1. Simmons 1
Gianna Simmons
ENGWRT 0610
The Problem with Homelessness
I had seen him every day since I started attending Pitt. He was always in the
same spot on the corner of Forbes Avenue and Atwood Street, leaning against the
Forbes Rite Aid and a faded gray metal structure. I usually walked past him, felt
sorry, and avoided eye contact. Today, though, I
was going to talk to him.
I approached apprehensively, unsure of
what to say. “Hi, are you Rich?” I asked, trying to
seem as normal as possible.
“Yes, I am,” he replied.
“I was wondering if I could interview you and write a story about you for one
of my classes?” I held my breath, hoping that he would say yes, because my other
options had been exhausted at this point.
“Yes! Of course,” he said with a smile, showing the lack of teeth he had in the
top front of his mouth.
I offered to take him to McDonalds or Subway and get him some lunch so we
could sit and talk for a while where it was warm. It was a frigid day in February and
I thought that the warmth could benefit both of us. I wasn’t sure how else I could do
the interview; it wasn’t like he had an office and there’s something about inviting a
homeless man to my dorm room that made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
He politely declined. “If I leave the spot, I lose money” he explained, “but
you’re welcome to sit here and talk for a while.” He gestured toward the end of his

2. Simmons 2
green blanket. I looked at the spot that was just large enough for me, decided that I
didn’t really have a choice, and took a seat. “People are going to see me,” I thought.
“They’re going to wonder what the hell I’m doing hanging out with this guy.
“Thanks,” I said with a smile as I took out my notebook and forced my knees
to bend into a position so my thighs could act as a table. My legs were already cold
and the thought of staying out here for an hour or more was not pleasant.
His name is Richard Jones. He’s been homeless for around 20 years, since he
lost his job as a pharmaceutical and medical supplies salesman. He came to
Pittsburgh in 1976 from his hometown of Atlantic City, New Jersey.1
Rich has a beard that is almost completely gray, except for a portion on his
upper lip that is a reddish-blonde color. His
graying eyebrows can be seen only a little bit
from under his hat, above his somewhat
sunken blue eyes. When he smiles, he has no
teeth in the front. His skin is wrinkled and
somewhat discolored, due to the elements he
has faced over the years. On his hands, he wears either thick black gloves or thick
yellow mittens, removing one occasionally, only to smoke a cigarette.
He has his sleeping bag wrapped between him and the ground and a green
blanket pulled up to his chest. He wears a black jacket over a thick brown coat,
zipped to his chin. He wears a black hat and keeps the hood on the brown coat up.
There is no denying that he is homeless.
1 See question 1.

3. Simmons 3
I asked him questions and he volunteered a lot of information, especially
about what he had learned since becoming homeless. He spoke softly at first, but as
our conversation continued, he got louder, smiled more, and I think got more
comfortable with me being there. I hadn’t thought that, at first, I could have made
him almost as uncomfortable as he made me.
I took notes on what he was saying, but took advantage of the pauses that he
gave me in my writing to look around at the faces of people passing by. Most didn’t
look at me at all or looked away when they noticed I was looking at them. Others
met my eyes, occasionally raising their eyebrows in that way that says, “What are
you doing?” Those eyebrows made me look back at my paper and wonder the same
thing myself.
Here I was, hanging out, sitting on the end of this guy’s blanket. Of course it
was strange. The problem is, most people see homeless people and assume that
they’re just lazy, druggies, alcoholics, or crazy, but the truth is, they’re just people.
The more I talked to Rich, the more I realized how true this was and wondered why
more people couldn’t find the time to find out their stories.
I understand that a lot of people don’t have time to spend with a homeless
person and that there’s something about it that makes people uncomfortable. I was
uncomfortable at first, especially since I was sitting with him outside on the corner
of Forbes and Atwood, one of the busiest intersections in Oakland. According to an
article from Boston University’s Community Service Center’s First-Year Student
Outreach Project, most people who pass by homeless people stereotype that person

4. Simmons 4
as being mentally ill or suffering from addiction. “These negative attitudes are
unjustly made generalizations that contribute to a cycle of stigmatization.”2
What people don’t understand is that some people do choose remain
homeless, though becoming homeless may have been out of their control. Rich is
one of these people. He explained that after he lost his
job, he got a DUI, which prevented him from driving.
Since he couldn’t drive, he couldn’t get another job so
he just said, “hell with it, I’ll just go out on the street
and live.”3 He doesn’t seek help from shelters or soup
kitchens because “they’re all nuts” and he prefers to
live and survive on his own.4
Rich explained to me how being homeless is actually a full time job and that he plans
to retire this spring and hopes to head back to Atlantic City. While you probably
can’t fathom homelessness as being a full time job, especially one that you could
retire from, I can see where he’s coming from now. He sits on the corner of Atwood
and Forbes everyday from eight in the morning until two or three in the afternoon.
After that, he heads over to Shadyside, gets a cup of coffee at Wendy’s, and
panhandles over there until evening before heading to one of his storage units
where he sleeps at night.
“You gotta make money to survive,” he noted.5 So how is this any different
from any other “real” job?
2 http://fysophomelessnessandhousing.wordpress.com/the-stigmas-of-
homelessness/
3 See question 6.
4 See question 11.

