The Barriers to Being Housed in the Bay Area
Advisor: Ms. Aprajita Singh
Internship Location: SimplyShelter, Bay Area
Onsite Mentor: Jay Samson
You may not realize that every night, when you sleep in the comfort of your own bed, that it’s a privilege. There are 38,000 houseless people in the Bay Area and that number is constantly increasing. This project delves deeper into not only how houselessness arises, but what prevents houseless people from accessing resources even when they have access to social workers. Interviewing houseless individuals and social workers from various shelters and pockets of the Bay Area will allow me to better understand that gap that exists between them, and how I can better bridge this gap. After collecting data between the two parties, and writing a paper about my findings, I plan on going back to the social workers and explaining what the difference between what they are providing and what houseless people need is. Understanding how, for various cases, social workers and government programs can ensure that houseless people have access to important resources will give way to at least one more family having a place to sleep at night – which for me, makes this project a success, We, the youth, are future change-makers, and once we are educated on this population that is so deeply important to society, we can ensure that we do our job in helping them.
Project Blog
Week 0: An Introduction to The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Yo yo everyone! Welcome to my first senior project blog post. I will be dissecting the obstacles to overcoming houselessness in the bay area for the next couple of months. Stay tuned for updates on my findings through my research and interviews!
For the past two years, I’ve been traveling to San Jose frequently to build houses with Simply Shelter. This project has been fulfilling, as I’ve watched over twenty families get a roof over their head through our work. Yet, it’s also made me realize how prevalent houselessness is in the Bay Area. Though I have helped some families, that’s just a drop in the ocean of this problem. This is why through this project, I want to understand what the barriers to being housed are, and how we can address the issues on a larger level, to create an even larger impact.
So why houselessness? And why the Bay Area? Since the beginning of the pandemic, the houseless population has increased by 35%. That means that every night, 38,000 people in the Bay Area aren’t sleeping in their own bed. This issue is especially relevant to the Bay Area, as it has the highest population of houseless people in cities like Oakland and San Francisco.
I plan on approaching my project through interview-based research, as I believe directly speaking with houseless people will give me the most raw and unbiased data. After interviewing houseless individuals from three different shelters, to ensure my data is diverse, I will speak to social workers and understand what they are doing to help houseless people. Understanding what houseless people think they need, and what governments and grants are providing, will show answers to what the disconnect is. Afterwards, I plan on summing up this research in a paper, and then returning to social workers and nonprofit organizations to explain the disconnect. Then I will talk to people with power, such as government officials and local mayors to ensure that they are aware of this urgent problem. Following this, I will create a video for the students in my school as we are the future change makers, and once they are more educated about the houseless issue, they may be more motivated to do something about it as they grow up. There have already been so many projects in the past three years directed towards the houseless population, yet the number of houseless people keep on increasing. I hope my project is successful in the way that it will ensure that at least one less person is sleeping on the street at night.
To me, a roof over your head is a simple human right, and that’s why I will do everything I can in this project to ensure that my research can bring us a step closer to finding solutions to the houseless problem. Stay Fresh! And see you in my post next week!
Week 1: The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Yo yo everyone! Or should I say woah woah everyone, because this week was filled with a lot of “woahs” as I delved deeper into the meat of my project.
I began the week by planning my approach to my topic, as I aim to tackle a large issue in a fairly short period of time. This involved writing agendas for both my week, and meetings with my advisors.
The first step of my project is to set up interviews. Because my research is predominantly based on word of mouth and qualitative research, ensuring that my interviews are diverse and well planned out, will ensure that my research is accurate and comprehensive. I am working with Abode Shelter and am in the process of connecting with two other shelters. These will be the three shelters that I will use to collect data for my project.
The next step was… FIELD TRIP! I made a quick trip to the Fremont Library to gather some more research material. At a past Simply Shelter event, my decision to delve deeper into this topic was reinforced when I was speaking to a fellow volunteer. He spoke about his involvement in a project in San Francisco, which invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the housing crisis, yet had no impact. I became intrigued about why such projects are failing, and made a trip to the library and Jstor to do some background research.
Finally, I began preparing for the semi-structured interviews that will be conducted have with houseless people. I want to make sure I am respectful while doing this project, so it is important for me to map out questions and ensure that I am prepared, though I still plan on keeping the interviews conversational.
