June 2005

When You Are An Exile on Main Street
A picture of why Cincinnati is at odds with it's less fortunate

By Mackenzie McAninch
Queen City Forum Magazine staff writer

Last fall the National Coalition for the Homeless awarded Cincinnati third place as “The Meanest City toward the Homeless” in America. According to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH), there are believed to be over 25,000 homeless people in the Cincinnati area. Statistics are fine, but the opinions from the street had my interest so I set out to do some research.

About 20 people of all ages and races were asked questions. Most views about the cause of homelessness were pretty routine: drugs or alcohol, mental illness, laziness and bad luck were the most popular reasons people are on the street.

However, in the gathering of the research, why people choose to be homeless was the most in-depth discussed topic. Phil (Cincinnati) feels it’s wrong for most people to “assume that the homeless choose to be that way,” and that “we need to increase awareness of what their situations are really like.” Yet Kathy (Cincinnati) feels “people who are homeless have made a choice to relinquish responsibility of self care.”

QCF cover art June 22

 

Over 75 percent of the people asked said they give money to panhandlers when approached. The concern of money going to drugs and, as Melissa (Cincinnati) answered, the irritation of “being asked every five minutes” were reasons why those polled indicated they did not give money away.

Looking for Future Suppression

What can be done to reduce homelessness? Kyle (Fairfield) offered “searching for homeless children and placing them in adoption homes or orphanages may reduce the number of homeless adults in generations to come.” This is a sensible statement; however, it requires a lot of manpower, which also requires a lot of funding. For example, according to Allison Leeuw of the GCCH, Cincinnati had to cut their 1.5 percent contribution toward social services to .07 percent. This was a major loss in an area that was already stretched too thin on funding. Leeuw is confident their latest proposal to City Council to get back to 1.5 percent will be granted.

At the Drop Inn Center on 12 th Street, I met a resident named Thomas. He’s an ex-con who had been living with his sister, but he left after feeling like a burden. Thomas is drug-free and does not panhandle, though he admits he has some mental problems and takes pills for his condition, for which the Ohio Job and Family Services picks up the tab. On himself: “Very independent and others’ opinions on my lifestyle don’t bother me.”

Temp agencies have built some comfort, but he admits they don’t pay very well, and there are rarely benefits involved. He feels the hype about how police officers treat poor and homeless people unfairly is over-exaggerated. Thomas thinks the people who do get arrested probably deserve it, and the police aren’t out just to harass the lower class.

“Do away with all of the homeless shelters,” Thomas responded, when asked what a solution to homelessness was. He told me a couple of stories about how people abuse the system as he grew more and more aggravated about the misuse. He feels that, if the shelters were removed, people would be more motivated to achieve. Resources like the public library and the United Negro College Fund are not used enough, according to him.

An elderly woman (I’ll call “Lisa” for this story) agrees with Thomas that drugs and alcohol addiction top the charts for reasons of homelessness. She claims to be drug-free as well, and even though she admits to being depressed, she feels calm today.

Lisa lost her job with Dollar General last fall because of an injury, and she says she was laid off because she could not perform the work needed. Though she keeps in close contact with her family, I also learned her family has admitted her to a hospital for mental problems before; Lisa denies having any mental problems. “Calling the Drop Inn Centerhome has made finding work difficult,” she says, “and the general public definitely looks down on us, too.”

North of "the Drop," on Short Vine, I got asked for change from a young female I’m going to call “Mary.” With alcohol on her breath, we talked for a while, and then her boyfriend, “Rick,” eventually showed up after finding a sitter for their dog. They’re from Minnesota—en route to Florida—but they’ve been “stuck” in Cincinnati for about a year.

They both perform odd jobs when they are available, but they’ve been having trouble getting their identification sent to them so finding a “real” job has been a struggle. In their eyes, drug and alcohol use are again the biggest causes for homelessness, and Rick tells me he has a drug problem.

Most of their meals come from shelters, but they rarely spend much time at them and almost always sleep outdoors. Mary tells me how they were sleeping outdoors in a tent when the big snow storm hit last December. They had to dig their way out of the tent, and there was rarely a person around to panhandle. She says, “Black people give us money way more often than white people. Whites are usually more annoyed or seem scared of us.”

Under cover

Panhandling is commonplace in the Center City and Over-the-Rhine, but extremely out of place in a place like Hyde Park. I grew out my facial hair for about two weeks, grabbed some hand-me-down clothes, missed a couple of showers, covered myself in dirt and went to Hyde Park Square on a Saturday afternoon in May.

I was very surprised with my findings here in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Cincinnati. I did every thing from browsing art stores to asking to use the phone behind restaurant counters to washing my face in the park fountain to draw attention. But people were either very polite to me or they just tried to pretend I wasn’t there.

Knowing I was breaking the law by not having my ridiculous panhandling license, I decided I’d ask for change as my friend was on her way to come back and pick me up. Shirtless and sitting up against the wall surrounding the patio of the restaurant “Teller’s,” people in their SUV’s generally passed by with priceless, stunned looks on their faces. If anyone even acknowledged my existence, they all told me they had no money, and I received no donations. I have to admit that I experienced a very real feeling of loneliness while being ignored.

Some wonderful ideas have been expressed, but unfortunately, homelessness will probably always exist in Cincinnati and all over America. Even if all of the funding needed would be provided, there are people out there who don’t always get cured of their addictions. And there are also people who are accustomed to the homeless lifestyle.

The problem can be significantly reduced, but it takes effort. R.J. ( Cincinnati) feels “we all need to help (volunteer, donate, etc.)” People should be reminded that any one of us could end up on the street some day because none of us can predict the future. The Enron scandal, the Social Security scare and the single mom living in her car with her children are fine examples of this truth.

 

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