Large-scale homeless organization: the hot new thing for August?
August 5, 2009 6:41 AM Subscribe
A group of 25 homeless Polish men are building a boat with the intention of sailing around the world. Meanwhile, over in the New World, around 80 Providence, R.I. homeless people have formed their own government.
homeless people have formed their own government
That's nothing, the homeless guy that hangs out near my Metro station is the King of France.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:48 AM on August 5, 2009 [9 favorites]
That's nothing, the homeless guy that hangs out near my Metro station is the King of France.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:48 AM on August 5, 2009 [9 favorites]
...after his release he failed to provide the police with an address, violating the terms of his bail
Homeless man charged with failing to register an address. The system works!
posted by DU at 6:50 AM on August 5, 2009 [5 favorites]
Homeless man charged with failing to register an address. The system works!
posted by DU at 6:50 AM on August 5, 2009 [5 favorites]
John Freitas, the leader of a homeless camp in East Providence, was arrested Tuesday and charged — again — with failing to register as a sex offender
Do you think that has something to do with the "no children allowed" rule he mentions?
posted by scrutiny at 6:56 AM on August 5, 2009
Do you think that has something to do with the "no children allowed" rule he mentions?
posted by scrutiny at 6:56 AM on August 5, 2009
I'm sorry, but I hate articles like that Times article. Journalists love stories that romanticize homelessness, stories where they can say, "Wow! Look at these awesome homeless people and this awesome little world they've made." The only reason they've made that little world under the overpass is because there are no peramanent housing resources available and the shelter system that still gets the bulk of homeless services funding is a totally inhumane place. There is no mention in this article about community mental health resources or permanent housing or the evidence based housing first method of bundling the two together in a way that is demonstrated to end homelessness.
That article is a total journalistic failure. I sure the writer feels awesome about having written it though, like his own little Grapes of Wrath.
posted by The Straightener at 7:01 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
That article is a total journalistic failure. I sure the writer feels awesome about having written it though, like his own little Grapes of Wrath.
posted by The Straightener at 7:01 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
Why won't that Times article go awayyyyy! It is so bad.
I mean,
"Then, at night, he and his partner, Norman Trank, 45, sit at a riverside table, a battery-operated candle giving light, the moving waters suggesting mystery."
Suggesting mystery? Really?
posted by lunit at 7:11 AM on August 5, 2009
I mean,
"Then, at night, he and his partner, Norman Trank, 45, sit at a riverside table, a battery-operated candle giving light, the moving waters suggesting mystery."
Suggesting mystery? Really?
posted by lunit at 7:11 AM on August 5, 2009
I read it with a less cynical eye. It's a lot more of, "homeless folks are not the scum of the earth. They're trying to make it work as best they can with limited resources." It really humanizes people who we'd otherwise find all-too-easy to ignore or write off as sub-human.
posted by explosion at 7:13 AM on August 5, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by explosion at 7:13 AM on August 5, 2009 [3 favorites]
DU ate his dinner, while on the table a copy of the Times suggested that moving waters suggested mystery.
posted by DU at 7:16 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by DU at 7:16 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
Eh, there is Misfortune. There is Misfortune that befalls those who Should Have Known Better, such as not being able to get and keep a job after being convicted of a sex offense, and there is Misfortune that comes clear out of a blue sky, like finding you've got stage 3 pancreatic cancer when you just thought you were a little more tired than usual.
People tend to look at all Misfortune and put as much of it as possible under the first heading, because then it's Something That Happens To Other People, because of course we're smarter than that/have better insurance/work hard, etc.
Still, there is Misfortune. Help where you can. Commiserate where you cannot. There is no Them.
posted by Pragmatica at 7:23 AM on August 5, 2009 [4 favorites]
People tend to look at all Misfortune and put as much of it as possible under the first heading, because then it's Something That Happens To Other People, because of course we're smarter than that/have better insurance/work hard, etc.