Have an amazing first week of March! See you next week with some more great findings. Rock on!
Week 2: Researching 'The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness'
Yo yo everyone! Or should I say no no everyone, as this week we faced some roadblocks. Something I didn’t completely take into account was that there would be confidentiality issues with interviewing folks at shelters. I am no longer able to visit Abode shelter as it is against their rules to allow interviews. I understand and respect that, as I want to ensure that the people at Abode feel safe and their privacy is respected. This does mean that I have to reach out to other shelters, which is perfectly fine but puts me a little bit behind schedule.
On the bright side, I thought it was great that some people reading my blogs reached out to me with their questions! It ensures that people are truly trying to understand my project and see potential in my work! Here are the two questions I would like to address.
“Why do you use the term ‘houseless’ instead of ‘homeless?’”
Houseless is a more up to date term as people who are living on the street, or shelters, may have a home. Home is family, friends, and communities in which you feel safe and loved, and some houseless people do have that. A house is something more physical and is defined as a “building for human habitation,” which is something most houseless people don’t have.
“Why are you interviewing both people in shelters and on the street, as people in shelters technically do have a roof over their head?”
Being housed means having a fixed and reliable shelter that one can return to everyday, and a lot of time shelters don’t provide that. There can be limits on how long one can stay and other restrictions. That’s why it’s important to address both people who don’t have a roof over their head, and those that do but don’t have something permanent.
There were three main items of work I tackled this week which were both continuations of what I began last week: outreach, interview preparation, and research.
First, I continued contacting local shelters and social workers. I’m still waiting on responses, and that means interviews will most likely be conducted next week.
I then wrote up a mock interview structure so that I have some idea of what I want to ask during interviews.
And lastly, I researched, as that is the basis for understanding homelessness’s roots in the Bay Area, and how it has remained unsolved. An interesting article I read this week was an article written by McKinsy & Company about their pro bono initiative directed towards houselessness. It was extremely informative, and exposed me to some important terms. There are two types of houselessness: chronic houselesness (which makes up just under half of the houseless population in the bay area) and non-chronic homelessness, which means it’s usually when one is houseless temporarily. Though solutions to chronic homelessness are extremely tough, the main issue with non-chronic homelessness is a lack of available resources and communication with people who can help them. A goal in my project is to understand why these resources are not provided, what exactly the resources are and how they will help houseless people, and perhaps how they can become more readily available.
Remember to rock the week away, and I’ll see you next week with some more insightful content! Peace and Love.
Week 3: The Various Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Yo yo everyone!
This week, I worked on adjusting my project after receiving feedback from fellow readers and advisors. At the end of last week, I began losing grasp of what I wanted my final result to look like, as I became heavily dependent on interviews that perhaps weren’t attainable as I had hoped. This is why I’ve decided to stick with and dive deeper into the title of my project, “The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness.” Before, I was directing my project too much towards creating change in the next three months, which was not practical, though it will always remain a goal of mine.
I’ve mentioned previously that I want to talk to social workers, and understand why their hard work isn't creating the impact we need, but I’ve realized that they are the professionals and my work would be more impactful if I were to focus on spreading awareness to create change. The only way to reduce houselesnnesss is if more people are knowledgeable about the houseless population, and we have a greater number of people trying to solve it- strength in numbers!
My project is now divided up into three different sections of overcoming houselesness: the social, bureaucratic, and physical barriers.
Social barriers will be examined through speaking to students at school and throughout Fremont, understanding the stigmas that exist towards houseless people.
Physical barriers will be examined through articles already published, as well as houseless people themselves on what they physically believe is stopping them from being rehoused.
Bureaucratic barriers will be examined through speaking to those with experience and power, such as social workers and mayors, understanding why legislation and law makes it increasingly difficult to be rehoused.
Tune in next week to learn more about the social and physical barriers to becoming rehoused in the Bay Area. See you next week!
Post 5: More Research on The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Yo yo everyone! Or should I say cough cough everyone, as this week started with sickness. But after that little hiccup, this week was one of my most successful when it came to my senior project. I was able to schedule many interviews and gain many more contacts.
After calling six different shelters all throughout the Bay Area, it became clear that it would be difficult to schedule interviews with houseless people at shelters, as they all had some policies that would prevent that from happening for privacy purposes. Respecting this, I inquired if I could talk to people working with the houseless people as that would also give me important points for my research.
