Interview to be completed on Wednesday 2/25

** Will be in Portland on Wednesday for class - will procure interview/views and post after Service Learning at Logan's Place.  Unable to reconfigure schedule to be on Gorham on Monday; looking forward to reading posts and hearing about it.


This is a verbatim transcription of the interview from a  digital recording, so please understand it is a bit choppy.

2/25/15 

I interviewed a seasoned staff member at Logan Place, who previously worked at Preble Street.  Logan Place is a supportive housing facility for chronically homeless people. After a few minutes of explanation regarding the purpose of the interview request and clarification of the two questions being asked, she was enthusiastic to share with me her ideas.

What Works? What Doesn’t Work?

We’re providing housing for people who have been chronically homeless, so our community members experience mental health problems, they experience, um, addiction issues, there’s a lot of alcoholism, um there are people who have had a lot of struggles, a lot of broken relationships in their lives. 

So, what works? Um, number one, each person has their own apartment, so, um, I think that’s essential.  I think that people in the space have way too many personal issues to  grapple with to be able to share a space easily with someone else, so having an independent apartment is very helpful.

Number two, it’s very helpful for people to have the support of staff.  We learned that early on that without some sense of; we can establish boundaries in their lives that are more complicated for people to establish for themselves.

Here’s a good example: Most of the people living here have tried to live in other apartments and have failed over and over again because they can’t figure out how to follow the basic rules of tenancy. One basic rule is you can’t have permanent guests who aren’t on the lease. When you have been homeless for a long time, you can end up with indebtedness to the people who you shared the outdoors with. You can end up with a sense of guilt that you have a safe and warm place to be and you have an understanding of how hard it is to be out in the cold.  So you have the sense that you want to pay friends back by providing them or sharing with them the safe space that you have.  So it’s very difficult for the people to set a boundary that says, “No I can’t have you staying with me”, but to have staff at the front door saying, “Who are you? Are you being invited as a guest of one of our tenants, and do you know the rules saying that you can’t have more than five overnights in a month. The rule is you have to stay with your guest so that you’re not just wandering around our building, sleeping in the nooks and crannies and making other people fell really unsafe, right, this is a very safe building”. So, so the supported living is helpful in that the social work staff that keep people, um, that help people set strong boundaries to the outside world is really, really helpful.

Um, it’s very helpful to have Avesta managing the building and to have a strong relationship with the housing company, if you will, that really don’t have a social work understanding of the people that we know that do have good hearts and want good housing to happen for people.

They are the people who own the building, they built the building and they manage the building.

It’s with them that the lease is established and they have to write an eviction. So the lease is with Avesta, they pay their rent to Avesta, and Avesta can evict people who don’t follow the rules, so what’s lovely is that we have this beautiful working relationship with Avesta, so that when things, when relationship with a tenant is complex, we can run interference and help, help it, help make it work.

So, for example, you saw in yesterday’s newspaper that there are some number of people on the streets who have, who are sleeping in the shelters who have, that actually have bank accounts.  So when we have a tenant who, mental illness interferes with their capacity to understand the needs for paying rent, um we can help problem solve with that person with mental health problems and with the Avesta housing.  How can we care for this person and have enough time with this person to work the tenant to get to the place where it works. Do you know what I mean? So if Avesta was left to their own devices, they would have evicted some of our tenants a long time ago, but because they have confidence in our skills as social workers, they work with us to help people get to a place of functioning, um, in a way that helps them keep their housing.  Um, does that make sense?

Um, I think it’s, um, another thing that works is having a front desk. Um, and having the front desk staffed twenty-four hours a day, and also having a community room that has a kitchen, and a, um, television and tables and just a gathering space.  But what works about having the staff here twenty-four hours a day is that we have some people that have a hard time sleeping and are lonely, and so they can get up in the middle of the night and go to the front desk and engage in conversation.  Um, and that provides someone an alternative to staying alone, being lonely, or grabbing beer.  You know they can come and engage in conversation and there are often activities happening at the front desk, so there’s a way out of the loneliness, if you will, because the staff that are here, the ten of us, are openly interested and engaged; it’s a skilled group of people.

Um, what else can I tell you that’s good?  I don’t know?  Let’s move over to the things that don’t work as well, that if I could redesign this program, what would I do?  Um, many of our people are food insecure.  They don’t have the skills, um, for shopping and eating or eating healthy foods.  So, um, if I were to create another program, I would recommend that it come with a food program; that there is a way to help people get access to healthy foods for three, three meals a day.  That doesn’t happen here and so, um, I think that people here act in unusual ways because they are malnourished, and we can’t get a handle on that, so that, that’s complicated.

Um, what else would I change?  ____ and I talk about this all the time.

