Tent City 3

As I approached the enclosure I was a bit apprehensive to what I was getting myself into.  I had made the appointment for a tour of Tent City 3 through its sister organization, SHAPE, that works as a resource center and contact for the physical tent city.  At the entrance I was greeted by several people, acting as guards just like in 18th century English castles, minus the drawbridge and moats and such.   After signing in, I met Roger who had been giving tours and living in the encampment for several years.  After a brief introduction and background about the tent city, Roger and I were off and running ducking in and around tents as he toured me through the city. 

Tent Cities have been a concept for many years and stem from the development of shanty towns, which are areas of land where impoverished people live together in housing made from scrap materials.  They have only recently developed to the point of becoming permanent living choices in some of the major cities in the United States. Tent City 3 is run just like any other city.  They have a mayor figure and a “city-council” that help to enforce laws and advocate on behalf of the entire city.  These positions are elected by the members of the community and each candidate canvasses on their behalf to be elected.  Once elected, these representatives ensure to keep order of the community by maintaining all the by-laws of Tent City.   

Citizens of Tent City 3 are expected to be highly involved in their community.  Each member must adhere to all the by-laws, which are located in a book about the size of a college science textbook! Chores are given out to help upkeep the community and help
residents build a sense of ownership over their community.

Anyone can be admitted into Tent City 3 and can stay as long as they want.  More long-term residents often times have their own tents that they set up in a designated area.  Residents who are brand new to the city are often set up in dormitory style tents with three bed platforms that are made out of wooden pallets, milk crates, and cardboard pieces.  All of the tents are raised up on platforms constructed out of wooden pallets in order to prevent rain water from leaking into the tents.  Although the quarters are not luxury, the simplistic nature by which the residents live is honorable and something we can all take a lesson from. 

At the end of the tour, I was introduced to one of the residents named Matt.  He was known around camp as the beast because he soared 6’ 5” and weighed around 350lbs.  After sharing a few words back and forth he handed me a short story he had written.  Matt suffers from a condition known as Basal Cell Nevus Syndrome, which causes lesions to form all across the body resulting in the need for multiple surgeries to have them removed.  Due to the high cost of medical treatment, he has found himself unable to hold stable housing for about 10 years and has been living at Tent City 3 off and on during that time.  The short story he shared with me was a brief look into the emotional roller coaster he has gone through with every surgery.  Very detailed, the story allows the reader to enter Matt’s world and understand how one can feel trapped and no longer in control.  Please take the time to read his story in an upcoming post! Meanwhile, discover a little more about Matt in an interview found at: http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=2641

Tent City 3 provides a place for individuals to call home who are not otherwise afforded the opportunity of a permanent residence.  The strength of community that Tent City builds is stronger than many of our own.  How invested are you in the well-being of your neighbors?  Would you lend a helping hand or come to their defense whenever they needed it?  By living simply and supporting one another the citizens of Tent City 3 lead a relatively happy and fulfilling life.  Take a lesson from their sense of community and start becoming more involved in your own. 

I have included below a list of items that Tent City is in need of to continue running their programs and supporting individuals who finally need a place they can call home.  If you live in the Seattle area please contact SHARE to arrange a drop off of materials to Tent City itself.

Donated Items Needed for Tent City 3

General
•    Tents (complete with poles)
•    Tarps, rope
•    Sleeping bags, blankets, and mats
•    Flashlights, lanterns, staple gun w/staples
•    Toilet paper, paper towels, wet-wipes
•    Hand sanitizer, rubber & work gloves
•    Towels, wash cloths
•    Soap, shampoo, feminine hygiene supplies
•    Bleach-bottled and/or cleaning wipes
•    Slippers, sandals, flip-flops
•    AA/D batteries
•    First-aid kits/band-aids/gauze strips/anti biotic creams/cold & flu medicine
•    ICE to keep food cold
•    Paper plates, napkins, plastic cups & flatware
•    Reusable ice packs
Food
•    Coffee, tea, cream, sugar
•    Canned protein: tuna, ham, spam. chicken, chili, soup (canned or packaged)
•    Canned fruit and vegetables
•    Butter, margarine, salt/pepper, seasonings
•    Peanut butter
Move Day Supplies (Next Move Day is tomorrow September 25th)
•    Duct tape (36 rolls), 3 Crowbars
•    33 gallon heavy duty trash bags (500)
•    300 feet of twine, 200 feet of rope
•    Black Sharpie pens
•    Zip ties-2 jars, 1500/jar
•    8 lbs box of nails (2 1/2 inches long)
•    Roofing nails (6 lbs) box
•    lxlx8 fencing wood-bundle of 36

http://no4corners.com/life/?p=3539

http://www.greaterseattlecares.org/

http://www.greaterseattlecares.org/

http://www.greaterseattlecares.org/

  