Still, there is Misfortune. Help where you can. Commiserate where you cannot. There is no Them.
posted by Pragmatica at 7:23 AM on August 5, 2009 [4 favorites]
Meanwhile, Rotterdam is hunting all the homeless down and giving them shelter and addiction counseling.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:24 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:24 AM on August 5, 2009
Yeah, the Times article kept reminding me of "To Walk Among Them" by Scott Templeton.
posted by brevator at 7:24 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by brevator at 7:24 AM on August 5, 2009
Here's Rhode Island's HUD homelessness funding for this year, split between $750,000 in shelter funding plus 4.7 million for mostly "continuum of care" model programs, the kind of programs that admit very few people to start with because they have strict requirements for things like sobriety time and medication compliance, and clients who violate these requirements can be terminated from the program and returned to the streets. Not surprisingly, those programs aren't so great at keeping people with chronic drug and mental health problems off the streets. I know for a fact that "shelter plus care," which gets 1.1 million of this funding, is this kind of program. There may be more housing first oriented programs on this list, but the only one I can tell follows that model from the name is "Supportive Housing Program" which gets $8,000 in funding. A lot of housing first programs are still grant funded, so this is not likely to be the total homelessness resources allocated to it in RI overall, but this gives you an idea of how the system at large is still weighted towards continuum of care programs that are not based on harm reduction methods that we know work.
So what the fuck, Times? Where's all that at? I mean, why is the state of Rhode Island spending millions of dollars a year for there to be homeless camps under bridges? Isn't that the kind of question a journalist is supposed to ask?
posted by The Straightener at 7:24 AM on August 5, 2009 [3 favorites]
So what the fuck, Times? Where's all that at? I mean, why is the state of Rhode Island spending millions of dollars a year for there to be homeless camps under bridges? Isn't that the kind of question a journalist is supposed to ask?
posted by The Straightener at 7:24 AM on August 5, 2009 [3 favorites]
I think the issue here is that to qualify for assistance programs that the state offers, you do need to adhere to some guidelines. I don't know for sure what the premise is behind the tent city but I do know a person who lives there. He's admittedly and decidedly living "off the grid" and has been for years. The guy has no mental or physical limitations, he only chooses to be unemployed and as of the past year, officially homeless. The point I'm trying to make is that he is an intelligent and industrious person who made a choice to live this way and from all he's told me, the tent city folks are of that same ilk. This is why they live under a commune organization. It's not a random pile of people who all found an overpass to live under, it's a group who help one another and choose to live under their own rules rather than what the state of RI would expect of them in return for assistance.
As far as the leader, he's a level 3 sex offender and has been arrested more than once in the past for such acts. If he is truly changed, as he has stated to the press, then why has he still refused to register as a sex offender? (a requirement under RI law)
Being a resident of Providence, I can relate to people wanting him off the streets, but by and large, I don't see many people complaining for the tent city group being there, only that they'd like to see these people recieve more help.
posted by jtoth at 7:49 AM on August 5, 2009
As far as the leader, he's a level 3 sex offender and has been arrested more than once in the past for such acts. If he is truly changed, as he has stated to the press, then why has he still refused to register as a sex offender? (a requirement under RI law)
Being a resident of Providence, I can relate to people wanting him off the streets, but by and large, I don't see many people complaining for the tent city group being there, only that they'd like to see these people recieve more help.
posted by jtoth at 7:49 AM on August 5, 2009
The point I'm trying to make is that he is an intelligent and industrious person who made a choice to live this way and from all he's told me, the tent city folks are of that same ilk. This is why they live under a commune organization.
How do you know without having access to each person's medical records, city shelter usage records or criminal justice system records what their psychiatric or addiction history or their homelessness history or criminal history is? And without this information how do you come to the conclusion that "the tent city folks are of that same ilk," i.e., refusing to participate in the labor force and not incapable of participating in the labor force due incapacitation from mental health conditions?
These articles are so damaging. This is what I'm talking about, everytime one of this softball Hobo Life articles runs it reinforces the myth that chronic homelessness is due to unwillingness to participate in the labor force and not a chronic mental health and addiction issue, as it is in the overwhelming majority of documented cases where you have full access to systems level information where you can see the history of shelter usage, psych unit stays, detoxes and incarcerations typical in this population.
posted by The Straightener at 8:05 AM on August 5, 2009 [4 favorites]
How do you know without having access to each person's medical records, city shelter usage records or criminal justice system records what their psychiatric or addiction history or their homelessness history or criminal history is? And without this information how do you come to the conclusion that "the tent city folks are of that same ilk," i.e., refusing to participate in the labor force and not incapable of participating in the labor force due incapacitation from mental health conditions?
These articles are so damaging. This is what I'm talking about, everytime one of this softball Hobo Life articles runs it reinforces the myth that chronic homelessness is due to unwillingness to participate in the labor force and not a chronic mental health and addiction issue, as it is in the overwhelming majority of documented cases where you have full access to systems level information where you can see the history of shelter usage, psych unit stays, detoxes and incarcerations typical in this population.
posted by The Straightener at 8:05 AM on August 5, 2009 [4 favorites]
It's very important for those to whom the Times is marketed to feel good about studiously checking their SMS inbox when striding past the homeless. This article caters directly to that clientèle, and as such is a stunning success. Bravo!
