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SlumJack Homeless
Berkeley, CA
"Slum Jack" is the pen-name expressing the nature of his homeless status, meant as an ironic device (as explained on his own blog site).
Formerly a property manager working with low income and other distressed tenants and properties, his background previous to that includes professional and business experience in other industries.
He is a middle-aged man, has been homeless since the summer of 2008, and continues to contend with the predicament toward hopefully restoring an improved way of life for himself and others.
Recent Activity
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SlumJack commented on the article |I had an entire career as a designer and the "spec work" problem has long been with us. In fact, it's been a core issue in the profession for decades. The Graphic Artist Guild, for instance, has an ethics policy addressing the matter an“We will probably be a little more sensitive to this moving forward," said Fullerton. "I can’t say that we won’t do this again but there are certainly no plans to do this again at this time.”d the phenomena is not at all limited to public agencies, but is way too typical of private clients, as well.
And this is an all typical kind of "response":
“We are in an incredibly tight budget situation that – to be honest – is only going to get worse,” said Fullerton. “If we didn’t do it this way, this project never would’ve happened."
“We will probably be a little more sensitive to this moving forward," said Fullerton. "I can’t say that we won’t do this again ..."
Mere PR "sensitivity". Obviously, a big part of "the problem" is that the competing designers are willing to succumb to such things, too. And that's also been as much a cause of these things as anything else. And will continue to be.
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SlumJack commented on the article |It's seriously discouraging to see such basic issues/questions about this stuff, perpetually, even from those smack dab in the fray professionally. Some time ago, I came to view that as symptomatic of "the problem" rather than anything else.
What also becomes glaringly apparent is that "the homeless" is much too broad a term and concept to address at meaningful detail, too. For instance, not everyone requires (or benefits from) on-site "staff" authorities, when it comes to simply "shelter" ("housing" is the real solution) -- regardless of number of "residents."
A major line item cost/expense goes to pay for such "staff" instead of facilities for the people needing those, and will be rather proportional to the scale of operations.
So people that are too dysfunctional to simply be able to take care of themselves in a modest living situation are a very different consideration than those that more simply are just in need of a place to live. And so, too, the ttruer "solutions" are different.
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SlumJack commented on the article |Where's the plan details?
The Stanford "rival," UC Berkeley, has been running a wonderful support services program for quite some time, not a shelter though. Still, maybe reaching past competitive lines and benefitting from their experiences and successes could help bolster your own efforts too. Possibly even some collaboration?
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SlumJack signed the petition | -
SlumJack commented on the article |"There are plenty of real, legal, dignified jobs you don't need an apartment or car to do. Some cities hire "homeless liaisons," homeless people who work with the homeless (but at salaries from $57,864 to $82,353 in some areas, they're not homeless for long.)"
True, although far more typical are various much more menial "formerly homeless" jobs like cleaning sidewalks/streets and other unskilled labor and/or the growing "hosts" in more cities around the US that actually are missioned with calling cops on homeless people.
But various nonprofits supposedly missioned with "helping the homeless" like to show off at least some "success stories" - clients that they've "helped" in such ways. Having met and known some number of these, the fuller, more complete story turns out to be more interesting that the little promotion blurb. And, usually, more revealing. Just so, very rarely seen in media.
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SlumJack commented on the article |Absolutely! A very good examination of the illogical phenomena is well presented in the book:
"The classic work that refutes the lies we tell ourselves about race, poverty and the poor. Here are three myths about poverty in America:
- Minority children perform poorly in school because they are "culturally deprived."
- African-Americans are handicapped by a family structure that is typically unstable and matriarchal
- Poor people suffer from bad health because of ignorance and lack of interest in proper health care.
Blaming the Victim was the first book to identify these truisms as part of the system of denial that even the best-intentioned Americans have constructed around the unpalatable realities of race and class.
