I had to leave. I have one son living in Maine, who comes by here sometimes to see me. I love him dearly. Every time he comes down here he finds me and takes me out to dinner and lets me stay in a hotel with him. He wants me to come up and stay with him, but I don't want to be a burden on my child. He's got a family now. How do I go up there with no job, when I can't even buy my grandchild a box of Pampers? It was hard for me at first to get used to [Yale students] being my friends. I sat out there many a day asking people for change. I can imagine what your parents tell you about New Haven. I thought, "How can I make these kids like me and trust me?" At first I didn't have any flowers; I was just asking people for change. I had nothing to give in return. One day, about six years ago, this old lady saw me wrapping up a daisy, and she asked me how much I wanted for the flower. I told her; "Here, you can have it." And she said that she couldn't take it without giving me something in return. So I told her "a dollar," because that was the lowest amount that I knew I could get for the daisy. That's how I began to sell flowers. Sometimes I sleep in homeless shelters. But I don't like them. You don't know the person you're sleeping next to. I feel more comfortable inside of a vacant house than I do in a shelter. The only difference between a vacant house and a shelter is that in a vacant house there's no light. Many times I used to go to the store to buy candles, and the shopkeeper always used to ask me why I was buying them. I used to make up something to tell him, like I'm holding a religious service or something. I never could tell anybody where I used to sleep, because it was against the law. But it beat sleeping outside in the cold. You know how many people give a dollar just to get me to shut up? You know how many people I see everyday who have the authority to give me a job, and don't? And I would work. If I were hired for something, I'd be there. I might be a few minutes late, but I'd be there. Annette Walton is 39 years old and homeless.

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