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:17 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:17 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
They're not poor. Really poor people don't have boats, tents or constitutions. I also think I saw a Dorito.
posted by milarepa at 8:17 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by milarepa at 8:17 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
If he is truly changed, as he has stated to the press, then why has he still refused to register as a sex offender?
As pointed out above, he lacks an address to register. It's a bureaucratic nightmare that'd probably cause him problems even if he did have the money to live somewhere, because there are enough schools and parks in some towns that there are no dwellings outside the minimum legal radii imposed by laws.
posted by explosion at 8:31 AM on August 5, 2009
As pointed out above, he lacks an address to register. It's a bureaucratic nightmare that'd probably cause him problems even if he did have the money to live somewhere, because there are enough schools and parks in some towns that there are no dwellings outside the minimum legal radii imposed by laws.
posted by explosion at 8:31 AM on August 5, 2009
While I agree with you all that the writing style in NYTimes human interest pieces like these is at best masturbatory, I thought these articles were interesting in that they represented new ways of thinking about solutions to homelessness. Another more wide-ranging proposed solution to homelessness (and many other issues, hence its non-inclusion here) is New Pedestrianism.
I know that most homelessness is caused by mental illness (sometimes taking the form of serious addiction), but I found it to be an interesting and human thing that innovation seems to always spring up when the system fails.
And that's all the editorializing I'll do.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2009
I know that most homelessness is caused by mental illness (sometimes taking the form of serious addiction), but I found it to be an interesting and human thing that innovation seems to always spring up when the system fails.
And that's all the editorializing I'll do.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2009
I know that most homelessness is caused by mental illness (sometimes taking the form of serious addiction).
Cite, please.
(As in, that's not actually true.)
posted by lunit at 8:36 AM on August 5, 2009
Cite, please.
(As in, that's not actually true.)
posted by lunit at 8:36 AM on August 5, 2009
Cite, please.
(As in, that's not actually true.)
My bad-- I was thinking of the chronically homeless population and should obviously not have lumped in all the temporarily homeless people who find themselves subject to bad economy/health/luck. Um, I can find you sources for that if you want, but you could just google it.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:46 AM on August 5, 2009
(As in, that's not actually true.)
My bad-- I was thinking of the chronically homeless population and should obviously not have lumped in all the temporarily homeless people who find themselves subject to bad economy/health/luck. Um, I can find you sources for that if you want, but you could just google it.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:46 AM on August 5, 2009
Shoot, if I had nothing and no-one, building a boat and sailing off sounds pretty great actually. I just hope Stephen Spielberg doesn't see this article and write up a treatment for his next Tom Hanks vehicle.
posted by contessa at 9:18 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by contessa at 9:18 AM on August 5, 2009
To the straightener: If you read what I wrote, I never said that people were living there due to "incapacitation from mental health conditions".
I described my friends situation. His *choice* to live in a tent city was a well thought out one; not a result of bad luck or bad circumstances. What I said in that same sentence was "from all he's told me, the tent city folks are of that same ilk.".
whether he is telling me the truth or not is a valid question, but I never felt the need to question him on that information. I just wanted to be sure it's clear that I'm not condemning anyone as to their motives or situations that led them to live in such an environment.
posted by jtoth at 9:21 AM on August 5, 2009
I described my friends situation. His *choice* to live in a tent city was a well thought out one; not a result of bad luck or bad circumstances. What I said in that same sentence was "from all he's told me, the tent city folks are of that same ilk.".
whether he is telling me the truth or not is a valid question, but I never felt the need to question him on that information. I just wanted to be sure it's clear that I'm not condemning anyone as to their motives or situations that led them to live in such an environment.
posted by jtoth at 9:21 AM on August 5, 2009
I thought these articles were interesting in that they represented new ways of thinking about solutions to homelessness.
I'm sorry, I didn't want you to feel like I was harshing you for posting the articles because that was not at all my intention. This type of reporting on homelessness is a huge peeve of mine as a social worker who worked in homeless services and also freelance writes on poverty issues. But, again, I don't think such wide ranging solutions as giving homeless people better tents and other such patently bad ideas that pop up on here from time to time are the answer. In fact, we don't need wide ranging solutions, we need to very narrowly focus on the one solution we know works, bundling intensive community mental health services with permanent housing and more widely implement this one approach, which is still marginalized within the homeless services system.
