Filed under: Minneapolis
Last night I joined about 50 other volunteers to survey people experiencing homeless for the Point in Time count for Hennepin County. I ask a bunch of questions; the answer-er gets $5. It’s less money than for the Wilder Survey, which is done every three years, but there are fewer and easier questions.
Volunteers attended a quick training where I learned that this is HUD-mandated reporting. I think the reporting is important – that which gets measured, gets done. But I’m not sure why volunteers are needed if HUD mandates it. At least three quarters of the people in the room were in the industry. They were outreach workers, shelter workers or maybe the brand new Commissioners (such as Human Services Commissioner Tony Lourey, Jennifer Ho, head Minnesota Housing Finance Agency and a few folks from Met Council). Kudos and thanks to 
all of them for being there – but imagine if people got paid to administer the surveys.
Imagine if people got paid a living wage to do much of the work that many of us do as volunteers. Don’t get me wrong, I find the work interesting. I don’t mind doing it. But maybe if HUD is going to mandate the reporting, maybe they need to pay for it. And maybe that would help end homelessness for some people.
Back to the surveys … I pulled the cushy job interviewing folks at the train station at the Mall of America. It’s warm there, it’s well lit and there’s a bathroom. Others talked to people on the trains and in outside places. I spoke to a half a dozen people or so. I spoke to one guy in his 30s. He had a Master’s degree. He had been in the Twin Cities just a few months and had a criminal record. I spoke to a girl in her 20s who admitted that maybe she had some issues with drugs or alcohol – but she’s “working on that.” A few folks had been homeless for moths or a year. One was going to sleep outside. (It was 20 degrees and falling.) Most would hang around the trains until the coffee shops opened. Everyone I spoke to was under 50 years of age.
Everyone was pleasant, happy to talk and even happier for an opportunity to make a quick $5. A few wanted to know where to get more help. I had a brochure to share. Most had written off shelters because they seem full before they are even open. We learned that there are 1025 adults, 400-500 families and 75 youth sheltered in Hennepin County – and those beds are full.
My experience is only my experience and I think it you talk to one person experiencing homelessness, you know what it’s like for one person. Everyone’s story is different. But if you want to hear a lot of stories, you listen to my friend Monica, who spoke at the Legislature at 8 am yesterday and then spent her whole night (until 4am or later I’m sure!) doing surveys last night. If there are 8 million stories, she has heard 7 million of them!
It was minus two degrees when we first got to the Women’s March MN 2019. So cold! But it was sunny and beautiful. It was a day to inspire people to get involved. It was a day of rewards for folks who are involved. Hopefully it energized us all. And it gave us all bragging rights for beating the cold – although I suspect the marchers in Bemidji and Barnum may have been colder.
It was a smaller group than in 2017. Estimates that year were nearly 100,000; I just read police estimate this year was 4,000. But I don’t think attendance reflects a diminishing interest or passion – just weather. It was 35 degrees warmer in 2017! In fact, I have seen attendance at monthly civic engagement events grow in the year since I have become involved with the Women’s March. We are buoyed by the midterm election and we are ready to keep engaging until we bring change.
Back to the march today…
I was livestreaming for the March and Aine was doing SnapChat. Because I was livestreaming, I didn’t get to take notes or even Tweet notes as I like to do – but I do have the full video to share. And it gave us the opportunity to talk to a few people about why they were there.
A lot of women are there to represent the people who can’t be there, people who can’t speak for themselves, for their kids and the future generations. It’s generous and it’s good use of privileges that many of us enjoy but I think we need to be there for ourselves too. Making things better for ourselves is a good lesson for future generations and helps create a space and a history of space. For the (upcoming) Women’s March MN music podcast, I got to talk to Tina Schielske about her latest band Genital Panic. We spoke a little bit about having a platform at an age when you have someone to say. Marching for that platform at all ages for ourselves and others is a good reason to march.
Not that youth don’t have messages too. They do! The impact of the Parkland shooting and of the strength of the students of Parkland was clear from all of the young speakers. They are on the frontlines of many issues, especially gun reform. They are still in schools learning how to deal with shooters. Would you keep a job where that was part of the orientation? The speakers here noted that seeing students from Parkland, seeing someone who looked like them (young) – encouraged them to get involved.
We heard from a wide range of amazing women: an attorney who survived an 18-hour standoff at the border to get 20 asylum seekers across the border (including a 17 year old girl traveling alone who is still being detained!), a young activist who lost a leg due in part to poor healthcare coverage who recognized that you can’t always help what happens but you can help what you do with it so she’s giving her voice to better access to healthcare, a native elder who has lost sister and a daughter who is active in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, leaders from the Jewish and Muslim Women’s Coalition, Rep Ilhan Omar about her experience going from refugee camps to US congress and a young woman leading the charge for change in her school who is energized to see Omar, a woman who looks like her in Congress.
Lots of talk of change, and leadership coming from us, intersectionality – we all do better when we all do better and we all need to accept a hand up and extend a hand up. One line I loved, a quote from Shirley Chisholm – If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. We need to bring two, one for us and one for another new voice. Tokenism is out – we’re louder together.
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