Real Change News: A Paper Changing the City of Seattle

On my last day in Seattle I was lucky enough to meet with Tim Harris, the Executive Director of Real Change News.  Real Change was developed originally as a street newspaper to be distributed to the community by members of the homeless population in Seattle.  If you have ever read through a “street newspaper” the majority of the material is not substantial enough to entice readers to keep coming back for more.  After talking with Tim I learned that Real Change does things a little differently to ensure that their readers anticipate each weekly addition and build a strong relationship with their vendor to heighten the sense of community through their readership.

When Real Change started in 1994, it was founded as a way the homeless population to sell and be apart of the process of creating the paper. The street vendors purchase the paper for 35 cents on the dollar and then resell it at $1 a paper. The entire profit that is made goes straight back to the vendor as there is no vendor fee associated with this organization. Vendors are encouraged to identify their own territory and build relationships with their clients to gain a better rapport with them.

Now many of you in the various cities you live in I am sure you have come across a street vendor selling a newspaper. I would also assume that you may have purchased that paper based on the fact that you wanted to help out the person selling it but had no intent in diving into the articles found within.  Real Change found this to occur with over 60% of it's readers and wanted to change the way that individuals viewed the newspaper.

By using the newspaper as an advocacy tool, Real Change has changed the way that the city of Seattle looks at “street-newspapers”.  As an organization, they have played an integral part in educating and fighting for many prevalent community issues on many different platforms in the last 5 years.  They were the primary player in getting the mayor to veto the panhandling law that was enacted in the city of Seattle in April 2010.  Although the city counsel had a majority of supporting votes to pass the bill, it was not enough to stop a direct veto of the bill by the mayor. 

The ordinance laid down strict behavior rules for beggars such as no panhandling at ATMs or at parking stations, no blocking a person's path, or repeatedly begging after someone has already said no. A statement given by the city’s mayor Mike McGinn showed his support of the creation of strong community within Seattle:

"Adding this new law doesn't add anything towards existing laws and has the risk of essentially criminalizing being poor and that's not right."
~ Mike McGinn, Seattle City Mayor

What I learned during my conversation with Tim is that there is a need for resources in cities that allow the creation of a community voice.  Real Change News accomplishes this in Seattle through their very unique model for a street newspaper to be used as a advocacy avenue.  Articles are based on what the public needs to know and wants to understand about the community they are living in but would otherwise not be shown if it wasn’t for their committed readership to each weekly edition of Real Change News. 

When I asked Tim if his model could be implemented in other cities, he said that he wished more cities would look at Real Change’s model to create as equally as successful papers that they have.  It’s important for people to understand the audience when developing a street newspaper.  There is no need to publish homeless resources as your centerfold article every week unless you are creating a street newsletter for the common homeless person who is looking for that information.  Tim strongly advocates for creating articles that are intellectually stimulating and controversial to keep the readers interested in what the writers are going to report on week after week.  Tim is very open to speaking with anyone interested in creating a street newspaper in their own city but warns those interested that they have to prepared to put all of their effort into creating a newspapers that can go up against most local and even national newspapers. 

Check out the video below of Tim talking about his organization and start to follow this newspaper online at: http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/curr-issue-index/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5y1Pk0QL0&feature=player_embedded

Cheers,
Bryan   
 

Millionair Club: Executive Director Jim Miller

So while at the Millionair Club I was able to have a great conversation with the Executive Director, Jim Miller.  Having worked with their organization for 4 days I was able to ask more in depth questions to start identifying if my root causes of poverty could be seen by other's in the field.  

Some of the questions I asked him revolved around the potential barriers faced by the homeless population in Seattle, what kind of advocacy work his and other agencies are doing, and the changes that need to be made in order to start attacking the issues of poverty in America.  Also listen in towards the end of the film, where he encourages and shares with us the importance of getting out into our communities and helping out first hand! 

Jim was my test subject with my new camera, so I apologize for my interjections and the weird movie transitions but I hope you all enjoy! 

