Research Report for STOP II

HOMELESS & HUNGRY: Interviews with the Homeless about the Pros and Cons of the Salvation Total

Outreach Program

MARCH 17, 2015 Marcy Peters Areli Miranda

Jennifer Alvarez

Homeless and Hungry 1

Introduction

During his reign as governor of California, Ronald Reagan released more than half the

states mental health patients and passed a law abolishing the involuntary hospitalization of

people who struggle with mental illness starting a trend of de-institutionalization across the

country (Roberts, 2013). Upon becoming President of the United States in the 1980’s, he

discarded a law proposed by his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, that would have continued funding

federal community health centers which eliminated services for people struggling with mental

health issues (Roberts, 2013). A common belief among mental health workers is that this is the

greatest cause of the increase in homelessness across the nation. However, there are many more

faces of homelessness than people struggling with mental health issues. A research report done

on homelessness by M. William Sermons and Peter Witte of the National Alliance to End

Homelessness and Homelessness Research Institute (2011) contended that an increase in

homelessness across our nation is due to multiple factors including: a rise in housing costs,

foreclosure rates, the number of people aging out of foster care and the number inmates being

released from prison.

Regardless of the factors of the homelessness phenomenon that has gripped our nation,

one sure thing remains: the need for more assistance in helping people of all walks of life get a

step out of homelessness. While lobbyists fight for more funding to help the homeless, non-profit

organizations attempt to make a dent in decreasing the numbers of them. Of those non-profit

organizations, churches in various areas have been working to do their part in living out their

faith by caring for the homeless by way of providing hot meal programs, grocery programs,

shelters, clothing distribution and other assistance programs for the homeless in their areas.

Understanding functionalism views society as an organism and knowing it will always maintain


equilibrium, helps us to see what is happening in help for the homeless. We see the lack of

services in the Antelope Valley for the homeless through government and state funding and how

the churches in this area, are rising up to help them, therefore maintaining equilibrium. Central

Christian Church’s Salvation Total Outreach Program (S.T.O.P.) is one of these churches. When

asked why they call their meal participants guests, we received this answer from one of the

leaders:

We call them guests because we are inviting them into our home, our church

home. We want them to feel loved and cared for the same way you would

when you invite someone to dine in your home. If we are successful in doing

that, then we are, in a small way showing our guests Christ like love. Our

ministry is about serving God by serving others. We want our friends/guests to

be fed physically, emotionally and spiritually, but our faith is not pushed on

them. We do try to make sure that they understand we are followers of Jesus

and we do this service because that’s what Jesus taught us to do. The principal

that guides me personally in this ministry is James 2:15-16, “Suppose a brother

or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in

peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs,

what good is it?” Our faith takes us past the talk to the actual act of treating

others like they have value, like they are fellow image bearers of our Creator.

If we believe that how can we do any less and why wouldn’t we call them our

guests (D. Lang, personal communication, January 22, 2015)?

Since starting this ministry in 2010, STOP has been providing a weekly hot meal

program and sack lunch distribution to the homeless in Antelope Valley. As the ministry has


been going on for some time now, there is always room for improvement and room for growth in

a program. The aim of this study is to answer two questions: what is working in the program and

in what ways can the program improve to help their guests, in particular, their homeless guests

get a step out of homelessness.

Literature Review

Who are the Homeless?

The National Alliance to End Homelessness (2015) declares the big picture of

homelessness reveals that people are unable to afford housing, especially in urban areas where

homelessness is more rampant. In 2014, in the United States there were approximately 578,424

people homeless on any given night. 216,197 of these are families, 362,163 were individuals.

Fifteen percent of the homeless population are considered chronically homeless which means

these people have chronic bouts with homelessness and generally have not only lack of finances

to find affordable housing, but also have physical or mental disabilities. There is a misconception

that the majority of the homeless fit into this category; however, this in not so. The chronically

homeless usually end up living in shelters intermittently and use a variety of assistance programs

to survive.

The remaining 9% of the homeless population are veterans. Veterans are at risk to

become homeless due to post war related injuries that range from physical disabilities to

psychiatric disabilities such as post-traumatic stress disorder that leads to substance abuse, abuse

and violence as many veterans find adjusting to civilian life after war to be extremely difficult

(National Alliance the End Homelessness, 2015).


