For the fifteenth consecutive year, a day of radio programing on homelessness and poverty in America will air this Sunday, October 21st, on public and community radio stations across the country. In Santa Barbara, KCSB (FM 91.9) will air the eight-hour long call in show. People listening online or on the radio can participate by calling one the following two numbers:  If you are homeless, formerly homeless or afraid you’re about to be homeless, call 866-LEFTOUT(866-533-8688). If you are housed, and homelessness is not a personal issue, you are invited to call 877-NOBODY8 (877-662-6398).

According to Monica Lopez of KCSB, “We set the stage for the broadcast, but it is homeless people themselves, and those who care about them, who create the show.”

Below is a description of the broadcast from its producers:

What is the Homelessness Marathon?

(A message for homeless people and those who work with them.)

In some ways, the Homelessness Marathon is best defined by what it is not.

We are not do-gooders promoting charity.  Charity will not solve the problem of homelessness in America.  And caring about poverty should not be the exclusive province of people who are “good.”  Poverty is everybody’s problem.

We are not experts promoting our research or ideologues pushing an agenda.  We don’t think you have to be so smart to know that people shouldn’t be sleeping on the streets of America.  And our “agenda” is simply that the hungry should be fed, the sick should be healed, and the homeless should be housed.

We are not speaking to America or for homeless people.  Our mission is to let homeless people speak for themselves and to promote a national dialog on the poverty in our midst.

For our first fourteen years, we went to a different city each year and gathered homeless people at a central site under the auspices of a street newspaper, a day shelter, an overnight shelter, or sometimes under no auspices at all.  And then, for the fourteen hours of our broadcast, we would interview experts on this or that topic pertaining to homelessness, take calls from around the country, and give homeless people a microphone so they could address the nation directly.

This year, we will be doing something different.  This year, our broadcast will run for only eight hours, and it will not originate from a central location.  Each of the first seven hours will be presented by different affiliates in different cities.  The eighth hour of the broadcast will originate from the Homelessness Marathon’s home studio.  For this hour, we invited the major vice-presidential candidates to come on the air, outline their plans for addressing poverty, and take questions from homeless people.  Judge Jim Gray (Libertarian) and Cheri Honkala (Green Party) have accepted.

HOMELESSNESS RADIO MARATHON SCHEDULE – SUN., OCT. 21

Fifteenth Annual Homelessness Marathon Schedule (all times PST)

7:00 – 8:00 a.m. - Dropping the “F” Bombs: “Food” and Foreclosure”
Originating from WEFT, Champaign, IL

8:00 – 9:00 a.m. - The Changing Face of Homelessness
Originating from WMPG, Portland, ME

9:00 – 10:00 a.m.  - Shelters, Stipulations and Freezing to Death
Originating from WFHB, Bloomington, Indiana

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. - Poverty and Public Health
Originating from KUNM, Albuquerque, NM

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - When You Are Forced To Leave Home
Originating from WGDR, Plainfield, Vermont

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. - The Myth of the Cardboard Box.
Originating from WSCA, Portsmouth, NH

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. - Homeless Families in a Homeless Camp Aren’t Exactly Camping
Originating from KBOO, Portland, OR

2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Vice-Presidential Forum
 
Originating from the Homelessness Marathon studio

–Cheri Honkala Green Party VP candidate, and 
–Judge Jim Gray Libertarian VP candidate

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After living through homelessness, a SBCC student will write a survival guide  

Kathryn Lubhan and "partner-in-destiny," Anthony Benedict-Smith

By Ana Mezic

In the fashion of Mary and Joseph, Kathryn and Anthony went knocking on the doors of various local homeless shelters, only to be turned away because their insurance could not cover Lubahn’s lack of vision.

“I remember that day very clearly; I told my first, very intentional lie. I said, ‘I see well enough to get around,’ which I didn’t, but they wouldn’t let me stay at the Rescue Mission if I told the truth,” said Lubahn.