posted by The Straightener at 9:23 AM on August 5, 2009
I'm sorry, I didn't want you to feel like I was harshing you for posting the articles because that was not at all my intention. This type of reporting on homelessness is a huge peeve of mine as a social worker who worked in homeless services and also freelance writes on poverty issues. But, again, I don't think such wide ranging solutions as giving homeless people better tents and other such patently bad ideas that pop up on here from time to time are the answer. In fact, we don't need wide ranging solutions, we need to very narrowly focus on the one solution we know works, bundling intensive community mental health services with permanent housing and more widely implement this one approach, which is still marginalized within the homeless services system.
posted by The Straightener at 9:23 AM on August 5, 2009
Interesting take on the NY Times: article marketed for their readers to make them feel good. Ok. My take: I am in fairly decent shape (my life) and by reading such articles, I can know a bit more about those who are not and, perhaps, I can offer help, suggest to political leaders what might be done, work at a soup kitchen, get out of myself and do something for others....beats sitting about reading an article from "that paper" and then making snide remark about the people who read that paper.
posted by Postroad at 9:47 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by Postroad at 9:47 AM on August 5, 2009
This affable and eccentric man lived two blocks from me, in a shack built on a raft of telephone poles lashed together floating on the Hudson River.
Out of both necessity and principle his boats were made solely from materials scavenged from the streets.
I always hoped he was being delusional when he said he would cross the Atlantic in his raft.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:54 AM on August 5, 2009
Out of both necessity and principle his boats were made solely from materials scavenged from the streets.
I always hoped he was being delusional when he said he would cross the Atlantic in his raft.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:54 AM on August 5, 2009
What did he do to become a level 3 sex offender? A google search on the level 3 sex offenders in Mass indicates it is a determination of the risk of recidivism as determined by the state. Did he molest kids twenty years ago? Is he a rapist? Or did he get caught with some really kinky porn? It's like the word felon. Is a felon someone who got busted with a big bag of pot or Hannibal Lecter? It would matter to me if I was living in the next tent.
posted by Tashtego at 9:57 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by Tashtego at 9:57 AM on August 5, 2009
I'm curious as well about the charges and circumstances surrounding them. It hasn't been stated in the media yet to my knowledge.
posted by jtoth at 10:02 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by jtoth at 10:02 AM on August 5, 2009
"The chief emerges from his tent to face the leaden morning light. It had been a rare, rough night in his homeless Brigadoon: a boozy brawl, the wielding of a knife taped to a stick."
That's like something from an early twentieth pulp adventure story about a lantern-jawed English aristocrat and his adventures in "the Empire." I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
posted by Kattullus at 10:04 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
That's like something from an early twentieth pulp adventure story about a lantern-jawed English aristocrat and his adventures in "the Empire." I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
posted by Kattullus at 10:04 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
For the interested: "According to the Massachusetts Office of Public Safety, the former New Bedford resident [John Freitas] was convicted of charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 in 1978, 1986 and 1987. He was also convicted on a charge of raping and abusing a child in 1978."
So, yeah, the no child policy kind of makes sense.
posted by oinopaponton at 10:05 AM on August 5, 2009
So, yeah, the no child policy kind of makes sense.
posted by oinopaponton at 10:05 AM on August 5, 2009
Contessa: What's worse is Robin Williams will play the priest.
posted by goHermGO at 10:11 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by goHermGO at 10:11 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
everytime one of this softball Hobo Life articles runs it reinforces the myth that chronic homelessness is due to unwillingness to participate in the labor force and not a chronic mental health and addiction issue,
INT. OFFICE BUILDING - NETWORK OFFICES - DAY.
A hyperkenetic T.V. EXEC. is pitching JACK, who sits next to LOU.
T.V. EXEC.
It's a weekly comedy about the homeless.
JACK can't believe his fate. HE looks to a coffee table and
sees a magazine front page: LANGDON CARMICHAEL BUYS VAN GOGH'S
ROAD WITH CYPRESSES FOR 20 MILLION DOLLARS. CAMERA PANS TO C.U.
...But it's not depressing in any way.
We want to find a happy, upbeat way of
bringing the issue of homeless to television.
There are three wacky homeless characters
but they're wise...they're wacky and they're wise...
And the hooks is, they love being homeless. They
love the freedom...they love the adventure...
It's all about the joy of living...not all
the bullshit we have to deal with...the
money, the politics..the pressures...
And we're gonna call it HOME FREE...
LOU
Oooooo... I got a rush...
(The Fisher King, by Richard LaGravenese)
posted by mikepop at 10:39 AM on August 5, 2009
INT. OFFICE BUILDING - NETWORK OFFICES - DAY.
