Homelessness and Me
My Work at the WARM Shelter and My Research
An Essay by Gaelen Frink
Eighth Grade English
Pine Point School
March 5, 2011
Did you know that around 3.5 million people are homeless, and in Rhode Island 51 percent of homeless suffer from first time homelessness (Homelessness)? For my work for the assessment I worked at the WARM shelter; for work I served meals. I also conducted research on the topic of homelessness. I related To Kill a Mockingbird to my work in many different ways. This experience at the WARM shelter has changed me in many ways and I will never forget what I did.
I chose my site, the WARM shelter; because I thought it would be interesting to serve food to homeless people. I also chose my site because most of the places we could volunteer at were in Connecticut, and there were not that many in Rhode Island. Of the sites in Rhode Island very few of the hours worked with my schedule. Another conflicting variable was that I could not work on the weekends because I go skiing every weekend. One of the places I thought I could go to was the animal shelter because I have a dog and I like working with cats and dogs. I thought this would be a good place to work because it is in Rhode Island and close to my house. Another place in Rhode Island I could have gone to would be the Nursing homes because there are many of those in Westerly, but I was not interested in the topic of elderly people. I actually went to the WARM shelter to set up some times to volunteer, but the coordinator, Joy Cordio was not there. I was finally able to get a hold of Joy after many phone calls to her and many missed calls from her. I was nervous at first of volunteering at the WARM shelter, but now I really enjoy going there to volunteer. Getting a place to volunteer was definitely a roller coaster because getting a place to volunteer had its ups and downs.
While volunteering at the WARM shelter I experienced many challenges physically and mentally. At first I just came into the kitchen through the battered old door and served food to the clients, and then I left after my hour was up. I am now friends with the clients and the chef, Zig and, the clients want me to keep volunteering. I had so much fun that I will continue to volunteer at the WARM shelter because I liked volunteering so much. Another challenge I experienced was one time I was serving and one of the items of food was running low because I was serving too much to each person. So I had to as Zig says “Give a little less to each person so that the food will last.” Doing what he said I was able to make the food that I served to10 people serve 20 people. Once when I came into the shelter I did not see Zig at the counter preparing food, but two people from OLV, Our Lady of Victory. They told me that “We don’t need you and we do this every first of the month.” I explained to them why I was here and that I needed to do this for a school project, even though they didn’t need me I did most of the serving. I encountered some problems or challenges, but I worked through all of them.
During the time that I served I accomplished many things and I really felt like I helped someone. One of the things that I accomplished was that I served food to people who really needed a meal and needed to eat. My doing this made it so people who weren’t going to have a meal that night received one and ate instead of going hungry. I also served a meal to a thirteen year old girl who came in with her mom because she did not have any food to eat; I had seen this girl’s mom before but not her so they must not of had any food at their home. Another thing that I accomplished was finding things to do. Even though doing nothing sounds like fun for some people it was not fun for me. Sometimes at the beginning of the month people are scarce because they just received their food stamps and do not have to come into the WARM shelter for their meal. So sometimes I would have to find things to do. Another challenge that I accomplished was the problem of serving too much; this is a problem because a certain food will run out too quickly and not everyone will receive food. If I encountered this problem, which I did; I would have to make each serving to the people thereafter smaller so I could serve everyone else who came in for a meal. After I figured out how to make the portions smaller I felt like I accomplished making the meal last, but I also felt like someone went home hungry. After I was done serving it really I felt like I accomplished something and did something good for someone else.
While researching homelessness I learned a great deal about the topic that I did not know. One of the sources I used was the Rhode Island coalition for the homeless, and this gave me many good statistics on homelessness in Rhode Island. One of these statistics was eighteen percent of homeless people in Rhode Island suffer from chronic homelessness; chronic homelessness is a homeless person with a disabling condition and has been homeless for a year or more or has been homeless four times in the past year. I also learned that 41 percent of homeless people in Rhode Island are women and 59 percent of homeless people in Rhode Island are men (Homelessness). Some people have thought of ways were there can be portable housing for homeless people. One of these ideas is where there is a clear or white plastic round bubble that the person lives inside of and, the bubble is inflated with the exhaust from the heating of a building. Another idea is to have a suit where inside there is a cot built into the suit; to use one simply gets inside and zips up the suit and then to get out they unzip; this idea is designed for mass amounts of homeless people because the suits do not take up much room (Sample). While researching I came upon a type of homeless people called mole people; mole people are people who live underground in tunnels or caves. In Las Vegas there are around 700 people who live in underground tunnels; some these tunnels have water in them because of waste water from construction. Of the people featured in the article some of the people live there because the police don’t bother them and, this is good because some of the people have warrants for their arrest (Samson). While researching I found out many things that I did not know about homelessness and so now I understand how and why it happens to people.
