The
development of an innovative education and employment program for homeless
single men and women in inner
COLIN
ROBINSON
NOVEMBER
2001
Supported
by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the research many people were
consulted and provided valuable input into the process. In particular I'd like
to mention Bernard Cronin, Denys Goggin, Pat Hore, Mick Love, Howard Hillam,
Michael Graf, Tracy Hodder, Christine Black, Carole Taylor, Annette Donohoe and
Alan Raisin. Jude Robinson gathered and analysed the literature.
PROJECT
AIM
To date strategies to assist homeless men
and women in inner city Sydney have focussed on providing accommodation and
support with the eventual aim of obtaining independent housing. The emphasis
has been on providing services, that will enable
homeless people to maintain a tenancy either in public, private, or community
housing. Education and employment in this context have generally been given a
low priority by crisis accommodation services for single men and women. When
programs have been developed they have been mainly of the 'living' skills or
recreational variety.
While these programs are important, they
have failed to ensure that significant numbers of single men and women do not
become homeless repeatedly. The consistently high number of homeless people who
use the crisis accommodation system on a regular basis is evidence of this.
The aim of this research project is to
develop a program that places education and employment at the centre rather
than on the periphery of responses to homelessness. By examining a range of
programs both in
By piloting a new approach it is expected
that impetus will be given to a further stage of re-development of crisis
accommodation services, particularly in inner city
INTRODUCTION
Homelessness, particularly as it affects
single men and women in the inner cities of the developed world, has generated
both a large body of literature and a wide variety of service responses.
Despite this, the streets and parks of
our cities are home to a significant number of single homeless men and women,
the majority being men. As well as those sleeping out there are many others who
reside in unstable and often unsatisfactory rental accommodation or who are
regularly accommodated in the inner city crisis hostels (1).
Over the past decade research has shifted
away from explaining homelessness as a 'housing problem' to more complex analyses
which includes social and economic factors and individual factors. Generally
three sets of factors are believed to interact in the experience of
homelessness. These are:
·
Structural factors
including adverse housing and labour markets; rising levels of poverty; family
restructuring.
·
Individual risk
factors including poverty; unemployment; sexual or physical abuse; family
disputes and breakdown; background of care; experience of prison; drug or
alcohol misuse; school exclusion; poor mental or physical health.
·
Specific events that
'trigger' homelessness including: leaving the parental home after arguments,
marital or relationship breakdown; eviction; widowhood; leaving care; leaving
prison; sharp deterioration in mental health; increase in alcohol or drug
misuse.
In Working
Out of Homelessness it will be argued that while
this categorisation of factors is useful, particularly as it moves away from
the housing problem paradigm, homelessness should primarily be considered as
part of a continuum of poverty. Current research (2) indicates that even for
those single men and women experiencing a short-term crisis of homelessness, it
is more often than not one more stage in a life marred by poverty.
It is also important to acknowledge that
poverty has emotional, physical and spiritual dimensions as well as economic
causes and effects. To assist people out of homelessness we have to understand
how these elements interact in a person's life.
We also have to be a lot clearer on what it's like to be poor in a
country with great material wealth, where the daily purchasing of consumer
goods and experiences is the economic imperative.
In Part One of Working Out of Homelessness the questions of how people become
poor, what the experience of poverty is like and how do we best assist people
out of impoverishment, are examined. The work of Zygmunt Bauman, Emeritus
Professor of Sociology at
Parallel to conducting the research, the
Charles O'Neill House program has been established as part of the overall
response to homelessness by the Matthew Talbot Hostel, the largest crisis
accommodation service for single men in
In recent times discussion about poverty
in
On the other hand there are those who
point to structural reasons for poverty. These reasons include high levels of
long term unemployment, lack of social infrastructure and a frayed social
security net. However, the solution is also seen to be employment (full-time)
as it provides an income for a decent standard of living and restores
confidence and self-esteem to the individual and their family. What needs to be
recognised is that many people find it extremely difficult to gain full-time,
secure and well-remunerated employment because there are not enough of these
jobs to go around as a result of economic restructuring. Low skilled workers
have little chance unless their skills are significantly upgraded through training.
And if people are unable to gain satisfactory work, as a community we are under
obligation to provide higher income support payments, more public housing and
better public services generally to ensure people do not live in poverty.
