December 13, 1994
For most of us with a roof over our heads and a warm bed to sleep in at night, the thought of more than 40,000 homeless people in the Bay Area is something we manage to put out of our minds.
SF State offers a course that encourages just the opposite -- a critical analysis of homelessness. The Bay Area Homelessness Program is also housed at SF State, and it aims to take a hard look at the issues surrounding homelessness.
According to Professor Beverly Ovrebo, who was a major force in getting the Bay Area Homelessness Program started in 1989 and who teaches Homelessness and Public Policy (HED/URBS 582) at SF State, there are structural causes to homelessness.
Simply stated, the number of poor people in this country is growing and affordable housing is decreasing, Ovrebo said. Between 1983 and 2003 the number of low-income households in America is expected to increase from 11.9 million to 17.2 million, while the number of low-income units will shrink from 12.9 million to 9.4 million units, according to a 1989 study by the Congressional Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Issues surrounding homelessness are very complex, according to Ovrebo. Around 1980, there was an explosion of homelessness. The response to it then was soup and a bed. Shelters and soup kitchens became an institution, Ovrebo said.
Ovrebo encourages students to look for a solution beyond that. "We don't need more shelters," she said. "We need more homes." Her class on homelessness explores the public policy that created massive homelessness, and encourages students to act as leaders in ending the problem.
Henry Ostendorf, graduate student in counseling, first got involved with the Bay Area Homelessness Program in 1989. He was an assistant to the program and was given free reign to work on whatever projects he wanted to. After taking the homelessness class, Ostendorf looked for a way to make a difference. While volunteering at local shelters, he realized the he wanted to interact with people there rather than just serving them food, he said.
He decided he might be able to help by writing resumes for homeless people. So he set up his computer at a homeless shelter in the Haight and began the Roving Resume Writers program, which has now helped more than 1,000 homeless job seekers, Ostendorf said.
"Henry learned to see a need and learned how to get the help to address the need," Ovrebo said.
Roving Resume Writers now has a volunteer pool of 50 resume writers, including working students and community professionals. They are still in need of more Spanish-speaking volunteers, said Ostendorf.
Though no longer funded by BAHP, Roving Resume Writers continues to operate. How does Ostendorf, now a graduate student in counseling, and with a full-time job at the Episcopal Sanctuary in San Francisco manage to do it all?
"My job and my project fit nicely together," Ostendorf said. "My boss lets me spend some of my time keeping the project alive."
Ostendorf has also fit Roving Resume Writers into his counseling program for independent study units.
BAHP is a program set up to mobilize resources at more than 12 Bay Area colleges and universities to help end homelessness. Funded by local foundations, it does research, develops courses and internships and develops and supports projects throughout the Bay Area. SF State's course on homelessness has served as a model for many of those courses, according to Ovrebo.
"BAHP is open to student initiative," Roma Guy said, who replaced Ovrebo as director of BAHP this year.
Amy Donovan found that out when she knocked on the office door while searching for on-campus support for her show on homeless youth, which is scheduled to be presented in Cesar Chavez Student Center in February.
"I found few support sources for this kind of project on campus," Donovan said. "It was refreshing to see there was someone dedicated to helping with this sort of thing."
Within a month of walking into the BAHP office, Donovan had three people to help prepare the show and some funding to help with expenses.
"It is the best thing that's happened to me," Donovan said.
Donovan still needs video and audio editors and people to help install the show in January, she said.
The show, "Refuse and Refuge; Youth at the Edge of Consumer Society," is designed to increase consciousness about runaway youths. Donovan plans to create an alley way complete with artifacts from urban society. Projected on the walls of the alley way will be photographs taken by homeless young people of their own environment. The show includes videotaped interviews with the runaway youths, said Donovan.
Understanding the issues of homelessness is even more important now than it was when the program began, said Ovrebo.
"Society is shifting. There is a lot of meanness of spirit we're hearing now. It is more important than ever to focus on social justice. It is never okay to blame poor people for their poverty," she said.