Again please visit the Millionair Club Charity's website and find out even more about the great programs that they offer! 

http://www.millionairclub.org/index.html

Millionair Club Charity: Access to Resources

“I haven’t checked my email in about 6 months!” said Nathan as he entered into the Resource Center for the first time.  Nathan is one of the many clients that the Millionair Club serves on an average day.  As a veteran, he found himself homeless about 10 years ago and has been struggling to get back on track for some time.  Thanks to the veteran assistance programs in Seattle as well as gaining employment skills from the Millionair Club, he is now living in an affordable housing complex town and is starting on the road to self-sufficiency.

After helping Nathan to log into his account again, the inbox count popped up to be above 18,000 new messages! As I helped him go through his mail, together we found many important messages he had received months ago. Many of those emails were time sensitive but Nathan was unable to gain access to a computer.  That’s where the new Resource Center comes in at the Millionair Club.

Being a job referral agency and working towards its clients being self-sufficient, the Millionair Club has recently added a Resource Center for its clients. It provides a total of four computers that access the internet, are installed with Microsoft Office Suite, and will soon have a typing program for people to work on their typing skills.  In today’s world, it is impossible to progress in the job market without computer skills.  Technology has found its way into every profession imaginable and often time if an individual does not have basic knowledge of these skills their opportunity to gain full-time employment is greatly reduced.

With the Resource Center, the Millionair Club hopes to provide an opportunity to their clients to gain access to resources online, partake in computer skill trainings, and interact with community members who are experts in these areas.  I am excited to see how the club develops the Resource Center in the next year to better service clients as they gain more and more skills through their day labor employment.

In addition to Nathan, I had the opportunity to interact with numerous other clients in my three days at the club.  Charles for example used the resource center to apply and search for job opportunities and went to an open interview the same day.  Several clients were able to understand the process of getting a state photo ID so that they could start working.  Another gentleman by the name of Sam (who convinced me to join the military in the next 2 years if I’m not employed) was excited to start learning computer skills so he could navigate job searches for himself.

Sometimes it is as simple as providing resources that the majority of us take for granted to individuals that can help them to advance themselves towards self-sufficiency.  Opportunity and access to resources play a huge role in developing chronic homelessness in today’s society.  If everyone was given the same opportunities or afforded equal resources, then and only then could we blame someone’s economic state off of their actions alone.  Until then we need to start critically analyzing what structures are in place in today’s society that cause individuals to fall below a defined poverty line, and in turn become homeless.  I encourage you to ask these questions the next time you sign on to your computer to read my blog.  Try working without a computer for a week and see how messed up your life becomes.

Cheers & Happy Browsing

Bryan

Millionair Club Charity: Job Placement Services

http://www.millionairclub.org/index.html

The majority of my time at the Millionair Club Charity was focused on understanding their job placement programs.  To give you a brief background, the Millionair Club provides a work referral service for all of its clients.  Employers which include homeowners, investment property owners, and businesses around the Seattle metro area contact the club with jobs that need to be filled 3 days prior to the actual date of hire.  The Millionair Club then compiles the jobs into a database system and doles them out to members based off of skill set, specific requests by the employers, and through a seniority rotation process. 

Jobs are generally awarded to members in the morning between 6-8am and in the afternoon from 12-2pm.  Clients are welcomed to a hot meal for breakfast and lunch before they are hired for the day.  On average, members are hired between 2 and 4 days a week depending on the season.  In the summer, more jobs are available especially since the homeowner employers increase projects during this time.  When demand is high, the Millionair Club has placed up to 120 jobs in one day during the summer months. 

In order to qualify for jobs through the Millionair Club, clients must become an official member of the club. Unlike their food services program, which is opened to the public, the job placement program is for members only.  All club members go through an extensive screening process before given their official Millionair Club Member Card.  This is to ensure employers that they will be hiring employees who have had background checks and are prepared to work both physically and mentally. 

The Millionair Club advocates strong relationship building between the employer and their employee.  Employers are required/suggested to hire their workers for a minimum of 4 hours and pay above the minimum wage salary in Seattle which is at roughly $9.00/hour.  Many times, employers are so thrilled with the work ethic of the Millionair Club members that they often pay way above the suggested $9.00/hour.  Most club members are fed on the job by their employers and are also given bus passes, called taxis, or picked up by their employers on the day they are hired.  Members are encouraged to build strong relationships with their one-time employers in order to create opportunity for them to work for that organization again or be hired part-time!