Originally published in 1970, William Ryan's groundbreaking and exhaustively researched work challenges both liberal and conservative assumptions, serving up a devastating critique of the mindset that causes us to blame the poor for their poverty and the powerless for their powerlessness.
More than twenty years later, now in a revised, updated editionj, it is even more meaningful for its diagnosis of the psychic underpinnings of racial and social injustice.
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SlumJack commented on the article |While such laws may easily be euphemistically expressed as "meant" to take care of a locale's own, in act and fact, there can be pungent other ways to understand a very different intent.
For instance, in Berkeley, CA there are efforts underway for a very similar scenario. However, if and when one notes the wholer expression of proponents/initiators/supporters for such things, it appears far more a move to both get rid of homeless people AND to then oppress the remaining "qualifying" ones, in particular ways.
The scenario is especially effective when combined with other local laws/enforcements that both target homeless people in functional, rather than class/status, regards. As it becomes increasingly illegal to sleep anywhere other than local shelters or even have certain kinds of possessions with one (as in city parks disallowing "bedding", "carts", etc. and city sidewalks disallowing sitting down or "obstruction" with belongings) it all forces people into either leaving town or submitting to local "programs" ... which are then altered to force the remaining homeless into a form of incarceration, perhaps subjected to further questionable practices.
I've been watching as the funds, including federal, get diverted to just certain "programs" that have come to dominate, but according to political positioning more than anything else. And commercial, of course.
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SlumJack commented on the article |
I have to agree with both Jan AND Rich. Yes, there are absolutely dedicated, even self-sacrificing, persons in the NPOs admirably devoted to the work, even at real hardships, personally.
AND there are quite a few that apparently mainly pay their own way in life via NPO, for other reasons, too. If not remarkable personal enrichment, it often could or should be considered whether they'd even be able to compete in other settings. Too often, I really doubt it. And the typical daily factors of so many NPOs could be quite preferable to, say, the hectic rigors of menial fastfood or other such jobs, which may be the alternative.
But Jan's keener point might be regarding unavailability of membership or equitable participation in the organizations/efforts, due to inability to purchase that. Ironic, at the least, eh?
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SlumJack commented on the article |
Over the past couple of years, I've personally known several new parents, having given birth to their children while homeless. In one case, apparently the mother gave up her child, before returning to the streets herself. In another, it appears that the couple were able to subsequently obtain some housing, fortunately. Sometimes this is a result of having any children, when further benefits become available.
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SlumJack commented on the article |Diane, I don't mean to at all impugn nor detract from your own personal sincereity and remarkable dedication. I've looked at your blog and can well appreciate what an extensive, arduous path and mission you've been undertaking for so long now.
But I'm both a comparative pragmatist by nature, as well as having been perhaps more forced toward that due to my own experience and the more compelling priorities. Add to that a direct involvement in "social media" and other venues, along with my background in checking on how various things actually play out, and this all sketches the context I'm considering here.
I'm also willing to closely examine just how things do go, in fact - what works or not, and how well, relatively - from a more objective basis suspending more lofty hopes or unfettered intentions, however well meant.
In part this is also because some moments of attention are potentially so precious and valuable that the shot taken can well benefit from a clear focus on the bull's eye of probability, in terms of any further actions that might therefore proceed. So I look for demonstrable reasons to believe, in order to best select among options.
By now, I've also had to similarly take a thoughtful look at some of what's been considered here: "social media" and other online venues, as well as forms of documentations and "case study" type materials ... along with apparent audiences and thereby stimulated effects and end results, if any.
Impact
27 Actions
0 Recruits
Top Causes
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23 Actions
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2 Actions
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Organizations
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Stanford Community-Run Shelter1 Action 0 Recruits -
The Wilderness Society1 Action 0 Recruits -
CREDO Action1 Action 0 Recruits -
National Coalition for the Homeless1 Action 0 Recruits -
National Alliance to End Homelessness1 Action 0 Recruits
