Me and my partners were lucky enough to get an interview with the commissioner of the DHS (Department of Homeless Services). We got to interview Molly Park, about what she wanted to do for the city, and what she has already done for the city. When we asked her what she wanted to accomplish this year she said she has a whole list. One of the main things was reducing the numbers of homeless people, and connecting people to permanent housing. Since she was appointed for this position, she has already increased the number of people connected to permanent housing by a lot. She then talked about how covid had a big impact. During covid everyone had more services and more help, and when that all stopped, people started having nothing to eat and nowhere to live, which has caused a massive increase in homelessness in the past few years.

We asked Molly what was one thing she would change about homelessness in NYC, and she said having more housing availability. She said that NYC doesn’t have enough housing to have everyone with a roof over their heads. If it was possible she would want to make more housing available and build more places for people to live. We then asked our last question about where she thought homelessness will be in 10 years. She said that New York City will try their best to make more housing space and get as many people housed as possible. But on the other hand she said that rent will definitely keep increasing, causing homelessness to get worse and worse. Rent is already too high in NYC, so if it gets worse and worse homelessness will become an insanely big problem.

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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.

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In this fieldwork we interviewed Franlin Spurbeck, a researcher on the homeless. I again was a note taker, and so was Hudson, and Stevie did the talking. She shared very valuable information with us and helped us learn more about our topic because they are an expert on it. They educated us on many things such as facts about effects from homelessness, and ways to stop homelessness.

Something that they said that caught my attention was that being homeless can make kids have a less likely chance of having a better future, and a good education. She said education can play a big role in being homeless, because when so, you must make good choices to maybe make it out. If you have a bad education it can cause being an alcoholic and making bad choices to help yourself.

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My grade and I went to the Museum of the City of New York on Friday the 24th of January. We visited the activist exhibit and learned about so many different things about activism. We started the visit in a colorful room that talked about anti- asian hate and was a woman who did activism through artwork. That was my favorite part of the trip. Then we all got papers to make little activist circles. I made mine about homeless rights on where to live and stay, which ties to my CAP topic, “Homelessness in NYC”. Then we entered a different room that had many different sections for different things, like Transgender Activism, and Women’s Rights Movement, which were the main ones we talked about. Overall I think the trip was cool and interesting, and I am glad we went.

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In this fieldwork me and my group members interviewed Marcia Flores, who is a part of the organization, Advocates for Children of New York. Me and my partners have roles in our interviews. I was the note taker so I was taking notes on her answers to our questions. My two partners, Stevie and Hudson were asking the questions and engaging in the conversation with Marcia Flores. I wrote very fast trying to catch words and examples she said, in total I wrote two pages of notes. The interview lasted about 45 minutes and the conversation was very friendly and informative.

Something that really caught my attention by what Marcia was saying is the way the shelter system works, the way the shelter system doesnt care about where people are living or going to school. Marcia gave a great example saying that, if a kid goes to school in Queens but can get put in a shelter in the Bronx or somewhere far from school or old housing. Marcia then shared a story about a 12 year old girl who was homeless with her mother, and was autistic and needed a special education. It was very interesting to hear about how hard it was to find them a shelter and the right education for their daughter. Overall I think this interview went very well and I learned so much new things about homelessness and how it affects education.

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