While there is merit in examining both
sides of the argument there is a need to also look at some fresh approaches to
understanding and alleviating poverty. In many ways the behavioural versus
structural debate is no longer valid in the contemporary, post-modern world we
inhabit. For example, is full-time secure employment for all citizens a
sensible or achievable aspiration? With the advent of globalisation, capital
moves freely around the world establishing itself where labour is cheap and
plentiful. Can either coercion or skills training for the poor, particularly in
a developed country like ours with relatively high wages and the expectation of
reasonable conditions, change this reality?
These and similar questions must be
addressed if we are to successfully eradicate poverty and it's
manifestations such as homelessness. Working
out of Homelessness does not pretend to provide solutions to macro problems
such as these, but points in some directions that may be fruitful for policy
makers to explore.
PART
ONE
1.
A Definition of Poverty
Throughout history, and in many parts of
the world today, poverty means living under the constant threat of death by
hunger, thirst or disease. Few people in a developed country like
Poverty in
However, Zygmunt Bauman in his book, Work, Consumerism and the New Poor
(1998), argues that the phenomenon of poverty does not merely boil down to
material deprivation and bodily distress. Poverty, Bauman states, is also a
social and psychological condition:
Poverty means being excluded from
whatever passes for normal life. This results in loss of self- esteem. Poverty
also means being cut off from the chances of whatever passes in a given society
for a happy life. This results in resentment.
Earl Shorris in his book, Riches for the Poor (2000), provides the
following definition as developed by a group of young women from an education
program in the South Bronx, New York.
Privation-
1.
Lack of money for current needs
2.
Lack of capital, both real and intellectual
3.
Inadequate housing
4.
Insufficient food and
fresh water
5.
Inadequate clothing
6.
Unhealthful living
conditions, including lack of heat and hot water and sanitation
7.
No access to medical
care
8.
Lack of education
9.
Unsafe conditions
10.
Lack of communication
11.
Unsatisfactory
social life
12. Dearth of the objects of culture
Oppression-
1.
Enduring defeat,
lifelong and passed onto the next generation
2.
Excluded from duties
and rewards of citizenship
3.
Subject to coercion
4.
Without recourse
5.
Despised [not hated]
by the powerful
6.
Death not mourned by
the community
7.
Limited choice of
food, clothing, housing, employment, place of residence and recreation
8.
Reduced to pleasures
of the body
9.
Responses limited to
passivity or violence
10.
Prevented
from enjoying marriage and family life
11.
Excluded from education, schooling limited to
training
12.
In
economic terms more like goods than persons
From these young women any poverty line
based on income alone would not provide an accurate or full picture of
impoverishment. It is also of interest that they compiled two lists one headed 'privation'
and the other oppression'. Poverty is not only about missing out on the things
money can buy, it is also connected with those forces
that subjugate the human mind and spirit.
2.
Consumerism and the Surround of Force
Bauman points out that over the latter
part of the 20th century we have moved from being a society of producers, built
on the need for a large labour force, to that of consumers.
In a consumer society a normal life is
the life of consumers, preoccupied with making their choices among the panoply
of publicly displayed opportunities for pleasurable sensations and lively
experiences. A happy life is defined by catching many opportunities, catching
the opportunities most talked about and thus most desired.
Those in poverty are unable to
participate as fully fledged consumers. They are marginalised and made to feel
inadequate. From privation to oppression
and back again, the cycle of poverty is strengthened and the bonds become
difficult to break.
Earl Shorris explains this in the following
way:
The poor live in a surround of force
which differentiates them from those inside the circle of power. The forces of
the surround do not affect the poor, they affect poor
persons, not even families but persons, one at a time. Everyone who lives
within the surround lives alone. The weight of the forces separates them,
splintering the body of the poor like glass underfoot, driving the shards of
family, community, society into feckless privacy.
Shorris identifies a number of elements
that create the surround of force. These include hunger, luck, hurrying and
pressure, isolation, family violence, neighbours, landlords, meanness, drugs,
prison, criminals, illness, police, abuse, and ethnic antagonisms.
He goes on to say:
“Within the surround of force, people
live in poverty and panic. They scurry, going from place to place, looking for
food, a new apartment, medical care for a child. The iron wall of the surround
pens them into a limited area, but the panic inside the surround has no limits;
they may do nothing and everything, suffering from excesses of both order and
liberty. In other words there are no constants within the surround, no reason,
no stability, and no rules; there is only force.”
