18 Interviews Down

Hi Blog Readers,
This is an entry of disparate thoughts:

1. First of all, many thanks to everyone who's shared their encouragement and interest in my project. Your praise for the blog and support for the challenges that this summer's work proposes has been enormously appreciated. And if you have ideas, thoughts, etc. please don't hesitate to leave me a comment note.

2. I've now completed 18 interviews with women at TC3. Each story has been so very different and yet, the frustrations with the limits and failures of health care provisions continue to resonate. In addition to the often-mentioned vision and dental care barriers, mental health care needs continue to arise. Not only is there limited access for diagnoses and support but the costs of filling prescriptions often seem to feel insurmountable. I'm going to move into the next stage of the project shortly so stay tuned for details!

3.  For each of these 18 interviews, I've sat at the Tully's coffee shop directly across the street. The staff have been fantastic and most patrons seem to have no idea what's going on- it's just me scribbling furiously to catch every word the woman sitting across from me says. However, earlier this week, there was an older man sitting, drinking his coffee and working on a crossword puzzle, who kept giving me the dirtiest looks. I don't know what it was about- I was sitting with a woman who looked more 'homeless' than some of the others I've interviewed. I do believe the majority of these women would 'pass' and those of us with sustainable incomes would never guess them to be tent city residents. I just smiled back at him, despite his continued glares. Eventually he got up and left, not without shooting me one last glare. I hope my interviewee didn't notice.

Today, though, after completing one particular interview, the interviewee and I chatted a bit about what it's like for her to live in a tent city. She had already shared how she believes her interactions with medical care providers to be different because of her housing and lack of insurance coverage. She then stated that when she had stayed at a Tent City 4 location previously, she had been part of a panel of residents who spoke with community members at a new tent city location. She stated that a woman in the audience of this panel stood up and asked the tent city residents if they would be using the park a few blocks away. One panelist responded, "Well, yes, it's a public park and people in the tent city do like parks."

The audience member then probed further and said, "Well, what are we supposed to do with our children?" My interviewee shared that she had been holding the mic at this point, and had no idea what to say, so she responded, "I'm not really sure what you mean."

The woman, rather than catching onto the idea that her question might have been offensive, just repeated it verbatim. "What are we supposed to do with our children?"

Dumbfounded that someone would speak with such presumption and prejudice, the panelists were all silent. Finally, one non-tent city resident who was also speaking on the panel, vouching for the community's credibility, shared, "Well, some tent city residents have children and have raised children so I assume they'd be happy to meet your kids."

The woman I was interviewing shared this story with grace and with sadness. But not with any hint of anger or frustration or anger. In fact, she admitted that before she ended up in a tent city, she had dismissed homeless people, and probably would have shared some concerns similar to this particular accuser.