The people I was referred to were case workers who are not social workers, but individuals that are employed that help specific clients from beginning to end of their journey, ensuring that they are given the services they need. I am meeting with some case workers from WeHope and SafeFirst in this upcoming week. I’ve prepared questions for them that will help me with my project.
Additionally, since interviewing houseless people is an important part of my project, and I believe it will be an extremely impactful and touching part of my end product, I asked my external advisors for advice. Though it wasn’t possible to interview houseless people from shelters themselves, my external advisors from Simply Shelters, have direct contacts to houseless people they have helped. My external advisors are assisting me in scheduling times to go to Santa Cruz and interview them in the upcoming week too.
Interviews with case workers, houseless people, and social workers will give me insight to the bureaucratic and physical barriers to overcoming homelessness, but when it comes to social barriers… that is you guys! I want to understand how social stigmas shape how we view homelessness, and how this may act as a barrier too. Currently I’m reading two extremely interesting articles, “Why Homelessness is Stigmatized,” and “A systematic review of the effect of stigma on the health of people experiencing homelessness,” which are giving me questions that I can ask around our school to understand the stigma that surrounds the topic of homelessness. The questions and inquiries I ask will be answered consensually and anonymously and are solely for my research purposes.
To ensure that questions for my peers at school, houseless individuals, social workers, and case workers are respecting their work and privacy, I will run them by my advisors in the next few days so that next week can be solely interview based.
See you next week with another banging blog!
Week 5: More on The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Yo yo everyone! Or should I say chop chop everyone, as this week, I began with a quick cut. As in, a haircut! Let’s just say, those split ends were splitting! Anyways, the hair was fresh, and so was the mind, so I quickly got to work with my project.
I began the week by finishing my notes on the articles that I mentioned last week in my article. In case you forgot, I was reading about the social stigmas around homelessness and why they are worsening the issue. It’s not uncommon for people to avoid unhoused people and visibly look scared when passing them. We often criminalize them in our minds with our preconceived notions about who they are and why they are here. And it’s our willingness to ignore and avoid people who are houseless that is in turn, increasing the houseless population. We are building this stigma against houseless people together, and by ignoring them and acting like they don’t exist, we are missing out on legislation and actions we can take to help them. By making a face, or staring, we make houseless people uncomfortable with their position, encouraging them to keep their status a secret, which prevents them from seeking help. After all, a great majority of houseless people deal with mental health issues, preventing them from seeking shelter. And with our not-so-subtle actions, we are affecting their mental health, which is deepening the problem.
When you read this blog, I will already have had my first interview with case workers, but right now I’m working on preparing the questions I will ask them. Though I hope to learn more than just this, I’m directing my interviews with case workers to focus on the bureaucratic barriers to overcoming homelessness. Therefore, I am asking questions such as, “in the long term, do you see there being any political/legislative solutions to the housing problem?” Hopefully these will give me some valuable information for my research.
As I look forward, I see these next few weeks being extremely fruitful and impactful. When I wrap up my interviews, I plan on beginning the ‘raising awareness’ part of my project. I’m excited to begin the educational part of my project, ensuring that our future change makers are knowledgeable about this important topic.
Tune in next week on more about the barriers to overcoming homelessness. Sadhwani out!
Week 6: The Social Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
“You know the worst thing about being unhoused? It’s not the cold, it’s not the starvation, it’s people pretending like I don’t exist,” a houseless person tells Carlos P.
These past two weeks have truly reminded me why I chose this topic and have reignited my passion to address homelessness and the barriers to overcoming it. Though I have always known how urgent this topic needs attention, it was hearing quotes and listening to real life experiences that enhanced how much people that are unhoused need our support.
Talking to Carlos P., a community engagement coordinator at HomeFirst, or Danielle H, an analyst who used to work directly with houseless people, or Angela P. who works as a public guardian conservator for the County of San Mateo, or Donald O. who works as a health services manager at a public hospital, have taught me many things, but most importantly that we are the problem. Yes, there needs to be action taken on the governmental level, but the solution starts with us.
Whether it’s the looks we give them as we pass them, or the notions we have about them that makes us walk further than normal from them, we make houseless people feel inhumane. Like the houseless person told Carlos, the worst part is the way we treat them. Oftentimes, houseless people can refuse low income housing because of the strict rules that force them to come home before nighttime, and refuse any visitors from coming into their apartment.