One of the clearest examples
demonstrating how the surround of force operates is drug addiction. According
to Shorris drug addiction comes closest to a pure act of suicide.
Drug addiction generally includes both
the death of the conscious rational person that occurs following the
administration of the drug, and immersion in a drug culture. Either may lead to
actual death resulting from a drug overdose, disease or violent confrontation
in the dealer/customer relationship that is more like indentured servitude than
a business exchange.
The alternative to life within the
structure, or surround of force is to create a new structure one that
interferes with the mirror of force at its inception. Drugs are increasingly
the method that is 'chosen' by the poor to self medicate against the forces
that denigrate them. Unfortunately, as Shorris points out, death is often the
end result.
Another important element contributing to
impoverishment is boredom. Recently at a meeting to discuss the review of
services to homeless men in inner
“They are all bored witless!”
Bauman picks up the theme of boredom as
it effects unemployed people living in the consumer
society.
The most popular word used to describe
being unemployed is boring. Not being bored ever is the norm of the consumer's
life. The consumer society ensures that
desires are aroused faster than the time it takes to placate them and that the
objects of desire were replaced quicker than the time it took to get bored with
their possession. To alleviate boredom one needs money - a great deal of money
if one wishes to stave off the spectre of boredom fore-ever. Money is the entry
permit to places where remedies for boredom are pedalled (shopping malls,
amusement parks, fitness centres). Common remedies against boredom are not
accessible to those in poverty.
Unfortunately the remedies that are
available are often socially unacceptable and dangerous. Far from making bad
choices the poor have no choice and are trapped in a daily struggle bereft of
meaning. Bauman sums up the situation by stating:
“These days the sufferings of the poor do
not add up to a common cause. Each flawed consumer licks his or her wounds in
solitude. Flawed consumers are lonely, they do not see how society can help,
they do not hope to be helped, they do not believe
that their lot can be changed by anything but a lottery win.”
3.
The Clemente Course
In the early 1990s Earl Shorris was
conducting research into poverty in the
Earl Shorris: Why do you
think people are poor?
Viniece Walker: You got to begin with the children. You've got to teach
the moral life of downtown to the children. And the way you do that, Earl, is
by taking them downtown to plays, museums, concerts, lectures, where they can
learn the moral life of downtown. And then they won't be poor anymore.
Shorris: What
you mean is...
What
It was not release from poverty that
interested her; she had been in prison long enough to know that release had
nothing to do with autonomy. The moral life does not consist in being acted
upon, but in acting. Autonomous persons act.
Work is not the structural solution to
poverty if the work provides less than a living wage. As such it is no antidote
to force, it is merely force in the form most useful
to those with power. Work must of course be the greatest part of the antidote
to poverty, but work within the surround of poverty is disorderly. The force of
such work produces force in response, increasing the panic of the poor within
the surround; the worker is not rebellious merely unruly. The poor do not
suffer from sloth or indolence, but from force. If the antidote to force can be
found, work will follow, if there is work to be done.
In the last decade Shorris has set up a
number of programs, called the Clemente Course, in the
Shorris writes:
“The Clemente Course begins with the idea
that the poor are human and that the proper celebration of their humanity is in
the public world as citizens. To see the Clemente course as no more than a
college preparation program for underprivileged people would diminish the
celebration of the humanities and the possibilities of the human spirit that
are the joy of the work.”
In his book, Riches for the Poor, Shorris gives many examples of how the
education process has been successful in assisting people out of poverty. While
it is not the complete answer it represents a different approach from the
mutual obligation or skills based training that has predominated in
Finally, the following is taken from the
speech Shorris delivered to the first participants in a Clemente Course.
“The humanities are a foundation for getting
along in the world, for thinking, for learning to reflect on the world instead
of just reacting to whatever force is turned against you. I think the
humanities are one of the ways to become political, and I don't mean political
in the sense of voting in an election, but political in the broad sense. The
way Pericles, a man who lived in ancient
4.
