Just as human, Just as loved

By Shannon M

You may have seen them around. Whether it be on sidewalks, beside roads, or against the walls of buildings, it’s highly likely that you’ve seen them more than once in our city.

And then you may have looked away. 

But there are thousands of these people, especially in the Bay Area, who suffer from a prevalent issue that only seems to grow worse.

Those people are the unhoused community.

As of last year, more than 6,500 people were reported as unhoused in San Jose alone, according to Tran Nguyen in a San José Spotlight article published on January 6th, 2023. 75% of these people were unsheltered. These rates stem from numerous factors, a notable one being unaffordable housing. Yet, just as widespread as the issue of homelessness is the stigma surrounding those who experience it.

Austin Reagan is a previously unhoused individual who shared his story about how he struggled with drug addiction and remained on the streets for more than three years. His experience shows that homelessness is more than not having a home to return to—it’s losing many commonplace things, from luxuries to necessities, and then being judged for it. One of Reagan’s biggest struggles, for example, was not being able to shower.

Reagan: “I can remember two or three months at a time not being able to find a shower, and that just makes you feel unworthy. And you see people all around you: 'Oh, how are you dirty? How are you not able to take care of yourself?' But just the simple necessities of just not being able to find a bathroom to even go clean yourself up in because everyone just wants to shut you out.”

A common question that may cross your mind is “Why can’t they find a job?” Well, sometimes they can. Reagan recalled how he was able to apply for employment and attend interviews, but a single paycheck can’t cover the cost of housing. And so, not having somewhere to stay and keep his belongings meant that retaining his career was challenging.

Reagan: “But then after being on the street for about a year and a half, I lost identification. I lost the ability to find a job because I was able to go to interviews and look for jobs, but then not having the ability to prove who I was and have documentation of who I was, I was then unable to find jobs.”

It was extremely difficult for Reagan to pick himself back up, both in terms of his situation and his mentality. He did, however, receive support, such as from the Church and the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. He also found CityTeam, one of the numerous shelters and services available for people experiencing homelessness.

CityTeam offered Reagan a year-long program that would support him with not only overcoming drug addiction, but also working toward stable housing and employment. More than that was how they gave him the resources to restore himself.

Reagan: “They helped me find out who I was as a person, helped me gain self-worth. They also helped me really establish an understanding of what it means to be a productive member of society again.”

He described how CityTeam guided him with understanding the Alcoholics Anonymous book, as well as managing emotions, setting healthy boundaries, and establishing self-discipline through tasks like making his bed and helping out in the kitchen. Although he was uncomfortable when first joining the program, CityTeam made him feel welcome and provided as much as they could to help him rebuild his life.

And that’s exactly what CityTeam’s goal is, according to their Director of Creative and Digital Media, Samantha Glenn. Her job is to tell the stories of unhoused individuals to stir emotion and spread awareness about CityTeam’s mission—serving immediate needs and providing lasting solutions. 

Glenn explained that in order to reach that goal, CityTeam has established multiple different services. CityTeam Connect, for example, provides hot meals, showers and hygiene kits; but other factions include residential programs, transitional housing, food delivery in underserved communities, foster youth service and addiction rehabilitation. 

Glenn: “And baked into all of this is CityTeam At Work, which is a key piece in our lasting restoration plan, which is to enable our graduates to have stable housing and a livable wage by the time they graduate so that they’re equipped with the skills needed to actually pursue lasting change and not fall back into patterns that could destroy their lives.”

It was when she was a high schooler herself that Glenn first became involved with helping the unhoused community by volunteering to deliver food. Initially, she didn’t have much of an opinion about people experiencing homelessness, and she did it mainly for the service hours. But the experience was so impactful on her perspective of the world that after college, she came back and decided to use her broadcasting journalism degree to continue that line of work.

Now, it’s more than a career—it’s a passion, and she loves getting to know people and sharing their stories in a world where so many individuals are overlooked. But witnessing and portraying such stories isn’t always easy, especially not in the case of people experiencing homelessness.

Glenn: “I wasn’t prepared, I think, for some of the pain I was going to feel, because it is very intense work. You work toward change and restoration, but you see a lot of pain… I felt overwhelmed because there was so many stories to tell that very quickly, I realized I can’t tell them all.”

What Glenn has learned through her journey as CityTeam’s storyteller is that unhoused individuals are just as human as anyone else. That may seem like an obvious fact, but the unfortunate truth is that they’re often judged or ignored, as if they weren’t there at all.

Reagan: “A lot of people see unhoused people as the armpit of society. It’s something they don’t wanna look at—it’s something they don't want to deal with, but it’s here. They deserve to be told to have a good day still, to have a door open for them, because so often we try to ignore them, but they’re still human beings.”

That’s why in CityTeam, the common term “homeless” is avoided; it’s a label loaded with stigma that often dehumanizes those individuals by defining them by their struggles rather than who they are as people. 

Glenn: “So that’s the reason we say 'people experiencing homelessness,' not 'homeless person.' It’s because the person comes first, so it’s something the person is experiencing at that time. So you do have to see through the context and the lens of that, but I think overcoming any fear begins with fixing it head-on and just rewiring your brain and getting over what people have told you to think and just making your own memories with humans.”

The first step in helping the unhoused community is really to try changing your own perception of them and tackle any preconceived judgment. But beyond that are other efforts that don’t always take money or full involvement; and for CityTeam staff, they’re not limited to what goes on during work hours.

Glenn: “My work certainly doesn’t end—and I would say none of our work does here at CityTeam—after we clock out. It’s just showing love to the person in front of us. I think a big thing is just making eye contact, it’s smiling… We’re all equal when it comes to showing love. Everyone deserves love.”

Kindness and acknowledgement can be in little actions like offering a snack, a bottle of water, a blanket—like Reagan said, anything that can help them get through that day. What’s even better is letting an unhoused individual know about nearby shelters and services like CityTeam that can provide more resources and support like it did for Reagan.

In fact, along with everything listed before, CityTeam’s year-long program equipped Reagan with education and assisted him with recovering the documents necessary for employment. Today, he lives in an apartment with his wife, and he actually works with CityTeam. More specifically, he’s in donor relations, where he meets donors, volunteers and church partners to further communicate CityTeam’s mission and show them how they’re contributing to their community. 

Being someone who had experienced homelessness and the pain that comes with it, Reagan’s able to truly empathize and connect with the people he’s helping. And now being out of that situation, he’s gained a new appreciation for all the parts of life that he and most of us take for granted. 

Reagan: “I’m able to sit back and be overly grateful for just the simple aspects of life now… I have to really put forth the effort everyday to be better and also not ignore homelessness. And that’s why I chose to work with CityTeam; it’s because I’m able to give back. Also, I know what it’s like to be there and I can actually say 'I know what you’re going through' because I’ve lived that experience. I know what it’s like and I know I’m able to provide that hope still to people once they’ve lost it.”

Homelessness is more than a state, and the people experiencing it are more than just scraggy wanderers of the city. They’re humans. And turning away won’t mitigate their suffering nor the prevalence of the overall issue. All it takes is to show a bit of compassion to restore someone’s hope, and that in itself is an effort towards bettering our community.

For the Warrior Times, this is Shannon Ma.