This past week, I met a mom who told me about her situation. She’s scared she’s going to have to move to Arizona because she doesn’t want to move into low income housing because they won’t allow her daughters to have sleepovers. People on the brink of homelessness aren’t left with too much, and for them to sacrifice things that make them human, like not being able to invite friends over, is not another thing they want to lose. This is why it’s so important for us to make them feel loved, and everything that comes with being human. We must break down our preconceived notions and open our arms to this community. With the rest of the research I have gathered, and understanding what and why certain social stigma exists, I’m writing an article for the TriCity Voice so that we all can read about why our stigma needs to be broken down. This will be the conclusion of the “social barriers” aspect of my project, and next week I will begin on the bureaucratic barriers.
See you next week!
Week 7: Diving into the Legislative and Social Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Welcome to week 7!
This week, I hopped right into business on Monday, by interviewing Ms. Apra, a fellow Yellow Jacket. Anyone who talks to Ms. Apra for more than thirty seconds knows that 1. she has an unbeatable sense of humor, and 2. she has a British accent, which leads me to where she first began working with people experiencing homelessness.
Ms. Apra began her career in the UK working in HR. Yet, that job became boring after a while and she switched over to non-profit work. Her non-profit work often involved working with low-income disabled people in which she often listened to stories and learnt a lot about individuals’ life. When she came to America, it was only natural for her to continue her work in the social service field, which led her to her job at a rehabilitation shelter for houseless people in San Francisco. This center worked specifically with rehousing families, which she explains, “was a unique challenge in itself.”
My final paper will give you more of an insight to everything Ms. Apra told me about her experiences working with unhoused people, and solutions she sees to help this community. In her words, “housing should be a basic human right”, and believes that steps must be taken by each of us, as well as the government to give people this right.
I also reached out to Mayor Lily Mei inquiring for an interview. I hope to talk to her and gather some quotes to understand what the future of legislation towards the houseless community looks like.
Additionally, this week I spoke with Tyler who lived in a SimplyShelter micro-shelter in the past. He told me a bit about his experience with homelessness, and how he overcame it, but is forming a written email to me so that he can get his thoughts together and email it to me in one go. I am excited to read about his perspective, as it will be extremely impactful to my project. He currently works for a company and has his own housing.
Overall, this week was extremely insightful, and now that I’ve gathered everything I could possibly gather, I am beginning my paper. My final product will consist of a final paper, trifold, presentation, and video, so these next three weeks are extremely important to wrapping up my senior project.
Blogger’s note: The senior project was an avenue for me to extend my impact to the houseless community, but I’d like to comment on how the community has in turn impacted me. Before, I had preconceived notions which I’ve learnt are just completely wrong. I see so much beauty in every houseless person I’ve talked to, and understand that they are much more than being unhoused. Instead, they are amazing friends, mothers, sisters, partners, and people. The conversations I’ve had with houseless individuals have brought me to tears, and I’m so glad I got this opportunity to speak with these individuals and interact with the community, which I may not have done if it wasn’t for this space through the senior project.
Sadhwani out! See you next week.
Week 8: Wrapping Up Research on the Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
Welcome back readers to “The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness.” I hope you all have had a wonderful past week! As we come to the last couple weeks of the project, I begin to wrap up my research.
According to my original plan, I should have been done with interviews long ago, and was supposed to be doing completely different things. Unfortunately, that’s not how life works, and I learnt how to adapt and change plans when research didn't go as expected. Originally, the barriers were just a small part of my project, and I planned on working on other things too, but I didn’t anticipate how much there was to the barriers to overcoming homelessness. That says something in itself!
I had to quickly adapt and realize that I needed to split the barriers into three, and all ten of these weeks needed to be dedicated to writing about barriers. BUT! That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on the rest of my project, that will just come after this ten week period is over.
Anyways, onto my updates! This week I spoke with Tyler, who lived in Simply Shelter’s micro-shelter a while back, and now lives in his own place. After talking for a bit, we decided that it was easier if he just sent me an email with his thoughts, and I could go from there. From what he shared so far, I’ve learnt a lot. He says that he despises the word homeless, which I found early on in my project. It’s characterizing a person into a single category that can be so toxic and dehumanizing. When we say, “a homeless person,” we characterize the person’s identity as homeless. In fact, many people experiencing houselessness aren’t homeless as they have a home, a community that surrounds them. Tyler explains that the way he beat being houseless was by developing community. Though much of his community was under the influence of drugs and mental health illnesses, he developed a network of people around him that helped him become sheltered. Tyler is very busy with his job, so I didn’t get too much more, but I’ll definitely expand on what he said in my paper.