The breakdown of the family and conflict within the family are significant factors in

some who experience homelessness (Williams & Stickley, 2010:435-436). Confusion of roles

within a family can cause the breakdown of the family unit and the trauma of losing family ties

can negatively impact an individual’s identity, sometimes catapulting an individual into

homelessness (Williams & Stickley, 2010:435-436).

Crisis (2006) reports that one third of prisoners exiting prison have no residence to reside

in upon being released from prison and that approximately 28,500 people leave prison to enter

into homelessness each year. Another increasing population of the homeless are foster children

aging out of their foster homes (National Alliance the End Homelessness, 2015).

A study by Williams & Stickley (2010) revealed that all homeless participants in their

study abused substances; however, they reported using substances to cope with their homeless

situations and denied substance abuse being the cause of their homelessness. It is well

documented that the homeless are harassed by the public in cruel ways from being urinated on,

punched, and kicked and the more obvious, stigmatized by rude insults and attitudes (Crisis,

2008; Williams & Stickley, 2010:436). These traumatic experiences endured while being

homeless, reshape a person’s identity and cause them to be distrustful of others, furthering their

ability to receive much needed help (Williams & Stickley, 2010:436). Although the homeless

risk becoming isolated from others due to lack of trust, surprisingly they do engage in a sense of

community amongst each other and are a part of this homeless community while they are

homeless (Williams & Stickley, 2010:436).

Help for the Homeless


The economy is beginning to recover from the Great Recession of 2008 and Sermons and

Witte (2014) report a decrease in homelessness is being accomplished due to funding given out

to various organizations such as HUD, HUD VA, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and

Supportive Services for Veteran families and the efforts of getting people into permanent

housing. However, this economic recovery is not penetrating in the low income populations.

There are still challenges in getting those in poverty that live with family and friends or those

that spend half their income in housing, into permanent housing that they can afford (Sermons &

Witte, 2014).

A study by Rachel Rayburn (2013) of homeless substance abusers revealed

commonalities among those who were able to overcome homelessness, poverty, crime, and

addiction and live reasonably normal lives (Rayburn, 2013:397). These commonalities were

finding meaningful, stable employment, relationships with a partner or spouse that encourages

and supports them and for a remarkably large number of them, “by finding God” (Rayburn,

2013:397). Although meaningful employment has been proven to be a crucial element in helping

people exit out of homelessness (CLG, 2003; Rayburn, 2013:397), the economy has still not

recovered enough from the Great Recession to provide these jobs (Williams & Stickley,

2010:437). Unemployment, along with the rise in housing costs leaves stable housing

unobtainable to many of those in poverty (Crisis, 2008).

The chronically homeless can be difficult to help because of the numerous obstacles they

face such as mental health issues, substance abuse along with a lack of transportation and lack

coordination in the health care systems (Burt, Pearson, & Montgomery, 2007; Livingston &

Swenson Miller, 2006). However, a case study by Ann Chapleau reveals the chronica lly

homeless are able to maintain stability and succeed when in a structured environment that


provides them with a meaningful occupation, such as the Salvation Army Rehabilitation program

and other work structured rehabilitation programs. The frustrating factor is upon exiting the

structured programs they relapse back into homelessness when they are faced with the same

overwhelming obstacles they had faced outside the stability of a structured program (Chapleau,

2010:388).

Homelessness in the Antelope Valley

Although the nation overall is reporting a decrease in homelessness (National Alliance

the End Homelessness, 2015), Hayes of Our Weekly (2014) reports the Antelope Valley has had

400% rise in homelessness over the past few years. Los Angeles County has approximately

57,737 with Los Angeles receiving 50% of the funding for their area when they have only 19%

of the county’s homeless. Meanwhile, the Antelope Valley receives only 2.1% of the funding

allotted for the homeless with a whopping 13% of the county’s homeless population residing

here. This population continues to grow as the homeless migrate from Los Angeles to the

Antelope Valley to escape the high cost living there. This poses a problem as the Antelope

Valley does not have mild weather as Los Angeles does. The extreme cold nights and intensive

hot summer days can be disastrous and deadly (Hayes, 2014).

