Mental Health System In The Film: Skid Row

The policies of criminalizing homelessness and poverty has been occurring, and invented in San Francisco, in 1876 with the introduction of the “ugly laws.” These laws particularly targeted those with disabilities, and restricted people’s ability to appear in public spaces (Punishing the Poorest 2015, 6). These laws have not disappeared, they have just been rebranded, and then redeveloped into even more specific laws directed at the homeless. In fact, the more recent introduction of “quality of life laws” are truly just a re--- of the ugly laws and the continued crusade against homeless people, rather than homelessness. These “quality of life” laws, are really anti-homeless laws; these laws place a housed citizens right to the city and life above those dispossessed citizens.

Raising the Roof is a Canadian not-for-profit organization dedicated to ending homelessness. The first charity of its kind, Raising the Roof has been working to create long-term solutions to the homelessness crisis in Canada since 1996 (About Us, n.d.). The majority of Raising the Roof’s campaigning is dedicated to bringing awareness on the issue of homelessness through collaborations with stakeholders, education, and the investment in local and national social programs (About Us, n.d.). The topic of homelessness is one that is often left in the shadows of local and national politics. The sensitivity of the subject requires that Raising the Roof fight even harder to garner the attention of their audiences, and elicit both emotion and positive action through their storytelling strategies.

The vulnerable population that sparked my interest are the homeless population. The homeless population is growing at an incredible alarming rate. According statistical data from National Coalition for the homeless, “there are over 3.5 million homeless Americans, it includes approximately 1 million children of these more than 300,000 are homeless children on any given night.” Some include street children, runaway teenagers, young adults who might have been thrown out of their homes or released from jail are most visible living in our cities streets, towns, subways, underpasses and highways.

Consequently many of the individuals that were mentally ill suffered a great deal (Newman,

Homeless Homelessness is a major key issue that has been on our island for more than a decade. It hasn’t come to the point yet that it would get solve or anything. Many of our government officials does not clearly know where they are heading due to the twist and turns that they have been. Blaming the homeless is clearly not the issue but not really having to identify that it is the government that is creating this problem to be a more bigger and heated issue. If only they set aside a time to experience what they are going through, if only they look in the bigger picture, instead of building a rail that would only help a quarter of the population, if only they were able to empathize more --- I would go on from here but it is the ‘if only’ and the ‘what if’ that could have made a difference then we, [the people] would not have to go through this controversial.

Homelessness in New York City has undoubtedly changed tremendously since the 1990’s. In 2015 today it is no secret that there is a huge homelessness crisis in New York City. We see them on most if not every train ride either asking for money, food or in a corner using the rain as a form of shelter. Often time’s people look down upon homeless people and think they all have mental or drug issues or didn't work hard enough to make it on this place where people come to so called have a better life. Although it might be true that these homeless people might acquire these issues it is imperative for us to understand how to go to the positions they are in today.

Lost Angels: Skid Row is My Home was indeed an insightful documentary. Prior to reading about Skid Row in Module 7.3 (Buns, 2013) and watching this documentary, I did not know that Skid Row’s purpose was to keep the homeless population concentrated in certain areas away from the rest of society, so no one is bothered by their presence. This practice of dropping off homeless people to get rid of them is not only inhumane but proves how little society really cares about the homeless population, particularly for the mentally ill. Unfortunately, police-dumping is not just a method employed by the police department, but hospitals have been involved in discharging mentally ill patients and transporting them out of their facilities without following

In her essay, she points that an individual should not be tagged as a criminal to the society due to his or her poverty. She also points that the government should provide more shelters to homeless, and that the government should help them to find a job in order to have them enrolled back in society. Unfortunately, the public housing, which is a support for poor families provided by the government, has been becoming an easy target for law enforcers to fine people that is in need. As Ehrenreich says, “The public housing that remains has become more prisonlike, with residents subjected to drug testing and random police sweeps”. It demonstrates the elephant in the room that the government wants to avoid such reality meanwhile people is suffering in public houses filled of diseases and filth.

The subject of homelessness is not universally discussed in society because many people are either ignorant or unwilling to get involved to help. Although it is taboo, every day people are faced with or see homelessness. Many times driving under freeway passes or through highly populated cities, the homeless population can be seen everywhere. California has the densest homeless population in the United States, which is Skid Row in Los Angeles. In the state of California, the effects of homelessness continue to be an ongoing challenge for not only citizens but law enforcement and elected officials.

We must value the importance of homelessness being a temporary state and acknowledge the redefinition of homelessness. As a society, we also must self-reflect and value our own standpoint in correlation to the research being done. Standpoint is not just determining or concluding the results to be one thing or another; but it is more complex and one must recognize that particular perspectives’ you won’t be able to fully understand unless you were in the same predicament or circumstances as the homeless. With all the research in the world, we do not understand how it feels to be in that situation, but based on empirical evidence, we can imagine how it

Audience: People ignorant about the struggles of homelessness and would rather make homeless people “disappear” than help them Message/Goal of this piece: Addressing the issue of homelessness and raising awareness to this program as an alternative to making it a crime to be living in poverty. It shows that chromic homelessness can be solved Behaviors/ Aspects of society being satirized: The treatment and attitude towards homelessness and homeless people e.g. banning, arresting, and giving them fines. This piece shows the ridiculousness of the anti-homeless argument and that they are lazy moochers undeserving of help. People who would rather spend to criminalize homelessness than use the same time/money/resources to help fix this problem Background

In his seminal article in the New Yorker recounting a story of a homeless alcoholic man, Gladwell (2006) observed that homelessness costs the taxpayers considerably and focus ought to be given to housing provision and supportive care. According to Gladwell (2006),

The topic of interest that will be presented in this paper will be that of Homelessness. Homelessness is a worldwide issue that affects the lives of many people. Although it is mostly found to be present in Third World countries, many citizens across the United States face it and are suffering from it as well. From families to veterans and even children Homelessness can happen to anyone as a result of many different events/for many different reasons. Through this topic we will be able to examine the McKinney Vento Act of 1987 and how it affects Homelessness in the U.S..

The social structural force of healthcare forces the Edgewater homeless avoid the hospital as much as they can, until they are at the sure point of suffering life threatening injuries. This is because if they were to check into the hospital and their injuries were not life threatening, they were forced to wait in the waiting room almost a full day without guarantee they will be treated. Consequently, after a full day of waiting they are always rejected and forced back on to the streets. Thus, they will return to the streets dopesick without

This says that homeless people must progress through a continuum before they can become secure in their environment. In this experiment residents enter an emergency facility and complete the extensive work available there then they proceed to housing and complete the emotional/educational work required there, and then they move onto permanent housing that provides additional securing services. The process ends with these people becoming fully self-sufficient and being able to afford available housing. This shows how homeless find housing first, with support services offered at different times. This indicates that housing, in and of itself, provides stability.