The creation of employment opportunities is at the root of the Millionair Club’s mission.  Instead of solely providing a hot meal and a shelter at night for its clients, this organization works to improve the lives of those struck with homelessness.  Many times it takes a middle man to provide opportunities to a population that otherwise would not have access to such opportunity.  If you are a Seattle resident or know someone who lives in the metro area of Seattle, please take the time to look at the programs that the Millionair Club provides.  Hire a worker for a day, go down and join the clients during one of their meals, or act as a reference for someone else who needs some day labor.  Not only will you gain services from this organization, but you will provide someone with a day of honest work and more importantly will meet a great member of the community of Seattle!

You can request a job hire at the following link!
http://www.millionairclub.org/hire_form.html

Cheers,
Bryan

 

“Would you like to try a piece of my..."

Entrance to Pike Market Center!

Pike Market is a must see when visiting the city of Seattle.  It is composed of a long strip of stands that range from organically grown produce to beautiful floral arrangements that mark up at around $5.00 per bouquet!  My first impression of the market was a bit overwhelming.  As you enter, an instant explosion of senses erupts and creates an almost mind-altering experience. You pass street performers playing a banjo and a swamp, string drum and your nose fills with the music of fresh-cut flowers and crisp fruits and veges! I walked up and down the market getting lost in everything that was happening around me until I found the new love of my life. 

She had an slender body with some curves and a magnificent glow about her.  With a soft body and enhancing aroma, it was difficult for me to turn down her constant enticing advances.  As I approached her, my breathe was taken away and I could barely formulate words to say Hello.  It has been a while since I have fallen in love at first glance, but she made my veins pulse and my heart beat faster.  I had never tried her kind before, which added to the nerves, but I knew that I had to make a move or else.  I dove in, her sweet skin brushed mine and our mouths locked.  Another explosion of sensory overload occurred and I was lost in the moment.  The market had disappeard and it was only us, in this warm embrace.  As soon as it had started it was over and I had to run to my next meeting at University of Washington.  I promised her I would be back for her before I left Seattle, and today I will go back and embrace her once again. 

 

Wednesday, Spetember 8, 2010: The Day I Fell in Love With Golden Nectarines!

Best Freaking Organically Grown Fruits and Veges!

The Famous Fish Tossers

Pepper Trees

Giant Alaskan King Crab Legs....YUMMY :)

Close-Up of One of the Beautiful Bouquets

 

Cheers, 

Bryan      

Millionair Club Charity: Food Service

Mission: To encourage self-sufficiency through jobs and assistance to those that want to help themselves.

http://www.millionairclub.org/flash_videos/vids2.html 

Today I felt instantly welcomed into the Millionair Club family when I arrived at 6am to report for food service duty.  This incredible organization is constantly moving, starting with their breakfast service to over 150 people each morning.  I was put right to work prepping all of the home made dishes Terry, the kitchen manager, had prepared for that morning.  Unlike many food service organizations for the homeless, Millionair Club prepares all of its meals fresh every day in house.  The club has excellent facilities including an entire basement warehouse, which food banks and other organizations are envious of. They receive all there food through donations and spend a minimal amount of money on purchased food each month because of all the donations they receive.  

Terry has been working as the kitchen manager for the past 15 years.  His attention to the needs of those he is serving comes through in the flavors of his cooking and you can taste the passion in every meal.  The rest of the kitchen staff love to joke with one another and are some of the most hard-working people I have encountered.  

Many of us when thinking about homeless services automatically turn to food service and soup kitchens.  The need for these services is apparent and helps in providing meals to those who cannot afford to make or buy their own.  Millionair Club looks at meals a little differently.  The main focus of their organization is to provide members with daily job opportunities that help individuals build up enough self-sufficiency to become employed in a full-time position.  Each meal that the Millionair Club creates ensures a proper amount of nutrients, high protein, and a healthy balance of fruit and vegetables for its client’s diets.  They do this to prepare their clients to work at their best when sent out on jobs for the day.

The Millionair Club has an open door policy when it comes to meal service and anyone is allowed through the doors to get a hot meal for breakfast or lunch.  The population served through this program ranges from the chronic homeless to the recently unemployed and on average they serve between 150 – 300 people for each meal.  On holidays, they sometimes serve over 600 people for one sitting! 

I encourage those of you who have the time to check out your local food service agencies.  Call them up and check to see how they serve meals.  Do they have an open door policy?  If so, are you allowed to come down for a meal and sit with clients?  These are the questions we should all start asking ourselves in order to get involved in our communities.  Start asking those questions people.  Opportunities are only out there for the people who seek them.  Be that person, make that contact, experience community!

Cheers,
Bryan