5. Simmons 5
During three separate days, I spent roughly three and a half hours sitting at
the end of his blanket and each time I had never been more excited to be able to get
back to my dorm where it was warm, people weren’t constantly walking around me
and staring at me, and where I had a comfortable chair and bed. I came to enjoy the
time I was spending with Rich and part of me wanted to stay longer, but physically, I
couldn’t more than an hour at a time. The ink in my pen froze, my legs got so stiff
that it was difficult to walk, and my nose ran constantly from the cold. The one-day
it was actually warm enough to write comfortably, the snow was melting off of Rite
Aid and I was constantly being dripped on and chunks of snow and ice fell on me. My
notebook got soaked and my pages turned into a sea of purple scribbles. Would I
want to be out there everyday in hopes just to make a few dollars? Absolutely not.
I was one of the people who walked by with my head down to avoid eye
contact at all cost. I always felt bad about it, but I didn’t know what else to do. While
I was with Rich, some people stopped, but not many. Those who did stop didn’t
acknowledge me at all. A few handed him money in passing, hardly breaking stride
as he took it. There were a couple who seemed to know him and asked him how he
was doing and offered him a couple dollars or a cigarette before continuing on their
way. A policewoman stopped and gave him a hot chocolate and a bag full of things
like gloves and tissues; she told him that while she usually patrolled the North
Shore, if she was ever in the area, she’d stop by. A group of students stopped and
gave him a box with two donuts, one of which he gave to me. Like me though, most
people just walked by with their heads down, avoiding eye contact with both of us.
5 See question 8.

6. Simmons 6
“Most people don’t know what to give homeless people because they don’t
know what it’s like,” Rich tells me. “I can’t eat a lot of food at one time, they don’t
understand that.”6 Growing up, my mom always told me not to give homeless people
money because it’s not certain what they’ll use it for. She told me if I wanted to help
someone out, to give them food. Apparently, a lot of people have that philosophy and
I think it comes with the stereotype that all homeless people are alcoholics or drug
addicts. You could give them five dollars and that will go toward their next fix rather
than something useful. Rich understands these cultural reasons behind why he
receives what he does though and accepts everything graciously with a “thank you,
God bless you.”7
“I get mostly food because people either don’t understand that it’s not what I
need or they don’t want to give me money
because they don’t know what I’ll use it for.”8
Rich explains. “What I need, I need money
and tobacco.”9 He admits that prior to
becoming homeless, he had some of the same
concerns and mixed feelings about homeless people he passed on the street. Like
many people he didn’t understand them—how or why they were living on the
street. If I would have asked him then, he said that he never thought he would be
6 See question 3.
7 See question 3.
8 See question 21.
9 See question 3.

7. Simmons 7
homeless. “I had a college degree and a job. I’m not an alcoholic, so no, I never
thought I’d be out here.”10
I know most people that I come across in college have this idea that once they
have that degree, everything will be smooth sailing and they’ll be set for life just
because of a piece of paper. It’s not just those who are lazy, drug addicts, mentally ill,
or alcoholics who find themselves in the street, it could be any of us. “Any one of us
could descend into a life of homelessness due to job loss, unforeseen illness or an
unfortunate accident.”11 Of course, there are some pretend to be homeless and those
who are alcoholics and drug addicts and set out to take advantage of other peoples’
kindness; in doing so, objectify real homeless people, like Rich, and continue to add
to the stigma surrounding the homeless.12
Even the government, whether intentionally or unintentionally, has laws that
in a way further support the shaming of homeless people by the public. Rich reveals
that in the street, rights are limited. “People in third world countries have more
rights than homeless people in the United States and that’s the goddamn truth!”13
However, many states are adopting a “Homeless Bill of Rights,” such as Rhode
Island, California, and Oregon. “The language of the bill makes it clear that
discrimination against the homeless population is unacceptable.”14 Pennsylvania is
not yet one of those states. Despite these steps toward improvement, there are cities
that are actually making it harder to be homeless than it already is, such as
10 See question 21.
11 http://www.remnantreport.com/cgi-bin/imcart/read.cgi?article_id=649&sub=24
12 See question 11.
13 See question 10.
14 trcfwpa.org/homeless-bill-of-rights-is-it-enough/

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Philadelphia, by making it more difficult to find places to sleep and eat, which only
further supports the discrimination against those living in the streets.15 Hopefully,
this Bill will circulate to many cities and help to end the shame that homeless peple
often face.
I think a lot of stigma, not just surrounding homeless people, could be
dissolved if only people knew more about one another. If people took the time to
understand why homeless people were homeless and how they got there, it would
do a lot to end the stigma that exists. I think that everyone should take some time to
find out about other people. Even though it was difficult to sit there at first, I’m glad
to have met Rich. In the time I spent with him, I learned a
lot about him and from him, as well as about homeless
culture, which I never would have known otherwise.
Rich has lived in Pittsburgh almost 30 years, yet he
claims he won’t miss it at all when he leaves for Atlantic
City. I asked him what the best moment he had in
Pittsburgh was, if he had to pick one, to which he replied with a smile, “giving this
interview to you.”16
“Come back anytime,”17 Rich said as I stood up. I could feel how stiff my legs
were from sitting there, even though it was a fairly short period of time. I couldn’t
imagine sitting in a position like that all day; I would probably have to crawl
everywhere I went. I brushed myself off and thanked him, telling him how much I
15 huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/is-homeless-crackdown-a-s_n_1607235.html
16 See question 17.
17 See question 18.

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appreciated his time. He removed one of his thick yellow mittens and shook my
hand with a smile. I’m not afraid to go back now. I’m not afraid to sit at the end of his
blanket and have a conversation with him and I don’t care how many people stare at
me. They may think he’s lazy, an alcoholic, or a druggie, but I know that he’s not.
He’s just another person with a story.
Richard Jones, outside of Rite Aid on Forbes and Atwood from 8 AM to 2 or 3
PM everyday, he has no phone or email, met 2/10/14 from 1:30 to 2:30,
2/11/15 from 10:30 to 11:30 and 1:15 to 2, and 3/4/14 from 1:15 to 2.