Current Literature about Homelessness
Much recent literature on homelessness
stresses that people have as great a need for social contact and purposive
activity as they have for accommodation. It can be argued that there has been
far too much emphasis in homeless programs, such as the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, on where people sleep
the night and not enough on what happens in their day to day life. Homeless
services for single men and women in particular, have seen a large and
continuing investment in crisis beds, yet day time activities of an educational
or employment related nature remain a low priority. Consequently, many single
homeless men and women drift around the streets or hang around the hostels with
little to do. This reinforces their impoverishment and heightens their sense of
hopelessness.
Crisis hostels are not always popular
with homeless people. Because of their size and diverse clientele some see them
as rough places where dormitories or other communal spaces have to be shared
with potentially threatening strangers, who may have drink and drug problems.
For others there are too many rules, for example barring pets, partners or
drink. Alternatively relaxed programs and lack of rules may bring people in off
the streets but this creates difficulties if people are not encouraged to move
on from that stage. As a report from the Rough Sleepers Initiative in
“Helping people rebuild their lives is as
much a part of coming in from the cold as building more hostel beds or setting
up new outreach teams.”
A number of differences were noted
between accommodation and support services in
·
Services tended to be
more specialised with some focussing on drug/alcohol use, some mental health,
some ex-prisoners etc.
·
Accommodation is
generally single room with shared communal areas but the majority
self-contained.
·
All services demanded
a high level of participation by residents in operating the services and in
decision-making.
·
Accommodation services
catered for single men and women rather than being single sex facilities.
Unlike major cities in
In
From this research four main principles
emerge. Services need to be:
·
Flexible and holistic
responses, tailored to meet the needs of individual homeless people.
·
Concentrate on
long-term solutions, not just crisis intervention.
·
Respect most homeless
people's preference for non-institutionalised accommodation as far as possible.
·
Involve homeless
people in service evaluation and service development.
Education and employment has a more
central role in homeless services in
From the English experience employment
and training schemes for homeless people need to be highly flexible and need to
focus on helping people to sustain employment and/or other meaningful activity
in the longer term. Those not engaging with the training or employment services
on offer had even more disadvantaged backgrounds. A key task is to encourage homeless people to
participate in schemes in order to counteract their previous poor experience of
schooling (4).
From the experience in
·
Operating in hostels
and day centres instead of formal educational settings.
·
Covering other topics
of concern to homeless people as well as employment related skills. At the same
time concentrate on transferable work skills.
·
Flexibility in subject
matter and time commitment required.
·
Building in incentives
such as travel and meal allowances and access to trips and holiday courses.
·
Following up
participants who miss sessions and offering courses
for an initial short period.
·
Work on a one to one
basis or small groups.
·
Early assessment of
learning difficulties such as dyslexia.
·
Access to
qualifications on completion of the course.
·
Sessions on vocational
paths to help people to decide their future.
·
More active
encouragement by hostels for their residents to engage in work or training.
·
The development of job
support teams to provide more intensive help with finding and sustaining
employment.
It needs to be recognised that some
homeless people may need a lot of help over a long period of time. Their crisis
and complexity of need is not something that can be solved overnight. If
employment is not possible then people should be assisted to regain confidence
to re-integrate into the community in other ways. Building self-esteem and
confidence is primary if impoverishment is to be reversed. The current big
stick and little carrot approach favoured by some decision makers in
PART
TWO
1.
Redevelopment of Inner City Hostels
In the early 1990s a major redevelopment
of the inner city crisis hostels was undertaken in both Sydney and Melbourne.
In
While the inner city redevelopment was
generally viewed as being positive with improved outcomes for many homeless
men, some in the homeless field felt the process in
In 1997 an appraisal of the Matthew
Talbot Hostel, the largest of the men's crisis services, was conducted. One
recommendation that emerged from this review process was to redevelop a
building operated by the Talbot in Surry Hills (5) to become a living skills
training centre to assist men to make a successful transition from crisis to
semi-independent and independent living in the community. With the introduction
of outreach accommodation more homeless men have been given the opportunity to
re-establish their lives in the community. However, not all men are able to
succeed in a low support environment. Many homeless men
who come to the inner city crisis services, need extra time and resources to
overcome their difficulties and to gain the skills necessary for successful
independent living. The redevelopment of Charles O'Neill House created the
opportunity to devise a new and innovative response to this situation.
