I am one of the street poor, now. Not as poor as some, but homeless, alone, full of books and ignorant of reality. Unless I meet someone from the neighborhood, there’s no one I can afford to trust. No one to back me up…“Everyone who’s surviving out here knows things that I need to know,” I said. “I’ll watch them, I’ll listen to them, I’ll learn from them. If I don’t, I’ll be killed. And like I said, I intend to survive.”
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
I just saw something I never thought I’d see. Warning, it’s graphic and tragic beyond belief. It was a video of a man self-immolating as Oklahoma County sheriff’s deputies tried to evict him and his wife…It turns out that Anthony was caring for his wife, who has Parkinson’s. At 82 he looked after his disabled wife (who is alive and unharmed and has not been named), and it’s difficult, almost impossible to imagine what would come next for them after they lost their home. They were slated to go to an extended-stay hotel, and who knows what difficulties that alone would have presented for the elderly couple. And, more importantly, who knows what would’ve come after that?…Multiple articles in response to the immolation try to paint the deputies as compassionate, highlight how there was an Uber outside waiting to take the Gouldings to their temporary housing, and evade the foundational violence of this event. Taking away an elderly person’s home is immensely violent. A system that makes housing a for-profit enterprise where this fundamental necessity of life can be taken away at a moment’s notice is a violent system. “
Who decides what violence is? by Joshua P. Hill
The street poor will be back, and they won’t love us for sicking the cops on them. It’s illegal to camp out on the street the way they do—the way they must—so the cops knock them around, rob them if they have anything worth stealing, then order them away or jail them. The miserable will be made even more miserable. None of that can help Amy. I suppose, though, that it will make the Dunns feel better about the way they treated her.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Also, Donner has a plan for putting people back to work. He hopes to get laws changed, suspend “overly restrictive” minimum wage, environmental, and worker protection laws for those employers willing to take on homeless employees and provide them with training and adequate room and board. What’s adequate, I wonder: A house or apartment? A room? A bed in a shared room? A barracks bed? Space on a floor? Space on the ground? And what about people with big families? Won’t they be seen as bad investments? Won’t it make much more sense for companies to hire single people, childless couples, or, at most, people with only one or two kids? I wonder. And what about those suspended laws? Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people—as long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die? Dad decided not to vote for Donner after all. He didn’t vote for anyone. He said politicians turned his stomach.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Living Amongst America’s Homeless published in 2018 by Perry Castillo, is a blog post about homelessness and the best way to find effective solutions to extreme poverty and homelessness. I am mentioned in the discussion under the blog post:
“One thing I’ve noticed in the past two years of living indoors is that I am far from being the only ex-homeless person who is airing their views on the matter. I’ve tuned in especially to Ms. Adora Myers, whose recommendations on this pinned Quora post seem to me to be well worth considering, as well as is the detail with which she answered an offensive question without bothering to dignify it: https://www.quora.com/Should-homeless-people-be-rounded-up-and-forced-into-work-camps.”
Thank you Perry Castillo for the compliment and the link to my Quora posting!
“The concept of craft is present in many aspects of everyday life, even if it is not actively recognized as such. The importance and impact of independent artists studied by this dissertation is depicted in people’s everyday lives through widespread engagement with art. On her blog, Adora Myers offers this explanation, “Fine art transforms a building into a museum… Folk art enters a place, warms the colors, softens the edges, and plays in the yard. It is the tipping point, the key element transforming a house into a home.”9 While Myers is not an art historian, this quote perfectly highlights the commonly understood relationship between fine and folk art and emphasizes the value of folk art through its
existence in our homes and everyday lives.”
Russell, Anna McCrea.Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New YorkProQuest Dissertations Publishing, Degree Year2020. 28264556.
Blog post referenced: Fine Art vs Folk Art | Adora Myers
“How do we go about saving them? American blogger Adora Myers suggests there are several steps we can take, either as individuals or as corporate bodies, government agencies, non-governmental organisations, churches and other charities.
