Friday, January 10, 1997
PUBLIC POLICY:
Students’ stereotypes change as result of experience in
shelterBy Nancy Encarnacion
Daily Bruin Contributor
The heavy metal door opens into a dark room filled with 58 beds
lined up side by side in rows. One or two men manage to sleep
laying on their bare beds, while another sits gazing at the wall,
his hands neatly folded on his lap, as he gently rocks himself to
break the monotony.
These are two of around 60 men who find safety and shelter at
St. Vincent’s Cardinal Manning Center, where for a few moments,
they can escape the reality of homelessness on skid row.
The 50-block area in downtown Los Angeles known as skid row lies
between Third and Seventh Streets (north to south) and Los Angeles
and Alameda Streets (east to west). It is inhabited by
approximately 12,000 people, 2,000 of which are homeless. Despite
this high percentage, there was no major involvement by social
workers in this community until 1994.
Two years ago, Shannon Murray, a graduate of UCLA’s School of
Public Policy and Social Research in the Department of Social
Welfare, became the first UCLA intern to be placed at St. Vincent’s
Cardinal Manning Center. This center is one of the four agencies on
skid row where the Department of Social Welfare sends first-year
Master’s of Social Welfare (MSW) students. The other agencies
include the Wein Gart Center, Para Los Ninos and Inter-City
Law.
Murray’s positive experience with the center during her first
year as a MSW student motivated her to return; she is now on staff
at St. Vincent’s.
"It’s a rewarding experience, but frustrating at times," she
said. Despite such moments of frustration, Murray has been able to
impact St. Vincent’s by creating an additional program at the
center.
In 1996, Murray created the live-in volunteer program, which
consists of 10 men who work at St. Vincent’s in exchange for a
place to sleep. Some of these workers help by checking in other
homeless who need shelter, while others do manual work.
Also, because they provide services for the center, they are not
limited to a 28-day stay, like the participants of the basic
shelter program. Although the live-in volunteers have a different
role at St. Vincent’s than the other residents, they stay in the
same living quarters on the second floor.
The Basic Shelter program provides men with dinner and a place
to sleep for a maximum of 28 days. All men must be in by 6 p.m.,
and if they would like to receive dinner by 4 p.m.
In addition to providing nightly evening meals, St. Vincent’s
tries to give residents as much privacy as possible. Organizers say
that, for example, the small nightstands beside their beds, to
which only the owner has the key, give the men comfort and a sense
of ownership in a place in which everything else is shared.
After the 28-day period, the men must leave but can return in
about a month. Although some might say that this type of help is
simply fostering the homeless situation, Joan Sotiros, executive
director of St. Vincent’s, provides a different view.
"We have the philosophy of care," Sotiros said.
She said she recognizes that some homeless might take advantage
of this program by merely drifting from shelter to shelter, but
said "St. Vincent’s provides help (with) no strings attached."
She added that if the residents want further help or would like
to receive counseling, they simply need to ask for it.
This year, three MSW students are interns at St. Vincent’s,
assisting with counseling services at the center.
Amy Schultz, a first-year MSW student, has several clients who
she said feel comfortable enough to talk to her and open up. Like
Murray, she was assigned to St. Vincent’s as part of her first year
field work. Schultz said she was initially shocked at her
assignment, but that she felt more comfortable in the skid row area
by the end of Fall quarter.
Schultz said she still struggles with the difficulties involved
in social work.
"Sometimes it’s frustrating because (some residents) don’t want
to change," she said.
But rather than dwelling on the negative, Schultz said she
focuses on the rewards of her position.
"If I can reach a small portion of these people, I feel I’m
doing my job," Schultz said.
Another men’s program is the transition group, which currently
consists of eight people. Because it requires a serious commitment
on the part of the participants to want to change their lives, the
center keeps this program small.
Men are admitted into this program based on an application,
which includes a written statement about why they want to be in it,
as well as an interview.
This program is different from the others in that, if accepted,
the men must attend meetings with both volunteer and professional
social workers.
"They have to be willing to look at employment opportunities and
have to want to use the program as a stepping stone," Sotiros
said.
The center’s newest program is led by two St. Vincent’s
employees, who work with four women and five children. These four
women are given shelter, counseling and different classes on
parenting to get them back on their feet and out of the skid row
area, which Sotiros said is an unsafe place to raise a family.
Aside from these four programs, St. Vincent’s provides help on a
walk-in basis to meet the basic needs of the area’s homeless.
People can come in and use the showers, wash their clothes or get a
haircut.
The interns assist in this process by making themselves
available to anyone who requests to speak with a counselor. They
say that this experience has been helpful to not only the homeless
but also to them personally. Norman Luce, a first-year MSW student,
sees this as an important learning experience for himself, one that
has built a foundation for future field work.
"I had no idea so much was going on down here … learning how
to help has been fantastic," he said.
The interns’ experience at St. Vincent’s has also made them
rethink some of their stereotypes about the homeless. Ogonna
Lawrence Obi, a first-year MSW student, said he now has a different
relationship with the homeless than his previous stereotypical
thinking would have allowed.
"I (now) see them on a one on one basis and am able to joke
around with them," Obi said.
Although Schultz, Luce and Obi describe their experiences at St.
Vincent’s as personally enriching, Mike Neely, who organized a tour
of skid row Fall quarter for MSW students, sees the broader impact
that UCLA student interns have made.
"There are new groups and meetings being created, these are
exciting times," Neely said.
He added that the amount of activity going on in skid row is
really surprising to him, since he can remember when there weren’t
any social workers in the skid row area.
Professor Mary Brent Wehrli, who is in charge of organizing the
skid row internship for MSW students, said she sent Murray as an
intern two years ago when she saw that there was a need for
volunteer work in the area.
"Part of what social work is about is working with the most
fragile community," she said.
Wehrli voiced concern over Clinton’s proposed welfare cuts,
which passed in 1996. She fears the cuts could potentially harm
this already "fragile community" in 1997.
Schultz, Luce and Obi will continue working at St. Vincent’s
Cardinal Manning Center until the end of Spring quarter, with the
option to return next year.
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
(l) Jose and (c) Patricio are children who recently arrived at
St. Vincent Cardinal Manning Center, as (r) Amy Schultz a
first-year Master’s of Social Welfare student speaks to
them.GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Amy Schultz talks inside the administration offices of St.
Vincent Cardinal Manning Center.