The four storey building, which had been
a nurses home, has been extensively renovated. The first or ground floor
contains offices, meeting rooms and some common recreational areas. The other
three floors are divided into clusters of twelve single rooms with shared kitchen,
lounge and bathroom facilities. Two clusters each on the second and third
floors and one cluster on the fourth. This allows for a total of sixty
residents, however, it is expected that given the structure of the program,
described in the next section, no more than 40 -50 will be resident at any
given time.
2.
The Charles O'Neill House Program
As a result of consultations and research
conducted throughout 2000 and early 2001, it was decided to adopt the following
key principles in designing the Charles O'Neill Program.
·
A welcoming,
non-institutional environment with residents' dignity and privacy respected.
·
Emphasis on assertive
engagement with residents including a high level of participation in decision
making.
·
Educational,
employment and living skills programs tailored to individuals and conducted on
one-to-one or small group basis.
·
Brokerage of external
services to meet the needs of individual residents eg
mental health, drug/alcohol rehabilitation, Centrelink, employment programs
etc.
The three major components of the program
would revolve around:
·
Restoring residents'
mental and physical health.
·
Enhancing dignity and
self-esteem through education and meaningful activity including employment.
·
Providing
opportunities to access quality long-term housing.
The program would need to be structured
as the residents would be coming from generally chaotic backgrounds. However,
within the structure there needed to be opportunities for participants to
create structure meaningful to them rather than it all being
imposed by management and staff. An example of how this theory worked in
practise is the following list of classroom procedures developed and agreed
upon by the first group of men in the program:
1. On time.
2. Break
3. Own your opinions, thoughts and
feelings.
4. Respect difference and diversity.
5. Freedom to stay in group or withdraw
if upset or angry.
6. Group will respect individual choice
in going or staying if upset or angry.
7.
If conflicting opinions or ideas, no aggression or attacking verbally other
individuals.
8. No discrimination of any kind.
9. Acknowledge right to pass if topic of
discussion disturbs.
Another important aspect of the program
would be that it was primarily an education program rather than an emergency accommodation
service. Residents, men initially, with singe women being introduced to the
program after the initial pilot stage, would be taken on at three monthly
intervals in groups of twelve. They would enrol for the first stage only after
thorough assessment (6) of their needs and abilities to complete the course. In
this respect Charles O'Neill House is more like a university college than a
shelter or refuge.
To enable this education focus to become
reality, discussions were held with teachers from
Similarly, Sydney TAFE Outreach based at
Ultimo agreed to provide employment skills related training and would accredit
these courses to enable participants to gain entrance to TAFE on campus.
Centrelink was also approached to waive
mutual obligation requirements from residents in the program. This was also
agreed to and a good working relationship with this government agency has been
the result.
Part of the program is the requirement
that residents do as much of the 'housework' as is practicable. Their rooms and
cluster areas are completely their responsibility with daily cluster meetings
held to iron out any domestic or other difficulties. The cluster meetings are
the major decision making body for residents.
The program is run in three, three month
stages with a fourth one being completed either in residence or in
accommodation in the community. The three stages reflect the components of the
program noted above. In the first the education program designed on the
Clemente Course is the primary element with TAFE providing more employment
skills orientated classes. Most sessions in stage one are conducted at Charles
O'Neill House.
The second stage continues with TAFE
courses but this time off residence and focussed more on the career path chosen
by participants. A further two days a week are in work experience positions.
The third stage focuses on obtaining and retaining paid employment and further
education. Housing options will also be investigated with case managers from
the Matthew Talbot Outreach Team working with residents to find appropriate
placements. The final stage will be placement in housing.
On-going support will be provided to
residents beyond the time that they are resident at Charles O'Neill House. This
will be dependent on need and mutual agreement. The nine to twelve month
residency is expected to lay the solid ground needed to overcome the
impoverishment they have experienced. However, for some, longer periods of
assistance may be needed once they are back in the community if they are not to
sink into poverty once again.
The following is a description of the
Charles O'Neill House Program written by one of the men who was in the first
intake of residents.
WHAT,
WHY, WHERE?
Charles O'Neill House is a structured
environment with an emphasis on developing self-knowledge, education and
personal development. What it is for cannot be generalized. It can only be
answered by the individual. It is different for everybody which is why it is
unique. Therefore the program gives me personally a sense of getting my life
organized.
The program is not for everybody; the
only requirement is honesty to yourself about
yourself.