While living at the Rescue Mission, Lubahn witnessed a fellow disabled homeless man named Peter get bludgeoned to death with a tire iron while sleeping on the bench outside. He wasn’t allowed in because of the homeless shelters’ policies that only allow one to stay a maximum of ten days per month.

“You get ten days a month because it’s supposed to encourage you, but Peter was never going to get another job because he could hardly walk. It’s designed for people to die,” Lubahn said.

Lubahn and Benedict-Smith watched another friend, Dorthia, die from a vicious case of pneumonia left untreated and misdiagnosed as a common cold.

“I survived. We survived. They say if you don’t make it back off the streets in six months it’s not likely you will make it back at all,” Lubahn said.

Lubahn does not think she would have survived if not for the training she received from a Cherokee mentor when she was still a wealthy young woman.

“I had a great spiritual teacher that taught me to adapt, to survive before I knew I would need it,” Lubahn said.

She is currently working on a memoir of life on the streets as well as a guide for surviving homelessness. She plans to release the guide for free online so it can be accessed in public libraries, which, she explained, are often the only available sources of information, communication and creativity for the homeless.

Lubahn’s appearance is delicate. Her eyes dart around, noticing but unseeing, and she has to be escorted almost at all times.

“I was really close to death last spring, and we took all the money we could get a hold of for hyperbaric chamber treatments. I needed forty, but we could only afford three at the time. They saved my life,” Lubahn said.

Her hair, still a fiery red, perhaps tracing back to her Celtic ancestry, is the only accurate physical representation of her spirit. Lubahn is a captivating speaker. For two years now, she has placed second in City College’s Emmons poetry contest.

An excerpt from her memoir’s haunting preface reads, “This is a book filled with people who only have first names. They are people I lived with, some died. Most are lost to me.”

This story originally appeared in SBCC’s The Channels newspaper.

Courtney Caswell-peyton

Carefully crafted on blank’s whitest page
Words become phrases imparting cloaked thought
Sequenced meaningfully together, sage
Pages collated on shelves to be bought
Lingering weary projecting success
Back to drawing board, faded by fatigue
Time not for slumber, uninspired rest
To pen in moving hand, writer must cleave
Blank page now yellow–colored by regret
Customary flow ceased by opinion
Perusal yields rejection letter’s beget
Downtrodden poet fears now a minion
Crippled hand still enslaved by honor win
To failure, no stranger–blank’s closest kin.

By Courtney Caswell-peyton

Courtney Caswell-peyton lives on the streets of Santa Barbara. She is a prolific writer and is currently saving up for graduate school.  

by L.E. Hulse

I do my best to concentrate –
then push back the dirty blankets.
Careful at first.
Gently embracing the early morning sun
stretched out in all its radiant beauty
across the deserted beach.

A place blessed with fresh air
and an ever-steady drumbeat of waves,
pounding away some of the stress
for a lot of the scruffy outlaws
trying to sleep.

I’m now a day older
and one more day removed
from a dysfunctional society
and all its lame toys.

So where are all the old-time hobos?
(Those that knew a thing or two
about traveling light) –
did they embrace the new religion,
put on a suit and tie
and move to Wall Street?
And if so, where are they now?

L.E. Hulse is a Santa Barbara local, currently on the streets, and a good man. Some of his other work can be found on this blog as well.

Poetry readings never lack participation or originality in the homeless community of Santa Barbara. Last night in Alameda Park, friends gathered as per usual for meal-sharing, but with the anticipation of words and stories being shared after dinner. Jaimi Garcia organized a night to share our voices with one another in a communal and life-giving atmosphere. Those who read either shared their own work or some of their favorite work, including poems, a politically charged speech, and a few songs. Jim, a frequent volunteer on Thursday nights, shared a poem about his conversion experience and had a poem read about his lovely late wife Laura. Other readers included Jaimi, Andrea, Seann, Martha Santrizos, and myself.