Currently in the Antelope Valley, there is only one shelter that houses the entire areas

homeless. Grace Resources (2015) runs the Lancaster Community Shelter which has only 110

beds for the areas entire homeless population. In 2014, Antelope Valley city councilmen have

joined together with Grace Resources and other area organizations to open an emergency shelter

for men at the Antelope Valley Fairground during the cold winter nights, adding an additional 60

beds (Antelope Valley Times, 2014; Grace Resources, 2015). The City of Lancaster (2014) has


shared online a future homeless facility that is in process of being put together. The city is

renovating an old county hospital building on 60th Street West and Avenue I in Lancaster and

turning it into a multi-bed shelter with employment training and classes, substance abuse

rehabilitation, spiritual healing and other services planned to rehabilitate the areas homeless

population with a variety of out of the box strategies (City of Lancaster, 2014).

Methods

We were able to conclude our findings by administering a 12 question qualitative

interview to currently homeless “guests” of the program and past participants of the program

who were in the process of getting out of homelessness. Probing questions were added to some

of the main questions to delve deeper into certain questions. In addition to our main questions,

we asked five demographic questions in order to gather demographic data. Participants were

required to sign a consent form prior to interviewing and were provided with a consent form at

their request. Interviews were audio-recorded with consent before the recording process began.

Our review board was comprised of our professor, Professor Sanchez. Project approval

throughout our interviewing process such as questionnaire approval and prior consent of all

willing participants was also required by the leaders at the participating ministry. Alongside our

school assignment, the information we found is to be used for the ministry to inquire as to their

impact on the guests they serve and to possibly develop future services as well. Fifteen

interviews were taken in total.

Interviews were anonymous, allowing participants to answer without fear of retaliation.

Participants were asked the following questions: How long have you been coming to the S.T.O.P

ministry? , What services/help have you obtained from the S.T.O.P ministry? , What services (if


any) have you obtained in the community? Which have helped you? , Where (what institutions)

have you sought services at in this area? , What do you like about the S.T.O.P ministry? , What

do you think the S.T.O.P ministry can improve on? , Have there been any negative experiences

that you have had here? How did that make you feel? , Can you tell me about any members in

the S.T.O.P ministry that have been particularly helpful to you? How have they helped you? If,

no, how about any positive experiences that you have had? How did that make you feel? , Can

you tell me about any members in the S.T.O.P ministry that have been particularly helpful to

you? How have they helped you? If, no, how about any positive experiences that you have had?

How did that make you feel? , What goals would you like to accomplish in life? , What are your

greatest needs at this time? , What are you greatest obstacles keeping you from meeting those

needs? , What services do you feel the S.T.O.P ministry could offer that could help you get a step

out of homelessness? Participants were encouraged to answer the questions with as much

information as possible using the probing questions in order to help findings.

We chose to work with this population because we all had a shared interest in the topic.

The population was easy to access due to the prior involvement of one of our team members in

this ministry. Due to the existing relationships built up by this team member with the homeless

population, it seems we were better received than if the relationships had not been established.

We were more easily accepted by the ministry for this reason as well.

Challenges faced during our project was getting to know and follow the structure of the

STOP ministry as to not be a hindrance to the work they were doing. Also, in the beginning, we

had a small difficulty with attaining complete approval from all of the staff. The main leader

tried to assure the ministry that we were trying to help. It seemed to work. Other challenges we

faced, was finding participants who were willing to commit to being interviewed. Prior


agreement was made necessary by the main leader of the ministry. In order to do this we required

the help of a few of the ministry members to help us ask guests about participating in our

interview. There was some reluctance and some simply said they were not interested. We were

able to convince some of the participants by saying that this would be an anonymous interview

and that an incentive of a $5 gift card would be provided. Another challenge we had was

concluding as to whether there was complete honesty when it came to the some of the questions,

such as having problems with the ministry or whether there could be improvements. We were not

sure if the participants were completely honest, whether they were in fear of retaliation or just

overall so grateful that they did not remember issues, if any.

During the interviewing we had a handful of participants that were giving short answers.

Even with further probing. This gave us less information to create our findings. Because of this

situation, we decided to administer more interviews for the purposes of getting more information

for the ministry. As far as the participant themselves, we only had one difficulty. There was one

participant who seemed to be intoxicated and the interviewer seemed concerned. Also, the

second time we were given a room, there seemed to be a mix up with who was using that room.

Seems we were taking over a room that was supposed to be used for another class. However we

explained what we were doing there and were allowed to use that room.

On site, we were given a room at both times for our interviewing process. With a

different room used on both occasions. All three team members sat at different sides of the room

as to not be too loud for one another for recording purposes. Due to protocol, a ministry team

member was to walk all participants to and from the entrance to the room where we were holding

our interviews. It was very important to follow this rule as these were the rules of the church.


