Name: Alexander Donadic

Social Justice Group: Homelessness in NYC (A)

Date of Fieldwork: February 11, 2025

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Patrick Markee, Coalition for the Homeless

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:

Coalition for the Homeless has been one of the best sources throughout our project. We were lucky enough to get an interview with someone who worked there for more than 20 years! We talked to him a lot about the stereotypes on homelessness, and how it affects the homeless. He said that the stereotypes affect them a lot. He added that people stereotype the homeless to be crazy, mentally ill, drug addiction, alcoholics and raged clothing. He then said a quote that was very relatable to me, “I actually find it kind of depressing that you all have grown up in an era where mass homelessness is kind of considered a normal fact of life.” This really hit me because it is something we all see everyday, it is something that is a part of all our lives, and I completely agree with Patrick.

We then talked about homelessness in the future, and why it’s becoming worse and worse. The main reason we got was definitely inflation, and rent being higher and minimum wage not being enough. He then said he helped a man, who waited 7 ½ years on the affordable housing list to get permanent housing. He then contrasted the US to Europe. He gave us a statistic about how in Belgium, ⅓ of people in Belgium get housing with a poor income, which is insane how housing is so affordable compared to NYC.