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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On Friday the 17th me and my group interviewed Marcia Flores. Marcia Flores works for AFC (Advocates for Children of New York) and for Project LIT. At AFC she focuses on educational rights for children as well as partnering with homeless shelters and doing press interviews regarding her knowledge and expertise in her field. Our interview with her was over zoom and it took 31 minutes and 46 seconds.
We mainly asked Marcia about the causes/effects of homelessness and what NYC government should do to help decrease homelessness. She said that one of the main reasons people are living on the streets is because they cannot afford housing, especially with young children. She also said that a lot of homeless children that she works with are immigrants or migrants who do not speak English, therefore making the process of trying to find affordable housing ten times harder. She said that, yes mental health can cause homelessness but not as much as you think. Most homeless people suffering from mental illness are the people you see walking to school or on the train, the people making themselves known, who people like Eva Pinkley, who we did an earlier interview on, are trying to get out of the streets and into shelters with good mental health services. But the people Marcia works with are the people you don’t see. People couch surfing and living in shelters. Those people make up the majority of NYCS homeless community. Marcia also told us that being homeless as a child is almost a lifelong sentence of struggle. If you were homeless as a child but have just rented an apartment with your savings it seems like you will not have to worry about not having a home anymore, right? However, no one will hire you if you were homeless, even if that was 10+ years ago, therefore you cannot get a job, will not be able to pay rent, and will end up homeless once more. Marcia believes that NYCS government should hire more bilingual teachers as well as assigning children to schools that are close to their shelters or living location. She thinks that if that gets done New York’s 146,000 homeless children will have a better chance at a successful education, and hopefully future.

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I interviewed Eva Pinkley in order to learn more about homelessness in NYC. Eva Pinkley works for a non profit organization who help homeless people over the course of many years. The organization focuses on building trust with the homeless community and mostly helps people with addiction or mental/physical trauma.

Eva does field work every single day across all the boroughs and she believes that racial discrimination definitely plays a large role in who lives on the streets. She believes that 99% of New York City’s homeless are non white (not a backed up fact.) She also believes that the main cause for homelessness is mental and physical trauma, and the fact that most communities do not have access to good mental health care. She thinks that if New York City’s government made mental healthcare free and advertised it more New York’s homeless population would decrease rapidly.

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