Ever wondered about homelessness? Part 1
By: Poorni B
Tags: Homelessness

I was walking on the street in Washington D.C. stealing glances at a homeless man sitting on the street smiling and greeting everyone who was passing by. I smiled back at him nervously with a sense of fear nagging my mind. I went further down the street and reached my destination which ironically was a soup kitchen. A soup kitchen serves homeless people with healthy meals free of cost and provides them with social services like resume-building, public speaking, art and craft sessions, assistance for accommodation applications and so on.

I saw four to five other homeless people outside (two of them were tall, sturdy and looked as if they had just stepped out of a fight scene in a movie) which made me more nervous. Clutching my bag tightly, I walked through the back door with this sudden burst of fake confidence that I had trained my mind to acquire in such situations.

I had decided to volunteer at the soup kitchen. My volunteering stint was mainly out of a selfish interest as I had picked up a difficult topic for my qualitative research methods class. I always wondered ever since I started studying in the U.S. that why such a developed country would have so many people living on the streets. It is a common sight to see people begging and living in all types of creative make-shift shelters along the streets in India and somehow (though it shouldn’t) feels normal. We chat casually with the kids begging at the traffic lights and go about our daily routines. Hence, my curiosity piqued when I came across all those people living on the streets in the U.S. My qualitative methods class was the perfect excuse to research more about this topic. However, I honestly did not have the courage to just approach a homeless person randomly and start prying into his or her life, especially given the stereotypes around homelessness in the US. My professor was equally excited about my topic and gave me this brilliant suggestion that I volunteer at a homeless center/soup kitchen to be able to talk to a few people. She even offered to come with me to the center, mainly because she was worried about my safety as an international student. After refusing her kind offer, I attended an orientation session at one of the soup kitchens in D.C. and was all set for my first volunteering session.

My fear mainly originated partly because I was not an American and I had no sense of belonging to that community and partly as I had harbored all sorts of prejudices that made homeless people very dangerous and risky. Some of them were true as a few of them turned out to be ex-convicts, but I realized they were all the same under that roof — homeless and alone.

I needed sensitive details about their situation and did not want to ruffle any feathers or stir unwanted memories through my conversations. I had a strategy in mind that I would first go and scan the crowd to find someone who did not suffer from a mental illness (as I am not trained to talk to such people) and who could talk about the real problems faced by homeless people in an unbiased way. I spent three to four sessions finding my person. In the meantime, we painted, we made beaded jewellery and I had some good conversations with some of them. It once again made me realize how far and wide Bollywood has spread its wings. In that room, India was synonymous with Bollywood and was an excellent ice-breaker. We bonded over ‘Disco Dancer’, ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ and other such 80’s pop songs.

I experienced a bunch of different emotions in the very short span of a few days. I felt lucky and grateful for having the unwavering support of my family; a permanent place called home that I could always return to. I felt sad for the people I met who either had irreparable disturbed ties with their families, were in large debts or who had fought and lost the independent life and career battle. Some of them were disowned by their families due to their mental health, addiction patterns or criminal records, and had no place left called home. This soup kitchen was the only place where they acquired some sense of belonging to the community and felt at home.

Eventually, I did find and meet my person and conducted a formal interview with her that went on for about two and a half hours. I gathered a lot of interesting and important information that helped me gain a new perspective about homelessness in the U.S. which is completely different compared to India. I will write more about this in part two.

And yes, my nervous smile turned into a genuine warm conversation as I met the homeless man on the street again. He spoke fondly of the time when he visited Mumbai (‘Bombay!’ in his words) during his youth and shared interesting anecdotes. I made good friends with him and my fear vanished and was replaced by empathy. Ever paid conscious attention to what thoughts enter your mind when you see a homeless person around you?