Works

Homeless By Choice

(This story was originally written on assignment for J310F Reporting: Words)

Every day they sit, waiting for a couple of coins or a kind word. Every night they wander, looking for a place to rest without the fear of being hassled. Every meal comes with a question mark; every purchase with an asterisk; every moment with an undertone of uncertainty. They are the “drag rats,” the homeless, the ones who are regularly ignored by ordinary citizens and hassled by the police.

 For some of Austin’s homeless, living like this is their choice. It is just a matter of how and why they do it, and I’ve agreed to ask them about their experience.

It’s already pushing 85 degrees when I reach the stretch of Guadalupe between 21^st and 27^th street, better known on campus as “The Drag.” The deceptive coolness of the April morning has burned off, replaced by the all-too-familiar humidity of springtime in Texas. Within a few minutes of walking, I meet Michael.

Michael sits on his backpack with a pair of headphones in his ears, listening to the portable radio at his side. A silver cross hangs from his neck, framed by the American flag on his dirty T-shirt. Formerly a Marine with two tours in Vietnam to his name, he panhandles when he can’t find work as a house painter.

“Usually I get some spot work for a few weeks or something [but since] I’m in between jobs right now I come up here and do what I do,” he says with a hint of melancholy in his voice. “If you’re not skilled and [don’t] have a college degree, you have to be versatile. I’ve accustomed myself in my lifetime to do other work: landscaping, heavy lifting, construction, you know.”

He pauses and takes a sip from a bottle of water. A menagerie of tattoos covers his arms: one a winged heart from his time in combat, another a cross from his post-war life. He says his biggest problem is being out of a job.

“Not being able to find some employment, I think, is the most stressful thing for me. You can’t always find painting work, so [I have to] be versatile. I try to be, at least.”

Unemployment is one of the main reasons for homelessness, not only in Austin but nationwide as well. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, over 70 percent of homeless surveyed identified economic reasons as a contributing factor to their homelessness – 38.9 percent claimed to have insufficient income, while another 31.1 percent cited the loss of their job. James, who has been homeless – ‘houseless,’ as he says – since last April, echoes this sentiment.

“I was tired of living with my grandma,” James says, his blue eyes staring at me ambivalently from behind wireframe glasses. “I started hanging out here in 2007 when I couldn’t find a job. The job I had was a temp job and the work was slowly evaporating so I came out here.”

He holds a sign with a Douglas Adams quote (“Don’t Panic”) above an equation reading “6x9=42” (James explains that this is correct in base-13). His long blond goatee bobs along in time with his words. “I was tired of a normal life. I didn’t want a nine-to-five job the rest of my life. I wanted to be free.”

However, wanting to be free and actually being free are two distinctly different concepts. While free from the conventional trappings of society like jobs, bills or bosses, James and Michael say that other obstacles, like police harassment or finding places to sleep, become major issues.

“I find places to sleep like parking garages or under bridges or abandoned houses,” James says. “I was in an abandoned house for six months until the owner caught us. My two friends and I got arrested and we served about five to ten days apiece. Mainly cops give us shit for sitting on the sidewalk, since it’s illegal. Cop sees me sitting on the sidewalk, he’ll tell me to stand up. If he sees me again, I’ll get a ticket. Whatever, I don’t give a fuck.”

“You gotta find a place where you’ll be left alone,” says Michael. “There are a lot of places in town [where you can] get under something, but there’s a time limit. Get in there when the sun goes down and get out when it comes up, and you’ll sleep the night and you’ll feel pretty good. But sometimes you’ll get a cop up your butt all the time. ‘You can’t sleep here, you gotta move on.’ Do you know how stressful that is? Very stressful, and I’ve had it happen to me.”

Food, on the other hand, seems to be less of an issue.

“If a man can keep a bus pass, he can eat in this town,” Michael says. “This is a kind town: there [are] more charities, more churches, more places to eat. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the services here but they have the Salvation Army and the ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless on 7^th and Neches – ed.), [but] that’s a real high drug and crime area. That’s why a lot of us [drag rats, a pejorative term used to describe homeless people who sit on the Drag], we ain’t going down there.”

James, however, takes a different approach to finding food; instead of relying on the local shelters, he instead relies on the locals themselves.

 “I mostly either get leftovers or make myself some money or I get someone to buy me something to eat,” he says as I buy him a sandwich from Which Wich. The irony of the situation is almost palpable.

James and I part ways after I buy him his sandwich, but it isn’t long before I meet John, a nineteen year old addict from a tiny town in the middle of East Texas called San Augustine. He rips the filters off of his Marlboros before smoking them, his long, greasy brown hair falling in tangles around his shoulders, coming to rest on his dirty black T-shirt.

He begins telling me his story of being kicked out at fifteen and living on his own.

“I was living in a trailer with my mom outside of San Augustine,” he says as he smokes his jury-rigged unfiltered cigarette. “I’d skip class to go get drunk and smoke pot with my friends when I was around thirteen, which eventually led to us getting into the heavier shit later on.”

“My mom found out and kicked me out of our trailer when I was fifteen or sixteen, and I’ve been on my own ever since. I didn’t really have anywhere else to go after bouncing around Waco and Killeen; besides, everyone here in Austin is really helpful with food and shelter most of the time.”

John talks about the drug problem so prevalent in the homeless community. He describes the crack, the heroin, the meth going around the cliques of homeless around Austin. “It’s all there and a lot of us are using,” he says, sounding almost defeated.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Studies categorize about 781 homeless individuals in Austin as suffering from “Chronic Substance Abuse”, which is a third of the 2,362 homeless persons reported by the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development board of the Austin municipal government.

John elaborates on the last time he shot up a meth/heroin speedball at his dealer’s, explaining how he tweaked for five days without even realizing it. I listen, enraptured, when he offers me some sage advice.

“Don’t fuck around with that shit, I’m telling you. Smoke as much pot as you want, drink as much as you want, but don’t try the hard shit. Yeah, it’s fun, but there’s a price to that.”

John, Michael, and James. Each one panhandling the Drag for support, each one living and eating and sleeping day-to-day. No matter what reason, be it unemployment or drug addiction or the pursuit of happiness, each of them sit, day in and day out, hoping and waiting for some way to make their lives a little easier. They may not have a permanent residence, but Guadalupe is their home.

Student Soldiers

This original video details the experiences of and changes faced by former soldiers who are currently students under the GI Bill or by students who are currently enlisted in the armed forces.

Transcript of interview with Payton Mogford, sophomore government major and Army reservist:

Why does one join the reserves? 

I joined the reserves for two reasons primarily. The first was to have experience on my resume, particularly in the armed services as it does appeal to employers. The second was to test the waters, as I might have an interest in becoming an officer post-graduation. Of course, the discounts and tuition assistance are good bonuses!

What does one do in the reserves?

In the reserves, I'm required to attend what they call Battle Drill Assemblies for one weekend a month, which lasts from about 0600 to 1700, as well as an additional 14 days a year not in the BDA schedule. These days are long but very efficient. The opportunity cost of being in the reserves is possibly missing a party or some sleep. The cost is well worth it in the long run.

Are there any misconceptions you feel the public has about the military that you'd like to acknowledge? 

Like any other organization, it's important to keep in mind that generalizing soldiers is not the best way to form one's opinion of the military.

Balcony Behavior in West Campus

Recently, incidences of student harassment have been labeled as "racist" action. Are these assaults based on race or on foolhardy behavior? Larisa Manescu and I interview students living in West Campus to get a better idea of the situation.