On Thursday, the 10th of February my group and I got the chance to meet with Judith Mack. She works at LREI, through the pandemic Judith helped out at the Open Hearts Foundation. She is passionate about helping in anyway possible even if its just something small like giving people food or water.

We learned that when the pandemic started many homeless shelters closed and a lot of homeless people were moved into vacant hotel rooms. A lot of people in the neighborhood were angry about the homeless people moving in. Some of them even tried to file a law suit for it. Judith soon found out that they might move the homeless people into hear area. That ended up falling through but during the time that they were preparing for the homeless people to come she helped out by making food bags and more.

I am so grateful that we got to have this interview. I am exited for what is to come in the future. This interview also helped me get a better perspective from someone who isn’t homeless but has helped out a lot.

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On Wednesday February 2nd, my group and I interview Shams DaBaron, also known as Da Homeless Hero. He had experienced homelessness on and off for many years. Through his life he has continued to read for hours on end which has given him lots of opportunity to learn and grow. during the first outbreak of Covid Shams ended up contracting it, after that near death experience he got the inspiration to start helping and trying to make a change.

We got to take a deep dive into Shams DaBaron’s past. We learned about how he was in a group home and eventually got kicked out and had to sleep at his friend homes until he could find somewhere to go, and plenty of other events that caused Shams DaBarn to become Da Homeless Hero. Now he works in the theater bringing awareness to homelessness.

It was really wonderful hearing about Shams life. It gave me a whole new perspective on homelessness. One things that I has stuck with me since the interview is to not judge someone by their financial status and instead give them that chance to show you who they really are. I am so grateful that we go to have this Interview and will take everything I learned on with me as we work on this project.

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On Monday January 31st, my group and I interviewed Nicole Mcvinua. Nicole works with Urban Pathways as the Director of Policies. She. has been working with Urban Pathways for the past three years. Through this time she has seen many successes bringing her closer to the big goal of ending homelessness.

During the interview we covered many topics and got to hear a lot about what Nicole does. One of the thing that I remember her talking about is about is how Urban Pathways can help find homeless people small apartments or hotels within a couple hours. This speeds up the waiting process that other places make people deal with, making it a lot easier for a homeless person to find a place and not have to worry about waiting for long periods of time. She also talked about all the successes she has seen through and even thought there is a long road a head of us before homelessness will truly be over. Everyday were are taking a step closer.

Im so grateful that Nicole took sometime to talk to us about what she does. Everything she said during the interview was very interesting and inspiring. I am very exited about the next steps we have to take.

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Yesterday, my group and I had a presentation about our social justice topic. We read a couple articles on our issue of Homelessness in communities of color and among children. I was shocked by all the information I learned about everything was very interesting but also sad. My group and I did a good job working together to create and present our slide show. This is my personal reaction from our presentation:
Once I had finished reading the articles I was truly surprised. I had previous knowledge of homelessness but I never truly understood or knew about how many people of color and families have to deal with homelessness. Everything I read was very interesting. I also feel motivated to help in anyway I can, I am now hopeful I will be able to help in my own way.

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