Volunteers trade gift cards for personal information in homeless survey
Hayley Fox/blogdowntown
Annabelle Rosborough interviews Edward Potts during the "vulnerability survey" conducted on Skid Row homeless this week.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Since Tuesday night, volunteers have been meeting at the Los Angeles Mission and fanning out across Skid Row to talk to homeless people about their living conditions and what brought them to this area of Downtown in the first place.
This "vulnerability survey," which helps to individualize people and better identify the issues that lead to chronic homelessness, precedes Thursday night's official Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.
Molly Rysman is the Los Angeles Director for the Corporation for Supportive Housing and one of the volunteers who distributed the survey.
“I think one of the things that happens with homelessness is we just see this massive humanity that needs help and we don’t really take the time to get to know each person and understand their different needs and there’s people who are homeless for many different reasons with many different needs," Rysman said.
She added: "Last night I was out surveying, I talked to a guy who’s 77 years old who was in the ER 50 times in the last 3 months. I talked to another guy who was 22 years old who had been homeless for two days. I mean, very different situations in life.”
Volunteers pack their pockets with granola bars and $5 gift cards to McDonalds and Burger King as incentive for area residents to share personal information about themselves. This "vulnerability survey" that was distributed on Tuesday and Wednesday nights includes more than 40 questions that range from the general to the extremely intimate.
Homeless individuals were asked about their medical history, how long they've been homeless and how they identify sexually. They're asked about where they sleep, their relationship with family members and if they've ever been abused.
While many of these issues may seem highly intrusive, L.A. Mission volunteer Anthony Pryor said the information they ask for isn't much different than what many homeless have to provide to get medical or social services.
"They're not divulging anything they haven't already divulged," said Pryor. "We're just making sure with the information that we're getting we're pinpointing people in this specific area."
While Pryor used to live on Skid Row himself and now volunteers at the L.A. Mission, some volunteers spending a night on Skid Row was a fairly new experience. Annabelle Rosborough, 28, was enthusiastic about her work and said she loved getting to talk to all the people she surveyed.
Edward Potts was her first subject. He said he's been homeless for the last six years.
"I mean when I went to prison yeah ok, I had a place to stay. For real, when I was in prison I had a place to stay," said Potts. "Every time I come back out here it's just rougher and rougher so you know."
On Tuesday night volunteers conducted more than 250 surveys and organizers hoped to exceed that number on Wednesday. The official Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority count on Skid Row is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
The last time this homeless count was conducted was in 2011 and results showed there were 51,340 homeless people living in L.A. County on any given night.
John G on January 31, 2013, at 07:46PM – #1
Gift cards?
This is a perfect example of the "hand-out" and welfare mentality we are so much trying to reduce. Or are we?
jojinks on February 01, 2013, at 10:11AM – #2
To Johnny G: Maybe if you can open you mind to finding out why, and how these people ended up in this situation, it would shed some light on how to prevent or better help people in need. I doubt seriously anyone living on the street is there simply for freebies, and handouts, or for a free ride on welfare. That type of thinking is exactly why studies like this need to be made so solutions can come about, and we can find understanding. Eli Broad can spend millions for his ego driven Museum downtown, but you never see people like that donating his kind of money to help people downtown in crisis. Ask yourself what side of the fence you are on: If you had more money than you could ever spend, what kind legacy would you leave, what kind of impact would you make on the world? Volunteers are doing the work… because THEY CARE.
stefano60 on February 01, 2013, at 11:10AM – #3
to John G besides from the fact that you have clearly not understood that these gift cards are barely 'hand outs' (consider them as a token in exchange for responding to a survey, as it is normally done quite extensively everywhere, without raising complaints!), i am not sure exactly what the point of your comment is.
"welfare mentality we are so much trying to reduce"
first of all, who is we?
secondly, welfare cannot be reduced, as long as the conditions that force people to live in such conditions are still there.
if anything, welfare should be extended and improved, in order to ensure a decent, humane quality of life for all.
what we need is proper health care, proper education, proper rehabilitation programs to ensure that we do not have to witness such desperation.
it is called civilized society, in case you were wondering.
and that is what WE should be trying to achieve.