A hyperkenetic T.V. EXEC. is pitching JACK, who sits next to LOU.
T.V. EXEC.
It's a weekly comedy about the homeless.
JACK can't believe his fate. HE looks to a coffee table and
sees a magazine front page: LANGDON CARMICHAEL BUYS VAN GOGH'S
ROAD WITH CYPRESSES FOR 20 MILLION DOLLARS. CAMERA PANS TO C.U.
...But it's not depressing in any way.
We want to find a happy, upbeat way of
bringing the issue of homeless to television.
There are three wacky homeless characters
but they're wise...they're wacky and they're wise...
And the hooks is, they love being homeless. They
love the freedom...they love the adventure...
It's all about the joy of living...not all
the bullshit we have to deal with...the
money, the politics..the pressures...
And we're gonna call it HOME FREE...
LOU
Oooooo... I got a rush...
(The Fisher King, by Richard LaGravenese)
posted by mikepop at 10:39 AM on August 5, 2009
In light of what Freitas did it seems perfectly reasonable for him to be required to register his whereabouts. I don't suppose he could tell the police which bridge he lives under.
posted by Tashtego at 10:53 AM on August 5, 2009
posted by Tashtego at 10:53 AM on August 5, 2009
I have both sailed with polish people on a boat and er.....been in providence for a bit ..... the obvious solution is for the polish people to sail up the nanasquawtucket and pick these folks up ....... before the unmentioned and obvious danger of well meaning rich kids descend from risd to make socially concerned photo docs, overelaborate cardboard boxes etc
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:31 PM on August 5, 2009
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:31 PM on August 5, 2009
StickyCarpet: as i started to read your post, i was hoping you were talking about poppa neutrino. i've never met him, but i know his daughter marginally. i interviewed her once & found her story fascinating. completely out of my realm of understanding*, but intriguing and apparently not the least bit damaging: she's a delightful person who aside from being a musician lives a pretty mainstream life.
*like where poppa took all his kids down to the pawn shop when they were little & had them pick out instruments because they were going to be a family band. then he took them out on a street corner & told them to play while he passed the hat.
i like to think that some people just. don't. fit. the mold. when they bust out, they do so willingly & with full understanding and responsibility, like jtoth's friend. and others, either through a series of bad choices or unforeseeable situations, can lose pretty much everything they ever had except for their dignity; that it's possible to be homeless and proactive, or, at the very least, homeless without being hopeless. i know there are a million sad stories out there. i'm willing to bet there are also a million triumphs, no matter how small they may seem to me. this story sounds like a triumph to me.
posted by msconduct at 12:32 PM on August 5, 2009
*like where poppa took all his kids down to the pawn shop when they were little & had them pick out instruments because they were going to be a family band. then he took them out on a street corner & told them to play while he passed the hat.
i like to think that some people just. don't. fit. the mold. when they bust out, they do so willingly & with full understanding and responsibility, like jtoth's friend. and others, either through a series of bad choices or unforeseeable situations, can lose pretty much everything they ever had except for their dignity; that it's possible to be homeless and proactive, or, at the very least, homeless without being hopeless. i know there are a million sad stories out there. i'm willing to bet there are also a million triumphs, no matter how small they may seem to me. this story sounds like a triumph to me.
posted by msconduct at 12:32 PM on August 5, 2009
I was totally going to form my own government, but I had to clean my house and go to work instead.
posted by futureisunwritten at 12:34 PM on August 5, 2009
posted by futureisunwritten at 12:34 PM on August 5, 2009
Shoot, if I had nothing and no-one, building a boat and sailing off sounds pretty great actually.
At least it'll keep them off the streets for a while.
posted by sour cream at 12:39 PM on August 5, 2009
At least it'll keep them off the streets for a while.
posted by sour cream at 12:39 PM on August 5, 2009
Will this reporter be back out under the bridge come January? Will he spend a night out when it's Code Blue and report back to us another thrilling installment in his epic adventures in magical Hobo Town? Will he sit with a guy in the emergency room while he waits to get his toes amputated and tell us about the wonder of the moment he shared with him?
posted by The Straightener at 1:24 PM on August 5, 2009
posted by The Straightener at 1:24 PM on August 5, 2009
Agreed, the story of "Tent City" is gonna be not-so-nice when the RI winter hits. I like to think that these folks are rational enough to know where to find a warm bed and a warm meal when the weather takes the adventure out of living outdoors.
posted by jtoth at 1:40 PM on August 5, 2009
posted by jtoth at 1:40 PM on August 5, 2009
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posted by jtoth at 6:45 AM on August 5, 2009