I’m adding this post to Mod 3 … just in case this is where it was supposed to be! It was originally made to beat vertical last evening.
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One idea I am considering for an article is to explore the daily, weekly, and seasonal routines of the homeless man I recently interviewed. It would serve as a means to portray the man and his wherewithal to persevere as well as provide information about useful community resources. This could be developed as a profile or perhaps as a “behind the scene” story. It could also be tailored to the Athens community (giving information about resources and the spirit of compassion here) or to a broader audience in terms of standing for the many and varied stories of homeless individuals anywhere and the types of help they need.
Some stories of interest, retrieved from NewsBank (my new best friend!) are below:
One pre-2013 article of interest is: “Beggars without golden voices”. Columbus Monthly (OH) – April 12, 2011. We probably all remember Ted Williams, a homeless panhandler who was discovered by a Columbus, Ohio videographer to have an unexpected quality – a deep and resounding radio-type voice. He quickly became known as the man with a golden voice. In addition to changing this man’s life, the story also challenged public assumptions of homeless individuals and panhandlers as an unredeemable lot.
This article used the Ted Williams story as a jumping off point to provoke compassion for a broader array of homeless people and panhandlers. It profiled several individuals in the Columbus area and provided some insights into their lifestyles and struggles. I would classify it as a story intended to raise awareness. This is probably just as relevant today and perhaps even more so since the sheer number of articles on panhandling has increased tremendously in recent years – likely indicative of its increasing incidence or problematic nature to the public. At the same time, I think the article lacked an action component. Readers may be moved to sympathy but left feeling helpless as to what they should do, what can be done, etc.
A second pre-2013 article of interest is “Long Way Home – Whatever happened to ending homelessness?” Written by Jonathan Walters, this appeared in Governing Magazine in 2012. The overall message of this detailed article was that there had been more promises regarding ending or reducing homelessness than there had been actual progress.
The article cited gains made, mostly in the form of understanding the complexity of causative factors. But it also highlighted forces – mostly governmental or structural in nature – that were impeding progress. This is a very instructive article. Regarding its relevance to us today, I would say two things – one is that as long as there are homeless individuals among us, the information is relevant; the other is that this article could provide ideas to follow up on. For instance, several promising approaches/programs were cited, and it could be helpful to see how they’ve fared out.
The third story I’ll present is from the opinion section of Athen’s Banner Herald. The title is “It’s hard to ignore homelessness when it has a human face,” written by an Athenian named Conoly Hester; published in April 2005. The author writes of uneasiness encountering homeless people on the streets of Athens and follows with a story of getting to know and coming to admire one particular individual. It speaks from the heart and is emotionally provocative. It is a story that is ever-relevant, regardless of time period. It is also particularly relevant to Athens for two reasons – one that it talks about support systems and compassion with the Athens community; a second being that it cites a figure of 436 homeless people in Athens in 2005. That figure is significantly lower today!
And just in case the last story does not qualify for this assignment (since it’s an opinion piece!), I’ll add one from 2011 that supports the idea that the number of homeless individuals is, in fact, declining in Athens. This March 2011 article in the Banner Herald was titled, “Count of homeless finds 407“. The article cites a figure closer to 500 in years previous to 2011. Taken together with information in the Hester piece above, it looks like there was a peak somewhere between 2005 and 2011. From previous research, I learned that this year’s figure stood at 225. In a previous post (Where I’m at) I wrote about errors inherent in the counting system; however … the downward direction seems indisputable!