During English class we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird and I was surprised to think about how To Kill a Mockingbird and the topic of homelessness have things in common. In To Kill a Mockingbird the topic of loneliness is a big part of the book because there are many references to it. When Dill runs away he did this because “[his parents] weren’t interested in [him].” and this made him feel unloved. It seems like some the clients that come in seem lonely and this is probably because some of them are all by themselves. At another point in the book Jem and Scout have the treasures that they find inside the tree. They make it seem like these are the most precious things that they own. The people who come in for food and live at the WARM shelter are also like this; the people who live at the WARM shelter have their own personal belongings that are only theirs and no one else can touch them, and when the people come in for food the food is their treasure and they guard it. The last thing that I see in common with To Kill a Mockingbird and homelessness is the topic of friendship. To Jem, Dill and Scout friendship is one of the big things that they hold dear to themselves. To the people at the WARM shelter everyone knows everyone and they are always joking and talking amongst themselves. Like the moral never judge a book by its cover if you thought about it quickly you never would think that the WARM shelter and To Kill a Mockingbird would have anything in common; luckily I did not.
If I was able to do the volunteering part of the assessment differently I would change a few things, but not that many. One thing I could have done differently was go on the weekends. If I was to do this I would have met the other cook and talked with him and heard his experiences. If I went on the weekend I also might have seen a different crowd of people instead of the ones I would usually see, and I could have seen if these people were different from the ones I usually see. At the end of January this part of the year is always busier than the other months because people are running low on food stamps because they got them early for Christmas. If I had served at the end of January I also would have served more meals which would have helped more people and I would have been busier longer. I also would have seen more people and some of those people might only come in if they really needed help, but they wouldn’t look like that. The last thing that I would have done differently would be to talk to more people. I talked to Matt, Zig and the woman who always comes in late. I could have talked to different people though, and found out about their experiences of homelessness and how it has affected them. A few things would be different, but I am quite content on how I conducted myself and the things that I did.
Experiences change the way we do things; if we have a bad experience of something we are likely to not do that again, but if we have an exceptional experience we are likely to do what we did again. This project has changed my view on homelessness because I now understand it. I learned that the homeless people are just people who had something bad come upon them and this rendered them homeless. This could be something a small as a little tiny mistake where you forgot to pay your rent and you get kicked out and you are now homeless. I now know more about some of the types of homeless and how it happens to them. Some of the people who are homeless are drug addicts and while there are a few most are not. On the other hand some people suffer from chronic homelessness and cannot get back on their feet. I now recognize the homeless people in my town, Westerly. While going around town I have seen some of the homeless so I now know who they are. I also am not as nervous around the WARM shelter as I used to be. With my service I learned about homelessness and homelessness in my town; it is amazing what this project did and showed me.
Homelessness is something that should be ended and soon, but in the mean time people can help out homeless by donating money food and time to help the food banks and shelters because if we all do this we can help to end homelessness. My time spent helping helped me realize ho w large of a problem homelessness is. The research also helped me realize how homelessness is a problem all over. Homelessness needs to be ended one step at a time whether it be you volunteering or becoming more knowledgeable on the topic of homelessness this is a problem.
Works Cited
“Background on the Neighborhood Opportunities Program.” Background on the Neighborhood Opportunities Program. Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. <http://www.rihomeless.org///Uploads///%20on%20NOP10.pdf>.
“The Homeless Experiment; Could You Cope with No Bed, No Money, and No Roof over Your Head? One Girl Decided to Ditch Them All for 30 Days of Life on the Streets. We Find out Why.” Cleo 15 Nov. 2009: n. pag. General Reference Center Gold. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://find.galegroup.com//.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=GRGM&docId=A243028567&source=gale&srcprod=GRGM&userGroupName=21843&version=1.0>.
“Homeless Facts.” The Homeless. N.p., 2006. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://the-homeless.com/.html>.
“Homelessness.” Wikipedia. N.p., 25 Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.
“Homelessness Statistics.” RI Coalition for the Homeless. N.p., 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. <http://www.rihomeless.org//HomelessnessStatistics///.aspx>.
“Programs.” The WARM Center. N.p., 2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://www.warmcenter.org/.html>.
Sample, Hilary. “Seeking Shelter- Homeless in the City.” Odyssey Feb. 2009: n. pag. Print.
Samson, Pete. “Lost Vegas.” The Sun [Nevada] 24 Sept. 2009: n. pag. EBSCO Host. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://www.thesun.co.uk/////people-living-in-drains-below-Las-Vegas.html>.
Streisand, Betsy. “Homeless Sprawl.” Middle Search Plus. US News and World Report, 18 Dec. 2006. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://search.ebscohost.com/.aspx?direct=true&db=mih&AN=23397788&site=ehost-live>.