I also worked on transcribing all of the other interviews I had this week because writing my paper will be much easier once I have all my information down in words. I’ve got a lot to get done next week, so don’t forget to come back.
Thank you so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you next week! Sadhwani, out.
Week 9: Writing about The Barriers to Overcoming Houselessness
I can’t believe it’s already about to be the last week of senior project work. It’s been a journey of discovering exactly what I wanted my project to be, and executing it, and I’m happy that you guys could do that with me.
I’m afraid that this week, my AP exam and prom took up most of my time, but I did get the chance to re-reach out to Mayor Lily Mei but have yet to get a response 🙁 I also began my paper this week. I bought a subscription to a really nice transcribing website that made it easy to parse through my data. I first summarized all the interviews so that I knew where to look when looking for quotes and evidence, and then began organizing the paper. I will have three separate pages, each consisting of the social, physical, and bureaucratic barriers. Because I didn’t have as much data for physical barriers, I will also use some of that space to write overall findings and how we should move forward from this research.
I promised all the people I interviewed that I will send them my paper at the end, so I really want to make sure I do the information they gave me justice. Perhaps it is best if we look into the weeks ahead, where I will continue to write my paper, create an educational video, and hopefully present to the school my findings, so that our community becomes more inclusive and we can better help the houseless community. I’m now thinking that it may be a better idea if I create the video, and post it on parent square so that students and parents have access to it. Additionally, I will post it on youtube and have it linked under my paper in the TriCity voice so that everyone can easily understand what I have to say!
I’m excited to see what the next week brings us!
Sadhwani out!
Week 10: The End of One Journey, and the Beginning of the Next
And just like that, this marks the end of my senior project journey. Though this may have been the last week of logging my work, meeting with advisors, and turning in a late blog (first and last time…ish), this is not the last time I’ll be working in this field. I spent this past week working hard to pull my final product together. Each step of the process, I reminded myself that I must try my very best to do the best job I can do, because this may be someone’s first time being educated on houselessness. And, I’d like to think I did my project justice. My final product looks like a report, a shorter article for local newspapers, a pamphlet which I will disperse into various parts of the bay area and libraries for people to read, and a poster for the presentation walkthrough this Saturday. Finishing my final report leaves me with a bittersweet feeling. Obviously I’m glad I was able to finish the work I expected myself to do, but the work itself has overwhelmed me with how much is left to do for the houseless community. After this week, I will work tirelessly to make sure my work reaches as many people in the Bay Area possible.
While writing, I was left with only one clear solution, which is in our hands. Sure, there are bureaucratic, social, and physical barriers to overcoming houselessness, but another barrier and perhaps the most important that prevailed from my writing, was the person itself. It’s the lack of trust that we’ve built with this community that will continue to be an obstacle, unless our actions change. Sure the government can offer new services, and receiving transportation and ID’s can be easier, but in order for a person experiencing houselessness to accept these services, we must prove ourselves. So, stop the aversive looks when you pass a houseless person, and stop acting like they don’t exist. Instead, confront your preconceived notions, and understand why they must be beat down. Read my report to learn more.
I'd also like to thank all of my advisors who supported me throughout the way. I truly couldn't have done this without these passionate souls that always ensured I was on the right track. I want to thank Ms. Apra for being the most supportive person I could have asked for, always making sure she made time for our weekly meetings (which were always a blast). I want to thank Jay and Lakshmi for meeting meeting with me every week, and putting their time into looking through my work and giving suggestions. SimplyShelter truly ignited my passion for this topic and I wouldn't be here doing this without it. And last but surely not least, Ms. Nagpal. I can't imagine how late my blogs would be if it weren't for her reminders. She truly ensured that my project was a success, and believed in me throughout the way. From the beginning, she told me this project would be a success, and I always kept her words in my mind, which fueled me throughout the way. Again, thank you all so much. I will remember and cherish these 10 weeks forever.
Sadhwani out.