John G on February 02, 2013, at 04:25PM – #4
@jojinks
Perhaps you can open your mind and realize that all the things you mention are things already being done and YET the problem still persists here. Why ask me which side of the fence I am on? So because I question the substance of these gift cards I'm sort of the bad guy who favor the greedy rich like Eli Broad? What kind of backwards thinking is that? Yes, I believe in leaving legacies, and believe me, many rich people have left them. Andrew Carnegie left a powerful foundation and many libraries in our country. How will throwing money to the symptoms of homelessness leave a legacy? Do you think this survey will help find a root cause? No, it is a social agenda effort built around liberal progressive politics. Why do I sound so mean? Because frankly, this problem has persisted and evaded long-term solutions for decades and it doesn't take a dimwit to figure out that many LA politicians have used the homeless issue for years and years. Come on, you think we can survey a solution to this? Yet alone throw in some gift cards? Get real!....
The real change-agents are the political and community leaders who must face not only the reality of past mistakes, but get over the social insensitivies of people like you. Only then get we start focusing on LONG-TERM solutions, which honestly, hasn't been given any serious consideration...
John G on February 02, 2013, at 04:58PM – #5
@stefano60
First of all, by "we" I mean we as a society.
Second, I think there will always be some sort of welfare, just like there will always be crime. That is some of the inherent disadvantages we have as humans because we are not born all the same. And in an ironic way, we are more stronger for that as well (having differences). Thus, the key is to REDUCE welfare, because it will never be rid of. To do so would subject us to some totalitarian world or utopia.
Your ideas of "proper" this and that is very idealistic and naive. First of all, what is proper? By who's definition? The United Nations? America? And you aren't even being realistic to realize like jojinks that people have different values, traits, and skills. Have you ever been around homeless people? I have and have been to several food drives. One guy always came to my mom's store when I was younger asking for free food. And my mom was always kind enought to give him canned food. I remember those days of charity, and I also remember the smell of marijuana from his breath. True, there are many that are in their current predicament and beyond their control. But how about the drug users and addicts? To what extent should they be helped? You really need to understand that homelessness is really about the homeless person, and not exactly society's fault. Many have problems but we should never relegate our communities to their plight. What we do need is longer-term solutions and preventative programs. But how can it be so when politicians are bounded by social constraints and insensitivies? For example, we try to develop our neighborhoods and people cry GENTRIFICATION. A person like Eli Broad wants to build and share a museum for society, but people like jojinks cry foul. Perhaps a corner liquor store is better than a museum?
John G on February 02, 2013, at 04:58PM – #6
@stefano60
First of all, by "we" I mean we as a society.
Second, I think there will always be some sort of welfare, just like there will always be crime. That is some of the inherent disadvantages we have as humans because we are not born all the same. And in an ironic way, we are more stronger for that as well (having differences). Thus, the key is to REDUCE welfare, because it will never be rid of. To do so would subject us to some totalitarian world or utopia.
Your ideas of "proper" this and that is very idealistic and naive. First of all, what is proper? By who's definition? The United Nations? America? And you aren't even being realistic to realize like jojinks that people have different values, traits, and skills. Have you ever been around homeless people? I have and have been to several food drives. One guy always came to my mom's store when I was younger asking for free food. And my mom was always kind enought to give him canned food. I remember those days of charity, and I also remember the smell of marijuana from his breath. True, there are many that are in their current predicament and beyond their control. But how about the drug users and addicts? To what extent should they be helped? You really need to understand that homelessness is really about the homeless person, and not exactly society's fault. Many have problems but we should never relegate our communities to their plight. What we do need is longer-term solutions and preventative programs. But how can it be so when politicians are bounded by social constraints and insensitivies? For example, we try to develop our neighborhoods and people cry GENTRIFICATION. A person like Eli Broad wants to build and share a museum for society, but people like jojinks cry foul. Perhaps a corner liquor store is better than a museum?
jojinks on February 11, 2013, at 04:50PM – #7
Johnny G is an angry dimwit - this is not about your mom giving free food from her store, sounds like a nice lady. How did she go wrong raising such a fool like you?
