Invisible People is a great website for getting the word out about homelessness and poverty throughout the nation. Anytime they put up a new video I try and blog about it to help draw attention to the work the people behind the site are doing. I’ve missed the last few videos so I’m going to do a catch up post.

Eddie

Eddie is a homeless person living in Binghamton, NY. He picks up cans and bottles for spending money. The cold weather makes it hard for him to sleep and he’s been up the past two nights he says in the video. He lives outside and had his tent and sleeping bag stolen from him. He’s been sleeping with a blanket in the twenty degree Binghamton winter. As far as help goes in the city Eddie states that if you don’t have an ID Binghamton will not do anything for you. If any elected official in Binghamton is reading this you might want to take note and work to do something about changing that.

Eddie also brings up the Social Services department of Binghamton where he says it takes 45 days for the department to “think about doing anything.” Again, the Councilpersons and Mayor of this city may want to look into that. Eddie goes on to say if you don’t have an address that “they” won’t even talk to you. It would also appear that there are no cold weather shelters unless you count the Alcohol Center and that is usually full. Eddie dreams of getting back with his girlfriend and children. He also wants to open a homeless shelter in Binghamton to help people that find themselves in the situation he’s in now.

Out of curiosity I looked at the population of the city on Wikipedia and saw that the city has 45,217 people (2007 census). It’s metro area 252,320. Comparing that to DC with its population of 591,833 (in 2008) and a massive metro area population of 5.3 million, it’s obvious that Binghamton probably doesn’t have as much resources available to it as a bigger city would. Yet I think that there has to be something that can be done to help its homeless population (which can’t be as high as other cities).

Brianna

Brianna is 24 and recently became homeless. It really goes to show you how close many of us are to ending up like this. She is very bright and cheerful in the video. She’s on Twitter and also blogs about her homelessness. On her blogger.com profile she lists “survival” as one of her interests. As of March 16th she’s been homeless for twelve days. She’s living in an RV with a dog in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

From her blog:

I suppose I am a typical Orange County girl. Due to multiple factors, I have suddenly and unexpectedly found myself homeless – with a giant, goofy, hungry dog tagging along for the ride!

I am an educated woman with stable employment and residence history. I am a career executive assistant – coherent, opinionated, poised, and capable. If you saw me walking down the street, you wouldn’t assume that I live in a parking lot. In short, I am just like you – except without the convenience of a permanent address.

Like I said this is scary and it can happen to anyone. One minute you think you’re stable the next you’re not. Doesn’t her situation shed some light on the lack of a safety net for many Americans? In the video Brianna threw out an interesting statistic. She said that most people think of a homeless person as being either a drug addict, mentally ill or a “lazy bum.” However that only makes up 25% of the homeless population! That is scary. Yet even as she is in this situation Brianna is hoping the economy rights itself so that she and others can get back on their feet  and the “real people” who need help, like the addicts and the mentally ill, who can’t help themselves will get it.

John

John used to have a business and when the economy took a turn for the worse he found himself in a dire situation with no work available. Contributing to John becoming homeless was a medical issue that cost him $20,000 leaving him with nothing. He lost his apartment and left the state he was in to come to CA where it was a little warmer.

If you think “professional recycling” sounds tiring, dead-end, and downright nasty, you’re right. Although John says it’s “good honest work,” he admits he’d gladly jump to a minimum wage job if given the opportunity. See, John used to be just like you, he never thought he’d become homeless. But thanks to our economic nosedive, John went from being a small business owner to a homeless can collector.

He now makes $15 a day recycling cans and bottles. He is currently staying at a shelter. John has been homeless for a couple of months now. The really scary thing is that John is having problems even landing a minimum wage job. Is this the Great Recession? It just goes to show you no one is safe.