After interviews, participants were thanked and given an incentive of a $5 dollar gift card,

candies, tissue pack, snack and a thank you card.

The analysis process was achieved by first writing down our field notes and open coding

them. Our recorded interviews were transcribed and also coded. After this process, our group got

together and wrote all of our open codes on a board. We were then able to view all of our open

codes and we were able to section them into focused codes. From this, we found four general

themes in our research of: services, structure, obstacles and support. These were the concepts

that stood out the most in our research. These concepts will be further explained in our findings

section.

Structure

Through our observations we found patterns and routines within the STOP ministry

relating to its organizational structure as well as the social structure of the programs dinner. The

dinner guests arrive early and begin lining up outside shortly after 5 P.M. and the dinner begins

at 6 P.M. Before dinner, a prayer is said both to the dinner guests outside in line and amongst the

volunteers. The prayer is explained as follows:

One person then speaks to the Lord (Jesus is our Lord) and talks to him

about our gratefulness to serve, he mentions the prayer requests for our other

servers and leaders and then requests blessings, such as unmet needs and

protection in the weather, for our guests.

At each table there are packets that contain prayer request forms and local resources

that are available to the guests. Having these forms readily available helps to spark

conversation and is part of the dinner ritual. Volunteers dine with the guests and are


referred to as “table leaders” from a social aspect this makes the diners feel welcomed, and

not judged as a homeless person, but a as a guest. The respondents let this be known that

this had a large part to do with what set the program away from the others. As one

respondent put it:

“…I like the atmosphere and the people. Yeah, yeah..the atmosphere is a lot

better than any other places I've been. Yeah, I like the people” (##m004##).

The people who come to dinner are aware of how the program operates because they are

regulars. The way the program is structured is with intent and contains manifest functions which

are open, conscious, and purposefully stated functions.

There seemed to be a consensus among our respondents that the program had nothing to

improve upon. Only one respondent voiced his opinion about the order in which food is served.

He was asked if there were areas the church could improve upon he responded

….Yeah, they could improve, I don’t know how long it’s been going on but they

let the people who go to Bible study, okay one time bible study goes first, one

time families go first and so on.(##ID001##)

He thought this to be a little unfair. His opinion about this routine may have been shared by

others but there was what appeared to be reluctance on the other respondent’s part to offer any

type of suggestion that could be viewed as negative. This social structure and the individuals

involved with it are their network and often their gateway to other resources. So caution was

possibly exercised to avoid backlash or rejection from both volunteers and other guests.


Another facet of structure is interaction rules and the role played by authoritative figures

within the church. When it comes to rules of interaction there are specific actions things that the

volunteers are encouraged to not engage in. This includes divulging personal information about

themselves to the guest and the giving money or rides to dinner participants. There are members

of the program that wear either blue or black collar shirts with a red stop sign and the letters

STOP. They make announcements and are viewed as those in charge. If any type of conflict

arises it is brought to their attention and they it handle the situation as they see fit. They are the

leaders and are bought up on multiple different occasions in our interviews as the volunteers that

are the most helpful to them. This type of leadership by older males is in line with aspects of

Max Weber’s theory of authority in terms of patriarchal figures.

Services

In understanding the serious lack of funding for the rising homeless population in the

Antelope Valley, as was discussed in the literature review, it was interesting to hear which

services our interviewees were receiving from various different organizations. From the

Churches and Christian organizations, we heard a variety of services provided to them such as:

…Grace Resources…Steve Baker paid for and sent me to a couple of Veterans

things. So, he helped me out there. He got me a hotel voucher and a new i.d. He

gave me the voucher and then a ride to go down and get it. And then he’s helped

me with medicine that my insurance wouldn’t cover. You know, from my

psychiatrist and stuff. Yeah, Steve Baker is a good guy (M2 Interviewee).

…St. Vincent De Paul is kinda like a rescue thing. They do the food 3 times a

week of a hot meal over off of Trevor. And then you go in the office and they’ll


give you a sack lunch for that day. Then you can come once a week and you can

go to the second site and two of the ladies will go out there and open the garage

and stuff and you can go through the shoes and clothes. You know, if you need

any underwear, socks or anything you need (M2 interviewee).

Basically, through our interviews we learned the homeless can get a hot meal from

different churches every night of the week. They even have a schedule coordinated amongst

them to rotate the meals and ensure each night is taken care of in providing for the homeless.

