In the shady area under the trees, a woman sits in the shadows with her legs crossed beneath her. It’s an unusually warm 82-degree March day. Cars pass by within feet of her, drivers seem to be unaffected by her presence. Across the street is a local homeless shelter, Bigger Vision of Athens.
It is mid-afternoon, and at 4 p.m. the phone lines of Bigger Vision will start ringing for guests to reserve a spot for the night. The first 34 callers will win themselves a bed space. If not, they may wait to see if one of the 34 callers does not show and take their spot. Otherwise, they may have to sleep outside.
As the time grows closer to 6 p.m., a small group forms outside of the shelter doors. Bigger Vision is an adult shelter for men and women, so on any given night the ages of visitors can range from 18 to 70 years old. Depending on the day, visitors can do laundry or shower, but each of the 34 guests are guaranteed a meal and a bed to sleep in.
Unfortunately, Bigger Vision is only a winter emergency shelter, this year, operating from Oct. 16 through April 16. In a few weeks, the woman will have to hide in the shade of another tree near another shelter if she wants a bed or a meal.
The executive director of Bigger Vision, Andrew Wilkin, said part of the reason why the shelter only runs in the winter months is due to the increased demand in housing. During the warmer months, the demand for housing decreases and with the recent warmer weather the shelter has not been full. Another reason is Bigger Vision does not offer programs like other shelters do.
“Since we don’t have any programming and we let people come as they are, if we were open 365 days out of the year, we would be a 34 bed flop house and there would be zero incentive for anyone to actually get out of poverty,” Wilkin said.
A year-round Problem
While Bigger Vision operates only in the winter, homelessness is a year-round issue. The needs of the homeless community do change from season to season, but homelessness is an ever present matter. There will always be someone without a home who needs help.
According to the 2016 Athens-Clarke County Homeless Point-In-Time-Count, there were a total of 225 homeless persons on the night of Jan. 27, 2016. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires this count to document the number of homeless persons, both sheltered and unsheltered, on a single night in January. Of the Athens count, 69 percent of them were sheltered and 31 percent were unsheltered. In the Jan. 2016 Point-In-Time-Count for the state of Georgia, close to 13,000 persons were documented throughout the state as being homeless, according to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. For that Point-In-Time-Count, 58 percent were in some sort of housing facility and 42 percent were unsheltered.
For the average person, homelessness seems like a daunting, unsolvable issue. Stigmas and stereotypes around homelessness—like believing they are dirty, lazy drug addicts—have hindered aid to the community. There is a certain sense of humanity stripped from a person when they are viewed as homeless. They become objectified—part of the scenery.
Giving time
One student organization at the University of Georgia working to remove these stereotypes is UGA Home, which is a collegiate chapter of the national organization Working Together for Change. This organization has a three pillar approach to helping the homeless community.
The first pillar is immersion. The co-founder of WTFC Aditya Sood, a second year biology and sociology major from Alpharetta, said the first step to breaking down these stereotypes about homeless people is to go out and talk to them. Many people walk past apparently homeless people or panhandlers and do everything to avoid eye contact. To immerse members, UGA Home holds backpack-a-thons where they hand out backpacks filled with items like hygiene products, water and socks. Sood said the purpose of the backpack-a-thon is twofold: give out backpacks, and create connections between students and the homeless community.
“Everyone’s a lot closer to homelessness than I think they realize,” Sood said. “People are people at the end of the day.”
Jahnavi Parikh, a second year management information systems and psychology double major from Milton, is the president of the Athens WTFC chapter—UGA Home. Parikh said that the main focuses of the Athens chapter are awareness and advocacy—the first pillar.
“I’m most passionate about re-humanizing this group of people because there’s such a stigma against them, and like so many people have dehumanized them,” Parikh said.
In our society, it has become a learned trait to avoid people perceived as homeless. Parents may teach their children to ignore them, or look away, further perpetuating the stereotypes and stigmas previously mentioned to the next generation. UGA Home is working to change that perception with its members.
“Honestly, the biggest thing someone could do is just to treat them as people rather than like a separate human race,” Parikh said. “[It’s] really hard on them to know that people see them as different.”
After the 2014 “snowpocalypse” in Atlanta, Sood and his brother met a homeless woman with a medical degree. She came down to Atlanta to see her brother who was shot, and was unable to make it back in time for her residency. After being unable to pay her medical school bills, the woman became homeless.
From that interaction, Sood said he was moved to make a difference with his organization. Sood and his brother, Nitish Sood, founded WTFC in December 2013 and since then seven chapters of the organization have been created—ranging from Silicon Valley to Atlanta. Wherever they go, the brothers try to hold events and from those events others are inspired to create more WTFC chapters.
“The greatest thing to volunteer always is time,” Sood commented.
When it comes to giving back, the easiest way to start is by getting involved. Shelters and organizations are always looking for volunteers. If time is an issue, contact a shelter or organization to find out what items they need, or even donate money for those items.
View Athens, GA Homeless Resources in a full screen map
Bigger Vision is always looking for volunteers to provide meals and hangout with guests. Wilkin said not to give care packages, but rather give those items to charities and shelters because it may be an unnecessary item that gets thrown away. The best way to make a difference in the lives of the Athens homeless community is to partner and volunteer with the many already active organizations.
Sharing lunch, stories
Another organization that values time is Athens PBJ. Every Sunday at 2 p.m. for the past nine years friends have gathered on the corner of College Avenue and Clayton Street for peanut butter and jelly sack lunches. Rachel Deese, a second year social work major from Roswell, is one of the local student directors for the organization. Deese says that the heart and focus of Athens PBJ is to create a space for community and friendships to form.
“Food is not the focus,” Deese adds. “Food is just the means in order to get to know people.”
Since this past Christmas fell on a Sunday, Deese and another director brought their families out to meet with these friends because for them, consistency is what has allowed this event to continue for the past nine years.
“Consistency is huge. That’s how you really show people that you love them and care for them. We really try to commit to that,” Deese said.
Beyond Sundays, the group meets for a bi-weekly Bible study where local student directors open up their homes and provide meals for their friends. A consistent group of people have been coming to the Athens PBJ events for years, and even some people who have transitioned out of homelessness return on Sundays to catch up with their friends.
“People value giving your time more than giving material things. Sitting down on a curbside with someone for like five minutes, an hour—just giving your time is huge,” Deese commented.