The Concordian

The Faces of Homelessness presentation in the Student Center provided attendees eyeopening realities about the lives og homeless Americans and the amount of them living in the country. [Click to enlarge]

[Click to enlarge]

[Click to enlarge]

Over 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness in any given year and out of those Americans, over a third, about 1.3 million of those homeless are children. 

Those were just a couple of the numbers presented last Tuesday during the Faces of Homelessness presentation in the CU Student Center Stateroom, but the real eye openers of the night were the stories of Mr. Allen Banks and Mr. Frank Mearns.

“My goal is to shatter some of the stereotypes about the homeless,” said National Coalition of the Homeless speaker Allen Banks in his opening statements.

As Allen reflected on his own stints in homelessness he revealed that, “homelessness doesn’t care about your money, the color of your skin, or where you are in life.”

Allen is currently fifty years of age and, prior to his homelessness, he was married for nineteen and a half years, he had owned a house overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, and he made $170,000 a year at the peak of his earnings.

“Depression caused my early childhood to be rough…for years I had been able to keep my two lives separate, but at that point I wasn’t able to any longer,” said Allen when expressing his reason for becoming homeless.  That point was the sudden death of his father and after that, he explained, he began to show up late to work and his depression took hold.

“When you become homeless you’re not dropped off in the middle of the woods…you’re dropped off in the middle of a city,” said Allen in pointing out the difficulties of adjusting to homelessness.

“For the first three months I didn’t speak a word…I forgot the sound of my own voice.  I wasn’t able to take a shower…it’s not that I didn’t care. I didn’t know where to go.  I went four days straight without eating…I didn’t know what hunger was until then.”  Allen explained to the students and faculty present the adjustment process he went through as he entered his first stint into homelessness.  He expressed that students, such as ourselves, were his primary source of food; he had to eat what people threw away.

When addressing the reason for continued homelessness Allen states, “being homeless and trying to find work is very challenging…you don’t have an address, a phone number…or anything.”  Allen was eventually able to find a manager position at the Verizon Center in D.C. and earn enough income for a small apartment.  He was even able to save enough money for six months rent and vowed that he would not become homeless again.

One day, coming out of his apartment, he was robbed at gunpoint and shot three times, one to his right arm and two to his left.  Allen spent eighteen months having multiple surgeries and being unable to work; his six months worth of savings was not able to last.

“One day I was working…the next day I was homeless.”

During his second stint with homelessness, Allen’s depression began to rise again and he began contemplating suicide, but he knew that he did not want to die.  In one of the shelters he went to he was assigned a case manager that helped Allen get the help he needed to face his depression.  Allen gave this advice, “If you think you have depression…talk to someone, you cannot beat it by yourself.”

“I will never go back to where I was…separated from my family.”  Allen Banks was reconnected with his family this past December and is still addressing his problems with depression.

“You never major to become homeless,” began Frank Mearns, another Speaker for the National Coalition for the Homeless.  Frank is from Ireland and he grew up during the 1970’s when conflict between the English and the Irish was at its height.  “Peoples homes blowing up and body parts flying by was my childhood,” Frank reflected.

He began drinking early in his life and connected it to the source of his homelessness.  “I could get a job anywhere, but I was an alcoholic.”  He expressed the reasons for being fired as directly related to his drinking and additional drug addictions.

At one point in his life, Frank had been married and had five kids.  Since, he has been homeless in forty different countries.  On October 6th, 2007, Frank attempted suicide and has fortunately been clean from drugs since then.

“Some of the places I’ve slept you wouldn’t take a dog into…homelessness is a very dangerous thing,” said Frank of personal experiences.  When speaking on the condition of some shelters he said, “You’re forced to sleep in a room with three hundred people, without a shower, and you have to sleep with one eye open.”

Frank spoke of the homeless community saying there is, “safety in numbers” and “we police ourselves and help each other.”

He expressed the need for a homeless community being rooted in the lack of care by others.  “What’s your first thought when you see a homeless person on the streets…you walk the other way.”  Frank also reflected on the recent presidential inauguration, “every homeless person in a two mile radius of the white house was swept aside.”

Franks request on behalf of the homeless was simply, “just talk and acknowledge (us) as human beings.”

During the Q & A portion of the evening, CU student Parisa Bigdeli asked, “Because some homeless people have addictions is there a better way to help (other than giving money)?”

The speakers replied, “If they’re hungry, go buy them a sandwich.”  And looking at direct donations Frank said, “Money from your heart is good money because it might save their life.”

The remainder of the questions focused on the homeless challenge, which is an event that takes place in D.C.  The event allows people to experience what it is like to be homeless for a week under the supervision of guides from the National Coalition for the Homeless.

When asked at the end of the evening how to address homelessness, Allen Banks said, “If you look at it like one person against the task you’ll be discouraged.  Instead, do one little thing and get your friends and family to do one little thing.  Eventually, if everyone contributes, it will be a million people fighting the beast that is homelessness.”

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