The program can reorganize you, give you a feeling of getting back in control; if you
allow it to. If you put up barriers, have expectations about the program you
will have difficulties. But if you are willing to see the opportunities and go
with them, whatever they are or might be for you, there is an endless corridor
of open doors. You only have to take the first step. The program is capable of
achieving your desires.
The pathways to success are in place
along with the guidance to show you the way. At first you may not realize where
you are going or for that matter what the program actually is. That doesn't
matter. You just need to be honest about your internal identity not your
external appearance. It's the realization of where you can go and what you are
capable of achieving. There are no boundaries in the program no matter what
your circumstances are, no matter what others think.
Your goals and visions may have been lost
in your journey through life but I believe that using the program as a Vehicle
you can find them once more. I believe that when you decide where you are
going, and only then, the program as a vehicle can help you find your goals and
visions once more. The program is only a means for that purpose. The program
paints your own picture for whatever purpose you reach for.
3.
Profile of Participants
Recent research at the four major inner
city hostels for men, gives an indication of the education and work background
of potential participants in the Charles O'Neill House program. Of the 60 men
who have been interviewed for the Pathways
into Homelessness project, very few finished high school with the majority
leaving at 15 or 16 years of age. Those who did further education generally did
so through a trade apprenticeship. Some attended job skills training courses at
TAFE. Only a handful of those with trade or TAFE qualifications are currently
using them.
Some of the interviewees are working full
time but these are in low pay occupations such as kitchen hand. Others have
part-time work like delivering pamphlets or conducting traffic counts or obtain
casual jobs labouring. The majority, however, are unemployed and have been so for
lengthy periods of time.
Last year an action/research project
aimed at assisting rough sleepers in Wolloomooloo (7) conducted in-depth
interviews with 27 men. From the information gathered it was possible to build
the following profile of a "typical" rough sleeper:
·
Male;
·
Aged between 25 and
40;
·
Of Anglo-Australian
cultural descent;
·
Who is probably from
interstate;
·
With a low standard of
education, and lacking in any useful skills (though there were exceptions);
·
With either a current
chronic dependency (either substance abuse or gambling, or both), or a history
of battling a dependency;
·
In generally less than
satisfactory physical health;
·
With little or no
income and no assets;
·
In receipt of either
the Newstart benefit, or the Disability Support Pension;
·
Whose family
background was characterised by the experience of multiple trauma events, such
as parental rejection or violence of one form or another.
This is generally a fair description of
homeless men who will participate in the Charles O'Neill House program. The
following story written by one of the men participating in the Charles O'Neill
House program, provides a clearer insight into the
nature of an impoverished life.
NO
SYMPATHY
My father left when I was 2. I have no
recollection of him and have never seen him since. My mother was a beautiful
lady, who had a tormented soul. She had the biggest heart, everyone loved her,
and she was an alcoholic running from the pain of her childhood. Things would
be great for months on end and then the alcoholic binge would start, strange men and many a night looking through a
smashed window. Comforting my mother hoping she would pass out. Putting on soft
music, to try and soothe her if the record player hadn't gone through the
window. Holding her, comforting her, praying the alcohol-fuelled fire had gone
out.
When you are young, adults are like
giants and are terrifying when they are smashing the place to bits. Again!
Bandaging my mothers slashed wrists,
after she had awoken me beating on my bedroom door in the middle of the night,
blood everywhere.
Or other times, Mum's in the bathroom
pissed, is she going to the toilet or is she crying out for help again in her
strange way. "What are you doing in there? Let me in." Her wrists a crazy criss-cross lattice work of scars, from her many
attempts of saying I can't cope with the pain.
Sometimes it was off to hospital. The
neighburs had called the police, probably because of the hysterical shrieking
of my mother.
The next day! I'm 14 years old. I'm with
my first girlfriend. We are scrubbing the carpet with bleach. The blood stains
run from the bathroom up the hallway to my bedroom door. There is dry blood
around a stale wine glass. The house is eerily quiet today, from the drunken
rampage of the night before. Everything is smashed. Again! I feel so ashamed.
Won't somebody come and help.
15 years old. I'm living by myself,
working full time and studying at night.
18 years old. I'm a manager at McDonalds,
when one night at work a friend calls and says my Mum is in hospital. I fly to
This is when I meet my false friend,
gambling. I am enchanted and intoxicated. I go crazy, gambling, running away
from agony and grief. Within two years I had gambled everything I could lay my
hands on- inheritance, stealing from work, borrowed money, hocked goods, rent
money, food money, anything I could use to feed my insatiable gambling
addiction.