In regards to services from county and non-Christian organizations, we realized the

homeless do have their needs met in regards of medical and mental health issues, as well as these

same organizations providing housing programs. This was enlightening as it has been rumored

amongst the mental health field and in the local newspapers of the lack of mental health services

available for the homeless. However, we heard this from some of the interviewees:

…I tried to get help at Mental Health America and I used their showers and I

talked to one of the ladies there and she told me that because County Mental

Health is already helping me with a psychiatrist and stuff, I can’t do both….I

know the County still has the Pilot program where they take $100 out of your

$200 check you know…you get $100 out of your $200 check and you get all your

food stamps, but the $100 goes for a place where you can live. A small apartment

or whatever somewhere (M2 interviewee).

…I go to court next month on the 12th for SSI so I’m hoping it goes through at

this hearing. I’ve had multiple operations already. I’ve had a spinal fusion, but

Social Security tells me there’s nothing wrong with me and to go back to work.


I’m on morphine, I’m on Soma, I’m on Norco, I’m on Xanax, I’m on all kinds of

medication and they expect me to go back to work. Yes, I’m also a Veteran…I

have AVCC or Antelope Valley Medical Clinic. I’ve been having that for 3 years

(M3 interviewee).

Although some of the services are lacking, they are available to the homeless.

Furthermore, we did hear from our interviewees that there are housing programs available,

although these are only offered to people struggling with mental health issues or Veterans as

another interviewee shared:

…Oh yeah! But you know like for housing and stuff you have to qualify and stuff.

You have to be a Veteran or mentally ill getting SSI. I don’t get none of that you

know (M1 Interviewee).

As was revealed earlier in the literature review, the homeless population is not just the mentally

ill. There are a variety of others who are homeless that have either not been diagnosed with

mental health issues, deny they have mental health issues when they may, or simply do not have

mental health issues. This leaves a void in housing services needed for the homeless that are

neither Veterans or mentally ill.

We link the theme of services to functionalist theory as was described in the introduction

of the paper which explains society as an organism that will always maintain equilibrium. The

Churches and other Christian organizations are rising up to meet needs where there is a lack of

them; however, the need for housing appears to be the most crucial. This has been revealed

through research (Palepu, A., Patterson, M. L., Moniruzzam, A., Frankish, J., & Somers, J.,


2013) and was revealed in several of our interviews such as this example from a field

observation comment made by one of the guests:

…Without housing, I can’t take care of anything else in my life. You know, I

need a warm place to sleep and clean up before I can even think of taking care of

anything else in my life.”

From our interviews we realized a few needs that could be met through Central Christian

Church outside of the STOP ministry. We found a need for a recovery program in field

observations as a few guests shared with us their need to get into substance abuse treatment or a

recovery program and Central Christian does offer a Celebrate Recovery program to the public

on the very same night, following the hot meal. When asked if this could be announced to the

guests during the dinner, it was denied. The reason given by our gatekeeper was that they felt it

would offend some of the guests if we suggested they needed help in recovery. When we asked

the ministry leader, she agreed the recovery ministry should be available to some of the guests,

but not all of them as their leaders are not equipped to deal with severe mental health issues and

it also may put the other recovery participants at risk for harm. The ministry leader expressed to

us that she would be meeting with the STOP leaders to discuss with them ways to screen guests

from the STOP program who they feel are well and safe enough to attend to Celebrate Recovery

program.

Another area of service that we recognized a need for is in advocacy in help with General

Relief and obtaining other services and for personal counseling. During our field observations we

interacted with one homeless couple who were having relationship issues and were desperate to

get counseling, but were not aware of any counseling services available to them that they could


afford. We explained to them that this church providing the STOP ministry also does offer free

Christian counseling services to anyone; they do not need to be a member. After speaking with

our gatekeeper, he gave us approval to give the counseling phone number and process to this

couple for help. It is our belief that if counseling was offered to the STOP ministry guests, there

would be quite a few that would truly appreciate this service.

