Interviews

For my interview I talked with my coworker Drew who is a student at Berklee.

How do you feel about homelessness? Does it affect you in any way?
I think homlessness is a continuing problem, I almost cant go a day without some sort of interaction with a homeless person. i take the T to class everyday and will often see a homeless person in the station panhandling. It only affects me in the sense that I will sometimes give change to them when i see them in the subway.

Do you think others in the community view this as an important problem? Why/Why not?
I feel that some members of the community care and view this as an important problem, but others seem indifferent to it. I noticed people will often ignore or refuse to acknowledge a homelss person. this is especially true during the morning commute in the different train stations I go through to get to class. I feel some people have an uneducated negative opinion formed on the homeless and as result they will avoid all interactions with them.

What do you feel the goverment's role on this issue should be?
I feel the government should offer some sort of aid for the victims of homelessness because nonprofit and other organizations can only do so much.

How do you feel about the policies the government has put in place to aid the homeless?
I am not aware of the specific policies or programs that the goverment has put in place, but I do know they make room in the annual budget regarding the issue.

Since you are unaware of the specific policies, based on your knowledge, do you feel the government or community does enough in fighting homlessness?
I think as a whole we could all do a little more in helping the homeless. Sure, the goverment puts it into the budget, but how much actual work and thought goes into solving the problem. As a community we could all definitly do a little more. It could be as easy as giving them some change or simply acknowledging them as people in our society.


I think Drew provided a unique perspective on the issue because he has an almost daily interaction in some form with the homeless. He also shed some light on an issue I feel is a problem as well. It is the fact that people will often ignore the homeless when they see them becuase they are uncomfortable or simply do not want to be bothered. He also talked about uneducated negative opinions he feel people form about the homeless. I agree with him and feel we have to do a better job as a community of breaking these negative sterotypes about the homeless.

-Brian

For the interview I questioned my brother Joseph who works in the real estate business.

- What are your thoughts on homelessness? Do you care about this problem or does it not affect you?

-          I think homelessness is an issue everyone should care about. Even if it doesn’t affect you directly it most likely has an impact on someone you know. Especially with today’s economy this problem is growing. Working in the real estate business I have seen many issues related to this topic first hand.  I have helped people get their homes out of foreclosure and I have purchased homes that have been foreclosed on. Even though it is a business for me it is a very sad situation.

- It is obvious that you think this is an important issue, but how do you think others in our community feel about it? Do you think they should care? 
 

-          I know I care about it, but I’m not sure how other people feel. I know if they don’t care about it they should start, I think people should care because it is the natural thing to do. But the sad thing in this country is that people usually don’t start caring about an issue until it affects them directly. So unless an individual has a friend or family member they know who is homeless or in danger of becoming homeless I feel as if people generally don’t care about the topic.

- Since you don’t feel as if people in the community don’t think of homelessness as an important issue, what about the government’s role in this problem?

 

-          Well the government has to be involved in this issue. Since we can’t always rely on the good will of people to donate and volunteer the government has to be involved.

- What about the policies they put in place do you think they are useful?

 

-          When it comes to policies about homelessness I am not too familiar with them. But I am aware that they put the budget in place for programs to happen.

- Do you think they do a good job at creating a budget and do you think this helps the problem of homelessness?

-          Of course the budget helps because it provides money for programs to get started or to stay up and running but I think it has to be changed more. Instead of adjusting it once a year it should be looked at more often. Especially since today more people are losing their jobs and homes the increase of homeless people is going to raise also which means more money is going to be needed.

- Instead of just increasing the budget, what else do you think could be done to improve this issue? 

     I'm not even even sure if this can really be done but possibly having something in place that helps prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, like having housing be more affordable. But then again homelessness is not just a money issue. 

 

From interviewing my brother I was able to get an interesting outlook on homelessness. This was because my brother is a person who benefits from buying and selling houses and he has had experiences working with people who were forced to give up their homes. Even though this was business to him he still felt that this was a sad issue. This interview also made me realize that many people may not be aware of the policy on the homeless. Honestly before I started doing research for this blog I wasn’t aware of it myself. Hopefully from doing this blog I can help educate others.

- Elizabeth

For my interview, I talked with Jasmin a senior Psych major at UMass Amherst. The reason I chose her was because I wanted to get another student's point of view.


Is this a problem you think is important? Why/ Why not?
I think homelessness is somewhat of an issue. At the end of the day, many of these people are good people who just made of few mistakes. When their well-being is in jeopardy and they are helpless, they deserve some sort of help from the government

Do you think others in our community this is an important problem? why/ why not?
I don't think other's in our community look at it as a big problem. A lof of people are under the notion that homeless people brought their trouble onto themselves. They are detrimental to society, so I think people view them as being important.

What policy, if any, does government now have to deal with this problem?
I know the government has homeless shelters and soup kitchens to help deal with this issue.

What are advantages of this policy?
Their policy helps a lot of people in need

What are disadvantages of this policy?
It also seems like the amount of help isn't enough to account for everyone who needs help.

How might the policy be improved?
Their policy can be improved by adding more government workers and resources of the homeless. I don't believe that it needs to be replaced

Does the policy need to be replaced? why?
I don't think the policy needs to be replaced, but maybe slightly modified to ensure that all people that are taken care of. It's important to take care of everyone.

What disagreements, if any, about the policy exist in this community?
I don't think our community really disagrees with the government's policies because I don't think they care enough about the issue.
 
Where can I get more information about this problem and the different positions people take on this problem?
If you wanted information on this problem and the government policies, I would say that you should go on a government sponsored website and search homeless 



 I think Jasmin really has a good perspective on the issue. Being a psych major, I think she understands that sometimes it's hard for people to get back on their feet once they have fallen. It was great to get another student's perspective and know that I'm not the only one that thinks this way. I think she is absolutely right that most people just assume what they think is true about homeless people and that there is nothing to be done to help them. That's 100% untrue, and I'm hoping this blog will help to make others aware of that.

--Alyssa Gerry