6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS EMPLOYMENT Warning: homeless people at work ELKA CHAMBERLAIN Groundcover contributor My January writing assignment was simply, “working while homeless.” The vagueness of this prompt was exacerbated by the fact that I immediately began bubbling ideas and angles reflective of my work and life experience with homelessness. As I began talking to people I quickly found myself feeling overwhelmed with all of the important intertwined issues needing to be covered. To develop the story, I reviewed published information about the intersectionality of homelessness and employment, spoke with dozens of people about their working-while-homeless experiences and then pounded the pavement to follow up on leads based on community members' input and federal guidelines in the literature. I found there is the need to address the stigma that homeless people are lazy, don’t want to work, or should try harder, as well as the need to dispel the myth that having enough income or resources automatically equates to housing stability and a better quality of life. To begin the process of contradicting the stereotype that homeless people are lazy, don’t work and need to try harder, I present three significant findings. First, according to a 2021 article published by the University of Chicago, 53% of the sheltered homeless surveyed had at least some form of formal employment within the year, and 40.4% of the unsheltered surveyed had formal income sources. The second statistic, found on a HUDstamped fact sheet about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities ACT of 2014, states as many as 90% of homeless people want to work. Thirdly, everyone I spoke to this month either does have some sort of income, has had some sort of income over the past year or is working towards increasing income, with half deriving that income from paid employment. Part of my journey with researching this topic was recognizing that some of current research is based on biased, out-ofdate sources. Research, available for free from the University of Chicago, claims most homeless-related studies are heavily dependent on data that is local, outdated, self-reported and/or taken from government sources such as the U.S. Census, the Point-In-Time Count, and other safety-net statistics. When considering how to share the results of currently vulnerable community members’ experiences with working while homeless, I had to make difficult decisions related to how to retell their stories. After my pavement experience, which included traumatic interactions with the Veterans Administration, Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, and Michigan Works, I found myself in tears buying $8 eggs, reading the contents of a fresh spinach box (bought at a Bridgecard discount), and pondering when silicone and natural flavoring became curry ingredients. I woke the next morning to a scattering of multiple unworking stoves, frozen water and a nonfunctional Buddy Heater. I decided to refer to my direct sources as “Buddy” in an effort to help honor anonymity requests. When struggling with how to organize community members’ feedback related to employment I considered the MDHHS Housing and Homeless Services link, which claims they work Arielle has worked at 7-Eleven since September 2024, while experiencing homelessness in Ann Arbor. Because of the insufficient pay, she has to seek a second job. to “make homelessness rare, brief, and one time … with the goal of moving them [individuals and families] into stable housing as quickly as possible and providing the supports needed to achieve permanent housing stability.” Despite the division’s goal, overall homelessness is increasing, available community supports are not sufficient, and the community’s overall housing stability is declining. One of the myths about homeless people is that they don’t have enough money and therefore they need more job skills. To dispel the myth that it is always true that people experiencing homelessness have a need to increase their job skills, consider that some Buddys who reported only one episode of homelessness reported that it was during a transitional phase to completing further education. While opportunity for education and skills training may be a great option for some, unfortunately, many employment programs are for specific groups such as youth, people with disabilities and veterans. A recent visit to the Michigan Works office was somewhat disappointing. When this writer asked the only worker visible about employment support for the homeless, the only result was a pile of flyers for jobs including the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, University of Michigan Health System, and Kroger — all of which are places many homeless people are already ineligible for because of mandatory background checks that reveal past invovlement with the carceral system. Despite the existence of employGeorge Clark serves lunch out of the Fed-Up Food Truck, where he works part-time. He struggles to cash, and therefore use, his paycheck without a bank account. Photo submitted. ment opportunities, several factors were described as barriers to obtaining employment. Many people described multiple forms of discrimination. One example of discrimination is based on sharing the same address known to be utilized by homeless people. One Buddy explained they knew they were being discriminated against because when they tried an alternate address they started getting call backs immediately. Transportation is another barrier, as it is often necessary to travel for both training programs and higher-paying employment. While there may be potential for support to address transportation needs; these processes often take longer than employers are willing to wait. A Buddy shared they are currently unable to repair their vehicle, which is impacting their training schedule. One Buddy shared an experience where they rented a car for work expecting the cost of the car would be offset by travel reimbursements, only to not earn enough money to cover anything; this led to an eviction. Another Buddy explained if they had had a vehicle they would easily be able to get a job in maintenance earning at least a living wage, but the need to travel beyond public transportation service areas and after hours is prohibitive for them. A major challenge shared by several people was lack of a telephone and/or internet to apply for jobs and communicate with prospective employers. Not having access to a consistent phone or internet service also makes navigation more difficult and time-consuming. While there is potential to obtain a government phone, that process presents such barriers as requiring access to technology, identification, proof of eligibility, a shipping address, or email — or a person has to be lucky enough to run into one of the people distributing phones out of their trunk. Another challenge is a lot of jobs won’t allow you to apply without government ID, or will insist on original copies of IDs before starting employment. One Buddy complained that they couldn’t cash checks easily because ID is required to start a bank account. It is a challenge that if you lose your ID or it gets damaged or stolen, there is a cost to get it replaced. see WORKING page 8 JANUARY 24, 2025
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