Santa Ana Homeless Shelter

       Understanding homelessness can come about by participating in an actual setting. In this case a homeless shelter. The type study presented here is of an ethnographic nature, meaning “a descriptive account of social life and culture in a particular social system based on detailed observation of what people actually do” (Johnson, 2004). The purpose of this study was to examine what homeless people do in a shelter and in their surroundings, and to compare the ideas from previous chapters of this paper, and how they relate to an actual homeless community. The first section will provide an introduction and history of the shelter were the ethnographic study took place, and then an explanation of the purpose and objectives of the shelter. There will be a comparison between the most prevalent factors associated with homelessness and the actual observations conducted. There will also be a comparison with the causes of homelessness, and issues dealing with community awareness.

       The history of the Santa Ana homeless shelter can be traced back to the 1930’s when Peter Maurin  who during the Great Depression saw a need for a spiritual and material life to deal with such a crisis, Peter started regular meetings who’s main purpose was a “clarification of thought”, and to dialogue to explore the causes of present problems. On the other hand Dorothy Day was a passionate journalist who strived for women’s suffrage, and was a devoted catholic. Peter’s ideas and Dorothy passion brought about a circulation of a journal which quickly reached 150,000 with a main focus of Christian pacifist. Peter and Dorothy were also motivated by teaching of Jesus and the desire to work for social justice, which brought about the first meeting in 1932, a year later the Catholic workers were born. Catholic Workers were best known for their hospitality in run down neighbors, but beyond hospitality, the catholic workers were also well known for human right protectors, development of non violent culture. Forest. The catholic movement. Retrieved December 7, 2005, from http://www.catholicworker.org. Catholic Worker’s main goal was to help those suffering from poverty, mainly due in part because of the gap between the rich and poor, and the questions was always “why are there so many poor and abandoned.” Cornell. A brief introduction to the catholic work movement. Retrieved December 7, 2005, from http://www.catholicworker.org. For this reason food and shelter was extended to those in need with services provided by unpaid volunteers. With the expansion of Catholic Work Centers to rural areas brought about an expansion to 134 catholic worker communities in 1995. This number reached 185 in 2005.

      

      The Santa Ana residence located in California was converted into shelter with the main purpose of serving substance abuse live in people. The shelter in later years began accepting women for treatment, it then allowed women with children to reside in the shelter while being treated. With the arrival of Dwight and Leia smith in 1995 with an official name of “The Isaiah House” the shelter started receiving homeless people. The idea was to accept only women with kids who were lacking a shelter or a meal, this was change to accept males with family and kids, but no single males were allowed. Males were refereed to nearby shelters by catholic workers.

      

       The catholic movement website states that catholic workers live a simple lifestyle in the community. This statement is true for catholic workers Dwight and Leia, their ability to volunteer to serve those in need speaks of their modesty. The shelter belongs to the catholic works movement, it is ran independently and no headquarters is established for the movement. The main source of income is donations from individuals, industries, and businesses who donate specific items such as food and clothing. Some money also comes from outside jobs by members of the shelter.

      

       The homeless shelter houses about 110 people each night and according to Schou (2005) about “100 homeless people arrive for meals and to receive mail-about 500 homeless people use catholic worker’s address.” The authors ethnographic study supports this claim.

      

      The shelter does provide an average of 300 to 500 meals per day, on average about 3500 to 4000 meals a week. The homeless shelter residents use the shelter’s address for mail, school purposes, and social services. The shelter counts with one telephone, which is hardly used for personal purposes. A problem with showers was not evident, and milk and essentials for children were provided by catholic work’s volunteers. For the most part there was enough food to satisfy one’s hunger, at times second’s were available. Catholic workers also deliver meals to the Santa Ana civic center were homeless gather. The author’s observations only brought light to the passion and caring shown by the catholic workers volunteers.

     

       The shelter also faces many struggles. Mostly with issues of money and the lack of donations, and to top it off, it has been at odds with Santa Ana City officials, who have cited the shelter for working without permits for housing homeless with children. In August 2003 the city cited the catholic workers shelter for operating a “mission” in a residential area, such ordinance claimed by the city allows missions to operate in industrial areas only. Catholic worker Dwight and Leia Smith argued to be running a shelter and not a mission. Once awareness of this issue was brought to community members, a team of lawyers filed a federal law suit claiming that there was infringement from part of his city upon the catholic workers operation of the shelter. (Jones, 2005). 

       

       The idea is to compare the most prevalent factors of homelessness literature in this study with “The Isaiah House” or shelter as it will be called for the purpose of this study. Many issues in the literature do in fact play a role in the ethnographic study. For example housing was a major precipitator for homelessness among those in the shelter, poverty played a major role, and mental illness while not very significant it was also witnessed, Substance abuse as surprising as it might sound was basically non-existent, Health care issues or uses of social services were opposite from the literature review, and education was positive while in the shelter.

      

       As stated earlier the lack of affordable housing has been considered to be one of the major issues causing homelessness. Most homeless in the shelter were not able to afford a good place to live, due in part to the high increase in rent, which run in the low ’s to per month for a one bedroom apartment in the surrounding area. Housing assistance for those in the shelter was basically non-existent, mainly because of the unwillingness to process application or lack of funding from the government.

       

       Poverty in the shelter was also very evident and supports the literature review as one of the major causes for becoming homeless. Two things played a role in the issue of homelessness among those people in the shelter. These were the lack of work opportunities, and public assistance. While some people did work, it was hard because of transportation issues, and lack of education. Public assistance seems to be hard for those early arrivals, especially those with 4 or 5 children and the elderly, mainly because of constant mobility, and a lack of an understanding of the benefits.

      

       Mental illness was not a major problem, there were however a few who did suffer from some type of mental illness, a few elderly people had problems relating with the real world and some seem to be hyper and uncontrollable at times, there were one issue of a mental ill children witnessed by the author, but overall most homeless people appear to have control of their mental capacities.

      

       Substance abuse in the shelter was non-existent, as the authors observation dictated. There might be several explanations of this. First, single men were not permitted to sleep in the shelter, and the neighborhood location was pleasant. Another factor that might prevent people from doing drugs was the close proximity from one another, the place compact spaces have homeless residents eating and sleeping within feet from one another. Children I believe were another influential factor in prevention of substance abuse, there were too many Children playing and staying throughout the shelter.

       

       As far a health issues were concerned, only one major issues was observed, and it involved a very small boy that while he seemed to be as healthy as the other children, his size proportion made him look like he was missing essential vitamins and nutrients for growth, other minor issues included light headaches and stomach aches. Catholic workers provided the essentials for females and children. Aspirin and over the counter drugs were provided. As far as health care was concerned, some of them appeared to be in an overall state of good health.

       

      Domestic violence seemed to be evident for some females, especially does with children, some females communicated leaving because of abuse by husbands or boyfriends, some of the young children reported leaving for issues of violence, without being specific, while domestic violence was not big in numbers at the shelter, some single parent mother’s did appear to have being physically abused.

      

       Education was very evident and surprising, especially among young children. Most if not all children will usually leave in the morning and return at the end of classes, at times volunteers would show up to teach children how to play instruments, volunteers would read to kids and also assist with homework and advise on school work. There was also some college attendance among some adults. Most people in the shelter appear to be of Hispanic descent, while African Americans and Caucasians appear to be equal in numbers, with some temporary Asians.