21 years old. I am on a mission to
destroy myself. It's the middle of the night. I'm screaming and crying with
torment and rage while hurtling down the streets as fast as my motor bike could
go. Running red lights and going through intersections at top speed without
looking. I am reckless and I don't give a fuck!
21st birthday.
I am smashed, everybody is buying me drinks. I've lost my keys to my 10th floor
unit. I put a brick through the glass door, the entrance to the unit. I then go
to the stairwell on the 10th floor and smash the windows there,
climb out and jump three meters to my balcony, just grabbing on with my arms
and pulling myself up. I was so drunk I could only vaguely remember this the
next morning. I could easily have died, but so what I didn't care.
22 years old. I'm living on the streets. A hopeless shell of a young man, utterly desolate and unable to
cope with life. No family to help only a younger brother doing his best
to cope with his own life.
22 years old. I am in a one year
rehabilitation program with the Salvation Army for my gambling. For four years
I did groups, programs, counselling, courses, retreats, therapy, meditation,
prayer. I read books, explored my spirituality, I did whatever I could to stay
sane.
26 years old. One day I am crying for the
first time I can remember. For two months I howled with grief, hours on end
every day. This was one of the hardest periods of my life and also one of the
most beautiful and rewarding.
27 years old. I take ecstasy for the
first time and party for three years. I have the most incredible experiences
and for the first time in my life I have periods of total freedom and feelings
of total connectedness. And it is manufactured and false and the things I am
running away from start to catch up to me. I become depressed and paranoid and
feel the pain of knowing I'm still hiding from life.
30 years old. I slowly give up the drugs
and I still find life difficult to cope with. Unable to stand
up for myself in work situations, unable to maintain long- term relationships
or friendships. Deep down I still feel like there is something wrong
with me and every 2 to 3 months, when the pain of not feeling good enough
becomes too intense, I'd take drugs to run away.
31 years old. I am sick for six weeks and
the doctors can't work out what is wrong with me. Seeing Specialists and not
working my money starts to run out and I'm finding it hard to face up to people
and life. I go on a two week drug binge, having copious amounts of ecstasy,
speed and cocaine. I can't pay the rent, I can't talk to people, I can't go on. I've had enough, it's time to change.
So now I'm at Charles O'Neill House
taking responsibility for my life. I'm here to take a stance and face my
demons. Charles O'Neill provides a structured environment where I can take time
and learn to take complete control of my life.
So don't feel sorry for me, because I
feel incredibly lucky and grateful for where I'm at and the lessons that I'm
learning. What an amazing experience to be part of a community that is working
towards hope and change. I am surrounded by people who want to help, and people
who have the courage to do something with their lives.
I write this story to illustrate what
sort of person you might find here, and this is just a small glimpse of my
life. My life has been incredibly rich with experience. I have no regrets and
wouldn't change my life for anything. I gain strength and wisdom from my past
and anything is possible for my future. The choice is mine.
4.
The First Group of Participants
Of the first twelve men commencing the
first stage of the program:
·
Two left before
completion.
·
One left on completion
to continue living as an itinerant labourer.
·
Nine completed the
program and have now entered stage two. All of these men have obtained work
placements in areas ranging from television production to community services to
boat repairs.
Staff and the volunteer teachers report
remarkable changes both in the men undertaking the program and in their own
attitudes. At this stage the theory of teaching humanities to people in poverty
appears to be standing the test of practice.
Already the Charles O'Neill House program
has affected the operations of the Matthew Talbot Hostel. At the time of
writing plans are being developed to change the scope and emphasis of the
services provided there in the light of the experience at Charles O'Neill
House. These developments will be the subject of a further report early in
2002.
Finally, the whole program, even given
the high level of volunteer involvement, has been costed at around $800,000 per
year. Staffing levels require at least 10 full time professional staff and
there are the costs of full board and other services. Resident contributions
are expected to raise some of this cost but a $650,000 - $700.000 deficit would
be the result if this where the only in coming income. To some this is
extremely expensive given only 40-50 residents will complete the program in any
one year. But it can be argued that the costs to the community are far less
than if the participants continued to live impoverished lives.