I think that maybe, I would make some apartments, or maybe even have a big shower set up in a common area. Um, we have people that get, um have body lice, we have body lice issues right now with some of our tenants who have a hard time with hygiene because of their mental health problems or because of the brain injuries that they have. Um, and so we don’t have an easy way to help those people with taking showers; it’s not something we do anyway, in anyway, but, um the outside support people are people that come in don’t have an easy way to help people with their hygiene issues and it’s a really common issue. Um, a lack of an understanding of a hygiene, of staying clean, so I would have a big shower in the building.

Um.  Another pro, because we have staff twenty-four hours a day, we can run a one a.m. art class, which we do.  Um, so, so, stepping into the pro side again, staff have created the,  all of the ten people here are not all social workers, per say, so we have some artists, for example, on staff, and that’s how we have an artist environment, especially on the overnight shift and so that has actually inspired some of the, um, tenants to focus their artistic abilities and that’s been a big plus. Ya, art is amazing. Ya.  So Avesta on March 6^th is a, ahh, Art Walk Night.  We will have an opening at the Oak Street Loft which is a building that the Avesta, um, created, um I think it’s mixed housing, um that Avesta has built.  So they have an art gallery there and it’s open to the public for art night, the first night, and ah, and the show is ours. Logan Places’.  We’re very, very excited about that.

What else would I do differently? Um, um, I think what’s good about, another good thing is that we have, um, we’re not only men, or only women, so, we’re integrated that way. That’s very helpful, I think. Um, What other things would I fix?

I think because the homeless population, there are so many that are medically compromised, um I would think about that. I think there needs to be some apartments set aside because people have various health problems. We have a lot of um, people who, we have people who have lost limbs, lots of stuff going on out there. There are not bathtubs in the apartments; they have a shower stall and they will put bars and seats in showers when they’re needed. Um, but I think I would… to be honest, Logan Place is, Avesta is building another Logan Place. Um, and so, in Portland, so that’s something people have, and they’re acknowledging that the homeless population is very medically compromised. And so there is some thinking about how do we, how do we accommodate the medical needs. 

I know that we have, have, it’s sometimes complicated for us, for our community to get the medical help they need because they are… when an alcoholic needs to go to a nursing home, they don’t have dementia, they still are actively drinking, that’s very complicated. Nursing homes don’t want our guys, um, because they’re afraid. Um, so that’s a big problem.  We have to think about, “do we become a nursing home setting for some of these guys, or what?”. Ahhh, but we don’t have… obviously; we don’t have the staff to provide the level of care people need.  Typically, we have two people per shift working, so, so if we could re-do Logan Place, I would redo it with spaces and provide space for support staff to meet the needs of these tenants.  For example, we have a guy that… um we can’t meet those needs, because you can’t live independently…. And that doesn’t mean a nursing at this point, but if there’s enough in-home support, then that’s fine… so I’m all about that. But it would be helpful, as the medical issues are more complicated, to have to have maybe bigger rooms, or just, or just a closer collaboration with the medical world so that we can uh.. Recognize the medical stuff that’s going on for people. Advocate for them.

What else… I didn’t give you many things that I think we’d need…

In the winter folks are bottled up when the weather is very cold or stormy; a greenhouse type area would be a great idea. Most people I know, I mean in this horrible winter we’re having are pretty depressed, so – and there’s a number of people here who are prone to depression and seasonal disorders anyway, so it would be wonderful to have a greenhouse area.  We have a small garden, where success comes and goes with the level of time and energy the staff can put into it as well as tenants, so different tenants have interest or not, um in creating a garden, but um, a greenhouse is a great idea; a greenhouse is a great idea.

I guess that’s all I have right now… I mean, ask me again in an hour…

END OF TRANSCRIPTION

Here are some links I found that were of interest regarding Logan Place and the chronically homeless population.

http://www.preblestreet.org/logan_place.php

http://www.avestahousing.org/property-development/landmark-projects/logan-place

http://bangordailynews.com/2014/02/24/news/portland/portland-council-votes-to-set-aside-50000-to-convince-a-developer-to-build-apartments-for-homeless/

As I spend time at Logan Place for service learning for another class, I see this food insecurity with people.  It makes me very sad.  I see tenants meandering in and out of the common area, looking towards the kitchen.  When myself and another student made popcorn one night, I saw how people came in and looked to see what was going on and then declined the offer of popcorn.  The staff say how tenants really love when volunteers make meals.

I am a bit stressed over this myself, because I am there to make connections with tenants and learn from them, and desire to make huge meals to serve them, but my budget does not  allow for me to spend money in this manner.  I find myself spending more time wrestling with how to do that than how to make connections with tenants at times.  I make a point now to eat before I get there instead of bringing my evening meal there to eat.  It distresses me, so I can imagine how much more so that it does to social work and support staff that work there.