In light of realizing the need for counseling and advocacy among the STOP guests, we

recognized two latent functions the STOP program and other churches are providing that are

beneficial in helping them get a step out of homelessness. A latent function is an unintended

beneficial consequence of people’s actions. A study by Rachel Rayburn (2013) revealed that

there are three main predictors that helped homeless substance abusers overcome homelessness,

such as follows: stable employment, a spouse to support them financially and/or emotionally and

finding God. A latent function the churches are providing in feeding the homeless is also helping

them in finding God, and in some instances, in the STOP ministry, supporting them emotionally

by being so caring and friendly with them. Although most of the church programs do not push

their faith on them, they make it known they do their services in the name of Jesus/God and

make themselves available for spiritual counseling and guidance whenever the guests make this

request.

Support

We found a constant pattern and theme in our open coding to be in the area of support.

We observed a tight community, group cohesion, among the homeless that attend the STOP meal

and when visiting the homeless’ squatter camps. Regardless of age, race, religion or any other

factors, they all seemed to know each other and look out for each other. A constant expression


we heard in our interviews with the homeless was that they appreciate the STOP program over

the other church hot meal programs because of how nice and respectful they are to them. Prior

research by Kryda and Compton (2009) reveals that many of the homeless distrust outreach

workers due to the treatment and stigma they encounter. Even though they are helping them, they

recognize they do not truly care about them and only see them as a paycheck or person for them

to perform their godly duties on (pp.146-147); this is not so at STOP. We observed them hugging

the guests, welcoming them, praying with them, singing happy birthday to them and in most

cases treating them with love and respect as if they were truly guests in their own home.

Following are some examples of quotes from a few of the homeless guests:

…The people are really nice and welcoming. You know, and don’t make you feel

inferior or anything like that. They just seem happy to be here, helping (##F100#).

…The people mainly [when asked what they liked most about STOP], is what I

like about here. The atmosphere here is just different, better. I really uh…it’s my

favorite place to come. There are a lot of places that feed us. But this is my

favorite; everyone is real calm and nice (#IR005#).

…I mean, they are just really nice, accommodating people (##F001#).

We link the support theme to attachment theory which theorizes that attachment styles,

negative or positive, are formed when we are babies. Attachment styles have to do with how we

feel about ourselves, our self-esteem, and our level of interpersonal trust. Depending on how we

are cared for as babies, determines how we will interact with other and think of ourselves as

adults. As was mentioned in the literature review, many of the homeless have either suffered

from dysfunction and a breakdown of their own family unit or have experienced many negative


experiences during their homelessness that has the ability to reshape their attachment styles and

cause them to distrust others (Williams & Stickley, 2010:436). Research has revealed that

attachment styles can be reshaped by new experiences, either positively or negatively (Ruvolo,

Fabin, & Ruvolo, 2001; Davilla & Cobb, 2003). We found through interviews and field

observations that the STOP program is playing a part in changing the way their guests think of

themselves and of others in a positive way. By the STOP program focusing on truly respecting

and showing love to their guests, they are helping to reshape their attachment styles helping to

improve their guest’s self-esteem and interpersonal relationships.

We did observe a couple of areas of improvement that could be made by the STOP

program. While standing in line to get a meal and head to our table leader positions, one of our

team was yelled at by one of the servers in a disrespectful way. This server continued yelling at

the research member that it was not time for seconds and they needed to get out of the line. This

went on until our gatekeeper came up and told the server to give the researcher a plate so she

could get to their duties. The server would not even give the researcher a chance to explain that

she had not even received a first plate yet, or that she was not one of the guests, but a researcher.

It was observed that this server was new. A recommendation may be that those serving in the

STOP ministry be screened to ensure that they are able to work around this population of people

in a loving, respectful way so as to live up to the STOP principles.

Another observation of negative activity by a STOP leader was observed by us on several

occasions. There is one leader who insists on standing on a chair and yelling very loudly at the

guests when it’s time for seconds or when there is another announcement. We found this to be

disrespectful; especially, since there is a microphone available for his use. Although we observed

this and thought it to be disrespectful, we did not hear any complaints from the guests about it.


Obstacles

We were able to conclude that our participants underwent a lot of obstacles. Some

underwent these obstacles before they were homeless, others after, and others during. A few of

our participants underwent a combination of these events. Obstacles that came up in our

interviews were needing a place to live, staying out of prison, finding employment, maintaining

employment, substance use counseling, help with legal issues, losing their kids to the system,

schooling for a new career, lack of medical services, lack of psychological services, lack of

good medical service and lack of access to proper medication.

During the interview, many of our participants were living in the desert; many in tents.

