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Stereotypes were dispelled and eyes were opened when two formerly-homeless people spoke to students to raise awareness of homelessness.
The second annual Faces of Homelessness Panel, an event hosted by the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group, was held Thursday night at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
The panel consisted of David Harris and Francine Triplett, two individuals who are formerly-homeless and Michael O'Neill, the Speakers Bureau coordinator for the National Coalition for the Homeless.
The panel had spoken to schools in Massachusetts earlier in the day and was traveling around to many schools and groups. Last year, they spoke to 288 groups, including UConn, on their cross-country tour to raise homelessness awareness.
Harris and Triplett shared their experiences, from its cause to their struggle out of it. Each speaker told a different story, dispelling common stereotypes of homelessness.
Both Harris and Triplett stressed the importance of being active and giving when they spoke to the audience.
"Whether they're begging or not, whatever you do, do it from your heart," Triplett said.
According to Harris and Triplett, those who stopped for conversation or volunteered in shelters and food drives are responsible for getting them out of homelessness.
Harris was also interested in activism to help the homeless.
"The government could do so much more," Harris said. "They spend so much money on things ... like Iraq."
"Nancy Pelosi ... well, she wants to raise minimum wage by a couple of dollars," Harris said. "That would help a lot." He added that he was glad that Pelosi recently became Speaker of the House.
"It would be cool to have universal health care," he said. "A lot of countries have this."
"What do people say about homeless people?" O'Neill asked the audience before introducing the speakers. "What are some stereotypes? Maybe like alcoholics, drug addicts?"
O'Neill supplied the audience with statistics about the homeless that dispelled those stereotypes. Not all homeless people are alcoholics or drug addicts and not all of them are at fault for their homelessness, according to statistics from the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Homelessness does not only refer to people living on the street. It also includes people living in shelters or in temporary homes such as motels or with family. A homeless person is someone who does not have a home, according to Harris.
Harris spoke first about his experience.
"For about three years, actually four years, I was homeless," Harris said.
According to Harris he was the stereotypical homeless person who lived on the streets of Washington, D.C.
"I looked like everybody's idea of a homeless person," Harris said.
Harris said he spent most of his life looking down on homeless people. He scored a 1440 on his SATs and was planning on going to college to pursue a career in journalism, but he became a parent at 17-years-old and dropped out of school after 11th grade.
Harris was divorce seven years later and had little skills or education and could not hold a well-paying job. Soon after, he became sick and could no longer work. Later, he found out that he had congestive heart failure and suffered a stroke, which affected his physical abilities and slowed his speech. He went to shelters and found volunteers that helped him get out of homelessness.
Triplett became homeless after she escaped an abusive relationship.
"I was abused for 13 years," Triplett said. "Don't ask me why I stayed there, `cause I don't know."
When Triplett first left her home, other homeless people tried to show her how to get blankets and survive being homeless, but she started smoking crack and drinking alcohol, she said.
Although she was homeless, she kept a job to pay for food and the drugs and alcohol. She became depressed.
"I used to cry every night because I'd come out of a warm building and sleep on the cold concrete," Triplett said.
Most of all, Triplett said she wanted conversation.
"I got stomped on the face," Triplett said about sleeping on the streets.
She went to a few shelters and joined a church. The church helped her fight her addiction and let her cook for them.
"I do a lot of volunteering now," Triplett said.
Both Harris and Triplett now live in apartments and receive aid from Social Security to help with the cost of living.
Harris wants people "to look at homeless people in a different way. They should care about us as if we were family because we're part of the human family."
Before the panelists spoke, the audience watched a video clip about the problems of homelessness from a "60 Minutes" episode that aired on Oct. 1, according to O'Neill.
The video clip investigated cases of "bum hunting," a term for direct violence toward homeless people. "Bum hunting," which includes beating homeless people or making them beat each other or do things in exchange for money or alcohol, grew popular after the independent DVDs, "Bumfights" came out. "60 Minutes" interviewed the creator of "Bumfights," the homeless people involved in "Bumfights" and showed examples of serious violence to homeless people that sometimes resulted in death.
"We've been working with him [Ed Bradley of "60 Minutes"] since February," O'Neill said.
The National Coalition for the Homeless helped "60 Minutes" with information for that report, according to O'Neill.
"There's a lot of undocumented attacks," O'Neill said.
According to O'Neill, he knew of a lot of homeless people who were attacked and did not report it. The clips for "60 Minutes" show only a little of the abuse that happens to homeless people, according to O'Neill.
"I thought it was so moving, eye-opening," said Allyssa Milan, a 3rd-semester sociology major who attended the event. "I've heard about 'Bumfights', but I didn't know how brutal they are."
Homeless people are often poorly treated because of their circumstances and in the case of "bum hunting," they are mistreated and degraded for the entertainment of others, according to the report on "60 Minutes."
"You don't become homeless overnight and you don't become not homeless overnight," O'Neill said.
Kaitlin Nickerson, a 3rd semester political science and sociology double major who is a member of ConnPIRG's campaign against hunger and homelessness, began organizing the Faces of Homelessness Panel in late September.
"I thought it went well," said Nickerson. "We had a decent turnout. Even if only a few people come, it goes well because it affects everyone who sees it."
"We had over 200 people last time and people stayed after to talk to the panelists, so we wanted to bring it back," Nickerson said.
"The people who came were really into it," said Amanda Ploch, a 3rd-semester international relations major and a member of ConnPIRG's campaign against hunger and homelessness.
"We had really great speakers, as always." Ploch said. "It really makes you open your eyes."
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