First, those who are fit enough need to find a permanent job that provides them with full benefits and can cover their cost of living. This is especially important for those who have young children. Next, is long-term shelter, but they should not be exploited under these circumstances; that is, do not put them to live in substandard conditions like a backyard shed, or abuse them sexually or otherwise for the rent money”
Barbados Today, July 10, 2019
Updated version of the blog posts referenced: Part 1: How to Help Someone Facing Homelessness | Adora Myers, Part 2: How to Help Someone Facing Homelessness | Adora Myers and Part 3: How to Help Someone Facing Homelessness | Adora Myers
“Folk art enters a place, warms the colors, softens the edges, and plays in the yard. It is the tipping point, the key element transforming a house into a home. – Adora Myers”
Blog post referenced: Fine Art vs Folk Art | Adora Myers
BUSES ARRIVING IN front of the Sleep Inn could mean one of two very different things: a field trip that might be the greatest day of a young Scout’s life, or the dreaded return to PATH, which meant you were getting bounced out of one shelter and moved to another. One prompted joy; the other served as a reminder that being poor meant having little or no control over where you would rest your head from one week to the next. Even if the decision to move families from one shelter to another wasn’t arbitrary, at the very least it seemed that the transfers were carried out with indifference. Someone somewhere—a caseworker or management at a hotel or in the Department of Homeless Services—had decided that it was time for people to pack up and move. Genesis, Brithani, and their mother and little sister were moved from the Sleep Inn to a more traditional shelter that had a regular-size refrigerator and a stove in each room so that families could make home-cooked meals. In their new space, Genesis was grateful to see her mother stirring pots, not only because that meant far better food than they’d been able to eat in a long time but also because the packaged lunches and dinners handed out each day at the Sleep Inn had been meals that could stretch to satisfy an empty stomach—filled with starches that could also exacerbate diabetes, which Genesis’s mother had developed. So having a stove and a refrigerator was good, because it meant healthier food. But the move came with consequences, too. Their new shelter was deep in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, about forty-five minutes away from the Sleep Inn. Genesis and Brithani had to start at new schools—again.
–Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop That Began in a Shelter and Inspired the World by Nikita Stewart
Inside the makeshift social services office at the Sleep Inn, there were hundreds of single-serve disposable plastic bowls of cereal, the kind with paper on top that peeled back like a sardine can. There were a few varieties to choose from, but the cereal was packaged for convenience and economy, and for parents and their children at the Sleep Inn, it was another reminder that being poor meant having fewer options. Someone somewhere had decided that a single small serving of cereal per day was good enough, and to many, each plastic container felt like a single serving of poverty. To experience homelessness was to live a life where everything, it seemed, was decided by the shelter staff, by the hotel staff, by the government. Every aspect of their lives was apportioned right down to the cereal.
–Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop That Began in a Shelter and Inspired the World by Nikita Stewart
At the same time Genesis was crying onscreen, Cori was sobbing outside the room. Her neighbor at the Sleep Inn had told her that a resident assistant was in her room packing up her belongings. Cori had done everything right—seeking permission and getting a letter from the Girl Scouts—but there had been a miscommunication or someone had decided that the letter was not adequate authorization for her absence from shelter for more than forty-eight hours. According to Childrens Community Services, Cori was in breach. So now they were kicking her out.
–Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop That Began in a Shelter and Inspired the World by Nikita Stewart
But this new troop was unique. It belonged to girls who did not know where they belonged. It wouldn’t make sense to use the numbers normally applied to troops in any of the five boroughs. Given that its members had no fixed addresses, wasn’t this troop of girls, no matter where it was located, really like a floating borough in its own right? Or even a shadow borough, because the rest of society was ignorant of or didn’t want to acknowledge its residents? At some point Girl Scout staff realized that the 6000s, designated years earlier for specialized troops, like those for girls with special needs, were no longer used. And so, the Girl Scouts of Greater New York settled on the name Troop 6000.
–Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop That Began in a Shelter and Inspired the World by Nikita Stewart