Invisible Homeless

Homelessness is Invisible. Voices ignored, existences criminal and abnormal, homeless people are seen as a violation of regulations to the general public, and a social problem that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. But why are they invisible?

In this picture, the contrast between each customer in the restaurant, and the homeless man sleeping at the storefront exemplifies the dynamics of urban life in Hong Kong.

On the right side, a gentleman, with a bottle of water, seems to be very tired after a day of work. He could not afford to buy any food from the restaurant. Another man next to him just finished his meal, and he is browsing on his smartphone. The two men have been there for more than an hour; they do not show any intention to leave or go home because their home is a tiny cage room and it is extremely hot in the summer; the expensive air-conditioning bill makes staying in an AC-always-on restaurant a more economical alternative.

The couple in the middle are tourists from China. They have their backpacks with travel tags, and they do not have a place to stay at night. Since Hong Kong started to develop tourism and CEPA economic partnership with China, the cash influx and investment stimulated the housing market and economy significantly, and as a trade-off, it became the highest housing cost city in the world. (Demographia, 2017) In my observation, there are a lot of tourists from China like them sleeping in a restaurant at night.

On the left side, a father and daughter just finished their quick meal during the break of two evening tutorial classes. The educational culture with a difficult curriculum in Hong Kong forces students to take extra tutorial classes after school to boost their grades. The tutorial classes are expensive, and children have to stay outside until late night.

The sleeping man is unemployed. He has no home. Besides the photographer, no one noticed his existence. He is on his own in this long night, and vulnerable to violence, thefts, street crime, and extreme weather condition. Under the influence of neo-liberalism, people genuinely believe working hard could improve one’s life, in another word, homeless people are commonly categorized as lazy people. This notion is a “site of power” (Wooffitt, 2005) that formed social exclusion to the poor. And so, an unemployed, homeless man with an able body is sinful, typically seen as an example of unworthy poverty, is an outsider to the majority. (Becker, 1963)

Homelessness is invisible because people living in an over-crowded city are very busy and exhausted every day. A routinized non-stop lifestyle worked as a velvet cage that brought people income, but trapped people from reaching out of the window and see who is sleeping out there.(Ritzer, 2008) In a sense, this picture shows how capitalism constructed the ignorance and stereotypes of the public towards the street community and the invisibility of homeless people in the city.

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Reference

Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Macmillan.

Demographia. (2017). 13th Annual Demographia International Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2017 Rating Middle-Income Housing Affordability. Retrieved 01 18, 2018, from http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

Ritzer, G. (2013). An Introduction to McDonaldization. In G. Ritzer, The McDonaldization of society (pp. 1-21). California: SAGE.

Commentary on Rachel Tanur's Works: Alaska Miracles

“Jesus Loves you! May God bless you!” This is not a quote from a pastor or church member. This is a routine closing sentence that I heard from Cynthia, a street sleeper that I got in touch with for a few years. She claimed that she is a Christian, going to church regularly for free food. My first impression was amazed by how religious discourses are common in the homeless community. This could be the outcome of the 'wonderful works' of God! But I am skeptical of the ‘wonderful works.’ In contrast to my previous picture, homelessness is always ‘visible’ in front of a church in the city. People line up a long queue for free food or free drinks. On the other side, the church claimed that they are not just feeding people physically, but mentally and spiritually. Is that true? Marx wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”. (Mckinnon, 2005) I had a chance volunteering with a missionary group for a while. Sometimes, I heard a lot of wishes saying aloud in the prayers. I have never seen a miracle as an event after. But I could see some people genuinely relieved their worries after speaking to god. The power of praying to God or talking to a pastor, in another perspective, could be a form of narrative therapy in counseling psychology, that help people to build up a new form of identity. (Brown & Augusta-Scott, 2007) By confessing his sin in front of God and the pastor, as an agent, he is told to be forgiven, having a new identity and hope in his life. However, most of the time, I could not see this free 'wonderful works' happening. People are not so interested in religion because it is too distant from their immediate suffering. They are lining up solely for food. But it is still common that people would come for free counseling and prayer. Once there was a young man, claimed to be a Christian, and asked for a prayer of his health. Soon after I prayed for him, he asked me to give him some more food. At that moment, I felt for his situation, and I decided to give him another set of free meal. After he left, another person came, asking for prayer, and then some more free food. After volunteering for a few months, I realized that this is a strategy for people to get more food. Claiming to be a Christian, or saying religious discourses is a way for a homeless man to get into Christian group and earn empathy from the in-group members. Discourses serve as an agent for them to access more material, opportunities and caring. A homeless man once told me about his life in a very ‘religious’ way, “I do not have any negative feelings or emotions. I now only have motivations and positive things in my mind”. I was skeptical of his claim, so, I asked him to justify the origin of the positive feelings. He then told me that some Christian from a church was visiting him and talking to him frequently, with free food and prayers. After a certain months getting along with those church members, he was told to be housed, and very soon with the aids of the church. Somehow, the free miracle is happening to him, and he claimed that he forgot all those negative feelings he had before. Is the ‘wonderful works’ truly empowering him? Or it just serves as opium that relief the immediate starvation, and temporarily turn a person’s attention from mental suffering? --- Reference Brown & Augusta-Scott, Narrative Therapy, 2007, p. 36 McKinnon, AM. (2005). 'Reading ‘Opium of the People’: Expression, Protest and the Dialectics of Religion'. Critical Sociology, vol 31, no. 1-2, pp. 15-38.