stefano60 on February 11, 2013, at 05:27PM – #8
mr john g,
'you' cannot speak for 'society', just like i cannot. therefore, your presumption that 'we are' doing something is simply preposterous.
you, sir, cancall my ideas 'very idealistic and naive' if you wish, however, i DO believe that WE human beings SHOULD aspire to a more just society - whether people like yourself share the goal or not.
i wish you and everyone all the best, but god forbids that one day life should give you a bad card and you'd end up having to survive on the streets and having to count on the decency of other human beings - in that case, you would be very happy to find 'idealistic and naive' people, rather than selfish ones.
good for you for having 'been around' homeless people, and great that you even went to some food drive. i happen to be very familiar with the issue - luckily i have never had to experience it myself, but i have interviewed several of these unfortunate people, and see them every day. there are so many different stories and different reasons that you cannot be so simplistic and label them all 'drug users and addicts'.
at the end of the day, society IS responsible for allowing these situations to take place, first of all by not preventing them to happen, and secondly for not properly helping and supporting people get OUT of that situation and return to a 'proper' life.
perhaps if the same people who find millions to spend on a museum for their own ego could also find millions to help the less fortunate ones; the problems would be solved a lot faster.
this has nothing to do with United Nations, America, or any other Country, just any CIVILIZED society - even though most other places on earth seem to have a more human approach to social issues and are less obsessed with greed and the almighty dollar (and please do spare me the nationalistic b/s of 'best country on earth' or such nonsense, it is wasted on me. i have lived in 4 different countries already and traveled extensively throughout the world, i am talking from direct experience, i KNOW there is no such thing as the best country).
i would be curious to know what kind of 'social constraints and insensitivities' are binding our politicians - who by the way are by large doing a terrible job on issues like this one, and do not need you to find excuses for them.
or maybe your solution to rid L.A. of the problem is to put them on an eastbound bus and let somebody else take care of them? (those nice people in the south have already beat you to it, i am afraid).
no need to spend time replying, i can see we can only agree to disagree.
John G on February 11, 2013, at 10:39PM – #9
@jojinks, thanks for calling my mom a nice lady. She really was. God bless her soul and all the caring mothers out there. And God bless the mothers of all the homeless out there also.
Now, after having said that, the reality is we need to go a step further and make real changes. Changes jojinks, you have no clue about...
John G on February 11, 2013, at 11:05PM – #10
@stefano60 - Always keep in mind that even though you or I do not represent society as a whole, WE ARE PART OF SOCIETY. And yes of course I'll reply since you spent the time to write yourself. Good for you that you have heard so many stories from homeless folks and perhaps we should respect that. But you aren't the only one. The only thing that makes you special is how you feel about those stories. We all take our experiences differently. You stefano, seem to relish in your social liberal views. It's unfortunate that although you seem to care for the needy, you despise those more fortunate, people who have made a difference to help those much more than you. We need a CIVILIZED society? Other places seem to have a much more human approach and less greed to the almight dollar? Are you serious? You say you traveled to four countries and now you think you have seen it all? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!
As for "social constraints" take a look at the Wal-Mart project near Chinatown. What started as an effort to create jobs and economic growth became a cry against the destruction of small stores. How ironic isn't it that this corner lot was already vacant and nearby condo/apt. residents didn't have a walkable place to buy groceries? I can cite many more but I'm sure it will only fall on your deaf ears.
You are correct that there is no such thing as the best country, and I say that having been to more than 20 countries through my work and personal travels. I have seen many homeless folks around the world but every society has different cultural perspectives on the issue. It seems like here in America people like you love to blame the more fortunate folks. No wonder why homelessness prevails here, the issue encounters barriers to social liberal ideologies to people like yourself. I wouldn't mind actually listening, but most ideas are never realistic or sustaining from liberals like yourself.
In my opinion, combating homelessness starts with long-term solutions that starts with our younger generation. The homelessness today must definitely be helped, but their problem started decades ago. Throwing in surveys can only do so much...