If you find yourself asking why poetry and stories of the homeless community matter – why does Poetry in the Park, or sharing artistic talent on this blog matter – please consider that the voices of the homeless community are often unheard and unappreciated. People’s voices and creative expressions need to be spoken, written, painted, sculpted – and those works of art need to be shared communally. This is part of what makes us human: the ability and the desire to create.

Once again, thank you to Jaimi who organized the event and thank you to the participants who shared their literary inspiration.

Written by Kyli Sessions

Written by Raymond Trower

I spent practically all of 2009 in a shelter recovering from an illness. An illness with no cure, yet the possibility to be controlled. An illness that cost me my job, my car, my home, and everything I owned except for the clothes I wore to the hospital and some odds-and-ends papers. This illness almost cost me my life twice, but this isn’t about my illness. It’s about my experiences at a shelter/day center.

One of my favorite things to do at the day center was to people-watch. I would sit for hours, health permitting, and watch those who walked through the doors. I watched approximately 300 people a day for almost 12 months.

Over time I made a few friends, some became close friends, who I stay in contact with via Facebook, while some were acquaintances as we helped one another pass the time. Then there were those I tried to befriend only to end up asking myself “What the hell was I thinking?” And sadly there were those we lost. It’s hard enough when you lose a friend, but it’s harder yet when you lose that friend for no apparent reason other than they were homeless.

During the course of my “people watching” I noticed there are basically four types of homeless people. (Yes I am categorizing! If you have hate mail to send, please send it to the address found on my personal blog.)

Category 1: Those who actually seek help. These are people who are trying to utilize the day center’s programs to better themselves through education, job programs, or other types of programs. These people are primarily dealing with homelessness for the first time (and hopefully the last time). For most, seeking help from a day center or shelter is their last resort. And there are those who are scared, not knowing where to turn, where to go, or what to do. Over the past few years there have been staggering numbers of women with children, as well as veterans, seeking help for the first time.

Category 2: Shelter hoppers, for lack of a better term. These people know the system and travel from shelter to shelter, city to city, (and in my opinion) abuse the system. I actually met a guy in California during the winter who lived in Canada during the summer. He traveled back and forth throughout the year. I don’t want to give these people any credit or praise; like I said earlier, they are abusing the system and taking away from those who actually want and need help. I will admit that all people have the right to food, clothing, and shelter, but please do not abuse the system for your own personal gain or chosen way of life.

Category 3: The hard-core homeless. These are the people who utilize the services of the day center, but for one reason or the other choose not to stay at a shelter. The reasons vary with the individuals. They prefer life on the streets. Some are in hopes of being housed someday, while others don’t really care one way or the other.

I could go on with my observations but I chose to stop here. There are many sub-categories to those listed above, from panhandlers, to those who abuse drugs, even vendors of one type or another, some may even cross over from one to the other. It’s unfortunate that some in these categories have become the face of homelessness. It is up to each and every one of us to change this perception.

What category was I in? I would have to say that I was in 1 and 3. I am considered chronically homeless and during times of homelessness, I would sleep in my car and stay away from shelters or day centers, spending my time looking for work or working out of day labor. That was my chosen way of life at times. That is, until I became ill and admitted to myself I couldn’t do it alone anymore. That was when entering a day center/shelter saved my life. Now I am proud to say I am on my way to becoming an advocate of sorts.

My name is Ray Trower and I haven’t been homeless since December 2009. There have been close calls, but I have managed to house myself on my own, or like now, with the help of my sister for the last 2 1/2 years.

P.S. I haven’t written anything in a while and am a bit rusty. I welcome any and all critique.

Raymond Trower previously lived in Santa Barbara and has frequently contributed to the Homeless in Santa Barbara Blog. He now lives in Tulsa and is also known as “Street Voice.” His work can be further explored on his own blog: http://streetvoicedigesthome.blogspot.com/2012/08/will-real-homeless-person-please-stand.html?spref=fb

Photo credit: Paul Wellman