The overall consensus was that they did not like the shelter in the area due to what one guest

suggested of them having “too many rules” (M1, Interveiwee). When asked about their living

situations, many said that they actively sought financial assistance to assist in helping them

support a living situation, but it just was not enough. A few of our participants were Veterans. It

seemed that they were the ones that received most of the assistance. Even so, while some of the

participants had tried to receive help from the county, many still were unable to find all of the

help they needed. For example, this Veteran on the Pilot Program (a County run program aimed

at helping house the homeless or those at risk for being homeless) said:

… I've been fighting Social Security for 12 years. I only get $120 month to live on. I’m

on the GR program that supplies me with $500 a month for housing and my wife is not

from this country so I have to support her and support me on $121 plus $189 in food

stamps and I've been doing that for the past 5 years. (Participant M3)


This came up multiple times with our participants. While some had a place to live, they had to

worry about getting their other needs met.

Some of our participants were currently receiving psychiatric help from the county and

found the services to be lacking. For example:

Just my health. You know make sure my doctor gets the right medicines because the

psychs are changing medicine on me every two months so…you know..I never get…they

change the psychiatrist every two months too so you never get to establish a rapport with

anybody…you know. Every time a new doctor comes along they wanna give you a new

medicine. And they can’t…the doctor today told me…he goes...I told him when I was in

prison they gave me some medicine and it did help and I told him what it was and he

said, "Well, we can't give you that because it's addictive….”(Participant M2)

The participants seemed willing to get better, but the services are lacking for them; many being

Veterans.

The experiences lived by this population can be explained through structural strain theory

by Robert K. Merton. This theory reveals that society encourages certain cultural goals. In our

society, the main goal being success. The issue comes with how to come up with the means to

attain these goals. In the examples shown earlier, we see the constant struggle some of the

participants had in receiving some basic needs. Whereas, some people in society have more

services available to them. For example, it is shown that those in society with higher income

have greater access to proper health care, education and housing. In this we see that not all of

society has an equal advantages for acquiring these cultural goals of success.


Robert K. Merton described five adaptations for people in society in reference to the

attainment of cultural goals. These adaptations are in the form of conformists, innovators,

ritualists, retreatists, and rebels. The homeless are considered retreatists. A retreastist in relation

to the theory, rejects both society’s goals and the means in which to achieve them. For the

homeless population, we have seen that not only are they having a difficult time achieving these

goals, but even when they try, they do not have much success receiving services in order to attain

this goal. This leads them to becoming isolated and creating among themselves a subculture

within society.

Conclusion

This research has been both fascinating and eye opening. The homeless population is

very different than the preconceived notions we may have held before meeting, observing and

spending time with the individuals who attend the ministry dinner. Much of this stemming from

a common ideology that homeless people are lazy, and devoid of any real type of work ethic.

There is still much to be learned about those who live in the perpetual cycle of long term

homelessness. President Reagan bears some responsibility for increasing the number of

individuals who fall into this category, because of budget cuts to much needed mental health

programs and facilities in the 1980’s individuals were left to seek help at churches and other

privately funded programs. However, the Great Recession of 2008 had a large impact in our

economy adding to the already growing number of the homeless.

There are varying reasons for the surging amount of those without permanent housing,

including: foster youth aging out of the system, the release of inmates from prison, the recession

of the 2000’s and skyrocketing housing costs, just to name a few. In addition, the homeless


populations previously residing in areas of Los Angeles have recently been shuffled into more

rural communities such as the Antelope Valley. Housing appears to be the most crucial need of

the homeless in this area. With the area only having one shelter with only 110 beds, there is a

great need for a larger facility that will house more of the homeless, as well as provide the

services they need to get out of homelessness such as advocacy, counseling, substance

counseling and help with teaching them a trade in order to find stable employment.

Some of the clear limitations of the study were the time frame in which the study took

place. Ten weeks is not long enough to understand the many sides of being homeless, let alone

create an attainable solution to help those truly wanting and willing to change. Also, future

studies would need to be done on a larger population of those who attend the dinner and studies

on similar programs within the area also need to be conducted to determine what is and is not

working. Another interesting aspect would be to look at the foster youth in the area that, as

previously mentioned, have aged out of the foster system many of which are now part of the

homeless population and see how they can be helped.

This project has highlighted that although there is much that is being done, there is still a

lot of progress that has yet to be made; most importantly it has shown us that there are still

people out there willing to help that progress happen.


References

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Research Report for STOP II

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