“Bone” had been homeless for about 2 years and just lost his wife. He had thought about moving from Los Angeles but hadn’t made up his mind yet. “Life is difficult especially if your black, this place wasn’t made for us”.
Photography by Julian Lucas Los Angeles, 2014
Text & Photography by Julian Lucas
Researching the issue of homelessness has been discouraging, to say the least. In my investigation of the many strategic plans for civic action, I have found that there is rarely mention of racial equity as the key contributing factor. Cities who struggle with homelessness should agree to begin having conversations about race and racism. Only at this point can we begin to tackle the homeless issue in good faith and face to face. If we continue to suppress and try to bury racism by using language such as diversity or “cultural competency training”, or phrases such as “health disparities,” without acknowledging racism then we’re not seeking the root cause beneath the surface of homelessness. There is a serious need to be able to simply talk about how to talk about racism. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Among the several strategic plans I researched, I happened to have researched The City of Seattle's Strategic Plan. Racial equity was the first thing that was documented within their plan. How is it that a citywith only a 3.7% African American population can have a Strategic Plan that addresses racial equity as fundamental to theirplan to address homelessness?
Lesar Development Consultants, who’s website states “Our Mission is to End the Housing Affordability Crisis and Homelessness,”was awarded the contract to assist the City of Pomona with a comprehensive analysis and solutions for combating homelessness. The final plan, called “The City of Pomona Enhanced Strategic Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness” was completed July 2018. In reading through this finished document, I came across the section which deals with the homeless titled, “Lived Experience”. section of the website. As I scrolled down and stumbled across a graph that showed there is 28% of African Americans that are homeless in the city of Pomona. Yet, there are only 6% African Americans that reside in the city. My questions are why aren’t we asking the question of “why” is there such an over-representation of African American homeless people living in Pomona. I would think digging beneath the surface of this outsized disparity would be an obvious question to ask. We know should all know African Americans only make up 6% of the population in the city of Pomona. We should also know whites make up 53% of the homeless population which is not far off from Pomona’s residency of 48% white.
Additionally, while searching LeSar Development Consultants website noted that under the heading entitled, Team they provide profiles of their “strategic advisors and technical experts, but notice that the ethnic makeup of the"team" does not represent the populations being served. The disparity is clearly evident in the Lived Experienced page in the completed Pomona study as well. Along the same vein, an article posted about ways to “increase housing affordability and end homelessness” which I found on the LeSar Development Consultants webpage entitled, “Getting Smart About Equity” spoke about the need to end homelessness through equity in home ownership. It stressed the need to put “aside long-held assumptions” and “pivot toward a more nuanced understanding of issues” and offered five research tips for building equity. Sadly, not one of these “tips” addresses the issue of race and racism within the context of homelessness.
Jerry was a 1981 graduate of Ganesha High School in Pomona and has been living on Skid Row for quite some time. Jerry expressed thatit was rather difficult to make it in society because people pre-judge him before getting to know him, adding that “the world can be cruel.”
Despite his facial injury, which was caused by an incident ofrandom gun violence ashe waited ata bus stop over 14 years ago, Jerry isa great conversationalist. Hewas incredibly open about his life and hisstruggles with his physical ailments which are worrisome as Jerry cannot see well out of his remaining left eye.
Photography by Julian Lucas Los Angeles, 2019
POLICING THE HOMELESS & THE WORD “SOLVE”
When cities begin the inclusion and deployment of officers as a part of the Homeless outreach services, I see the same heavy-handed practice of policing with its emphasis on dehumanizing people who are caught in homelessness instead of simply focusing on housing and supportive services. This approach seems to be politically driven with targeted strategies towards criminalization versus simply camp dispersing tactics. One has to ask, are policymakers only looking at homeless through the lens of one’s own eyes and not through the perspective of those who actually live this reality on a daily basis? The fact is housing is out of reach for many. Those of us who work paycheck to paycheck are just barely able to make the rent.
We must also have to understand that homelessness is a structural problem, not an individual. This is not an issue of human volition, the homeless do not decide and then commit to a path of homelessness. History reveals that throughout time we humans have always created conditions of homelessness. Today is no different. We have created affordable housing, only to have it taken away by the manipulations of deregulation of the housing market and the removal of federal money from housing subsidies for low-income folks. Yet we attempt to “solve” homelessness on an individual level, completely ignoring the imbedded structural basis and expect that to be a fix. I have seen forced use of shelters and more criminalization, people hating on social media and blaming homeless folks for the city’s problems. Redirected resources and subsidized housing is the only solution. Having a shelter and trying to fill beds won’t “solve” homelessness no matter the number of beds. Where is the collaboration with social movements and service entities? I did not see one of these as a part of Pomona’s Strategic Plan.
Photography by Julian Lucas Los Angeles, 2010
Back in June The LA Times published an article entitled, Racism is the reason Black people are disproportionately homeless in L.A., report shows. The article stated,
“According to a draft report, 21,509 Black people were without permanent, habitable housing during the count in January — 34% of Los Angeles’ homeless population of 64,000 (Pasadena, Long Beach and Glendale do their own counts, bringing the county homeless total to 66,000). “The Black share of homelessness has hovered for years around that percentage point, in a county where only 8% of residents are African American”.
The article also mentioned after a draft report was conducted it was found that 16,000 people who were homeless were white while 23,000 people were Latino, and the likelihood for Black people to become homeless is 10 times greater than for white people. My question is why aren’t we having conversations surrounding these types of issues, instead of the usual social media hatred for homelessness? The usual name calling words such as “tweekers”, “squatters”, and the word I dislike the most, “vagrants” which in our history is a label that was given to freed slaves.
In terms of racism in homelessness unfortunately we won’t see an end to homelessness until we acknowledge racial inequity.
Julian Lucas with Pepper the “Mayor of Skid Row” 2016
REFERENCES
https://lesardevelopment.com/about/
https://lesardevelopment.com/getting-smart-about-equity/
Julian Lucas, is fine art photographer, photojournalist, and creative strategist. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking homeless veterans to housing. Julian has lived in Chicago, Inglewood, Portland, and the suburbs of Los Angeles County including Pomona.