Conclusion
The implications of Working Out of Homelessness deserve further consideration in the
context of the overall welfare reform strategy. In many ways to view the
findings from the research, and their application in the Charles O'Neill House
program, as a response to homelessness is to miss the points noted in Section
One. Homelessness is not a discrete circumstance. It is one part of an overall
picture of impoverishment that encompasses more than material deprivation. To
address poverty requires a total response with a particular emphasis on
assisting people to realise their humanness and to be exposed to the process of
reflection. This way people have an opportunity to develop as
autonomous beings with the power to act instead of being isolated in the
surround of force.
The research agrees that the Clemente
Course model devised by Earl Shorris provides a unique approach to the problem
of poverty. However, in the Charles
O'Neill House program other practical elements have also been introduced (8)
and the course is residential. If similar courses were established for other
groups in the community they would also have to develop their own character to
reflect these differences. Homeless hostels and refugees are well-placed to
build on the Charles O'Neill House program but there is no reason why
neighbourhood centres or employment services could not adapt the course for their
own needs.
The issues raised by a sociologist like
Zygmunt Bauman also deserve a wider audience. If we have become the consumers
of goods and experiences he claims we are, how should
the poor, the flawed consumers, be expected to resist the exhortation to buy?
Would people in poverty be no longer impoverished if they had incomes enabling
them to become successful consumers? Perhaps the question; what constitutes a
rich life is one more decision makers should ponder. These are difficult
questions but ones that failed to receive much attention at the height of the
welfare reform debate. Partially this is because the debate from all sides
failed to grapple with the lives people actually lead. But we have to come to
terms with the widening gap between those who fit into the post modern world
and those who are being left on the margins.
Further
Work
It is suggested that:
1.
A series of seminars
be called in various locations around
2.
During 2002
participants, staff and volunteers at Charles O’Neill House should be formally
interviewed at the end of each stage to evaluate the effectiveness of the
program. Those leaving the program should also be followed up to see how they
progress back in the community.
3.
The Charles O’Neill
House program should be examined in the context of Indigenous communities,
public housing estates and with young people. The program could be readily
adapted to serve the needs of a range of groups.
4.
The program should
also be investigated in the context of the proposed Personal Support Program
(PSP).
References
Bauman, Z. Work, Consumerism and the New Poor.
Open University Press, Buckingham. 1998.
Fitzpatrick, S. and
Klinker, S. Research on Single
Homelessness in
Hodder, T. Burich, N. and Teesson, M. Down and Out in
________Pathways into Homelessness.
Mission
Johanson, F and
Robinson,
Robinson, C. The Hidden
Faces of Poverty. St Vincent de Paul Society.
1999.
_________ Living on
the Edge. St Vincent de Paul
Society. 1998.
Shelter
Shorris, E. Riches for the Poor – The
Clemente Course in the Humanities. WW Norton and Co.
1.
The definition of homelessness most commonly used reflects this
by naming three distinct kinds of homelessness; Primary homelessness i.e. those
sleeping rough; Secondary, those moving from emergency accommodation, friends'
places etc and; Tertiary, those living in accommodation below minimum community
standards e.g. boarding houses, caravan parks.
2.
Early indications from
the Pathways into Homelessness research, currently being conducted by T.
Hodder, M. Teeson and N. Burich on behalf of the major inner Sydney homeless
services, bear out this assertion. Final results from this research will be
available early 2002.
3.
4.
This lack of
involvement may also be attributable to the type of employment orientated
training schemes on offer. As the young women from the
5.
The name of the
building prior to redevelopment was Gowrie House. As such it had provided
medium to long term accommodation for 80 men. It has since been re-named
Charles O'Neill House.
6.
The main criterion
used in assessing potential residents is their willingness to become part of
the structured environment. Residents
with current mental health, drug/alcohol or gambling problems have not been
excluded. (See below for profile of 'typical' resident). However, in all
instances positive steps to dealing with these problems need to be initiated or
maintained. Those who are in total
abstinence programs are in separate clusters to those still using. In other words, Charles O'Neill House runs on
principals of harm minimisation.
7.
The project was
initiated by a number of NSW government agencies sand was undertaken by staff
from the Matthew Talbot Hostel.
8.
There are other
aspects of a future program that need further development such as managing
better relationships with partners, children, family and friends.