Even if there was a way for a facility such as this to provide at least one nutritious meal per day for tenants that desired it, would be a huge thing for this community.

I made a connection with a male tenant who invited me to his apartment to show me his celebrity signed photograph collection.  I was in awe of the one he had amassed!!  As I expressed interest, he continued to pull out more to show me.  As I was there, I noticed that his bed was covered with stuff, like stuff constantly stored there.  Underneath the high bed frame, I was a large pillow or cushion and a blanket that were looking rather in dire need of cleaning.  This is where I presume he sleeps.  I guess because of his past experience, this might be where he feels most safe to sleep?  I'm not sure.  But the floor was pretty covered with "road gravel" that had been carried in from footwear from the outside; it really needed sweeping.  Maybe that's how he liked it?  Maybe he hasn't managed to figure out how to keep this problem taken care of?  Regardless of this, I consciously overlooked those things as well as the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke and focused on the time that he was sharing his awesome collection with me.  I felt honored that he trusted me enough to invite me to his home and show it to me.

Observations: 

Over break 2/16 – 2/20 on facebook feed

Noticed how people were posting lots of stuff about the weather and how it was adversely affecting their lives; specifically the struggles many older people and single women were having a difficult time managing to do what was necessary to take care of the snow and the problems brought on by it at their homes (frozen pipes, leaking places because of ice jams, clogged areas because of no place to put snow or snow banks so high they can’t throw snow over there any more)

2/25/15 At Logan House, conducting staff interview

Noticed the downcast spirit of the staff member as she described tenants being food insecure and malnourished and how her countenance changed as she expressed that if she could change things so that Logan Place could supply daily meals for tenants, she thought some of the undesirable behaviors of tenants might change.

"New Pair of Glasses"

Quote from the book Beginner's guide to community-based arts (Knight, Schwarzman, 2006)
“ …you will need a new pair of conceptual “glasses” to see the world a bit differently.”

Already I understand the need to be looking at the world differently during learning process of this course, and beyond.  Seeking to hear different people’s stories and learning from them is a process that brings people closer together based on the nature of the process.  
The story of the artist Lily Yeh (Knight, Schwarzman 2006) reminded me of a community service project that I had the pleasure of being part of in 2010.  The way that youth and other community members joined her in her vision to create something new from a vacant city lot really resonated with me.

 I had the pleasure of experiencing the process of watching people come together for a community service project at a men’s shelter in Skowhegan Maine.  It was one of the hottest days of summer when a group of 
12 high school students and adult youth group leaders were invited to create a garden at a men’s homeless shelter that was under construction.  When we arrived, there was a bulldozed space and piles of loam.  The project looked so big that I could only see us being able to achieve simply moving the soil and getting the grass seed planted.  The group began grading the loam over the bulldozed area with hand tools and wheelbarrows.  

Every now and then, some of the men who lived at the church, which was the temporary shelter, would come out and see what was going on and ask why we were so happy about working in the sweltering heat.  One of the youth leaders told him we were doing this for him.  His face suddenly got really serious and he finished his cigarette and went back inside the air-conditioned building.

The organizer of the shelter project spoke about wanting a rock wall and a fire pit.  There was a huge pile of rocks and nothing for constructing a fire pit on site.  Having previously worked at a job where I did inventory control and purchasing, I asked if I could contact businesses in the community for donated materials and plants.

There was a large piece of cement drainpipe that was to be moved from the area we were working in.  One of the teens came up with the idea to use it like a focal point in the garden by doing a mosaic design on it with tile and include the initials of the church.  The organizer agreed to the project and moved the pipe where he wanted it.  I included asking for colorful floor or wall tiles in my quest for donated materials.

Each day as we worked, we ate the noon and evening meals with the tenants of the shelter.  A common question kept being asked of the teens.  Why were they doing this?  It was summer; why would they choose to work for no pay in the sweltering heat, working from the early morning, through five o’clock?  The question was usually answered the same, that they were doing it to serve the people at the homeless shelter.  

The men who lived there went about their daily routines, but began to interact with our work group.  Towards the end of the week, 4 of the able bodied men were working alongside our group.  One young man began a walkway through the garden area and made a cross in the stone design.  He was very enthusiastic when he began and you could see the sense of satisfaction when he completed it.  

Today the garden is a beautiful spot for the tenants of both the new men’s shelter as a family shelter and our group and the tenants who helped build it have a strong sense of community because of working together on this project.  I still hear the teens who were involved mention it and occasionally one will make the trek to Skowhegan to visit and see how the garden is doing.

Knight,  K., Schwarzman, M. (2006). Beginner's guide to community-based arts. New Village Press.

p.s. I just reposted this to my blog - I had posted it in error to my google page....  still learning the ropes here!

Post for week of 2/4/15