Surviving The Most Livable City
Eric Dawkins
Crim 410
Media Blog 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7sGCzwxFyc&t=1282s
Surviving the “Most Livable City”
Summary: To begin, the media production that I chose to observe was a documentary about homelessness and crime in Vancouver. A man by the name of Misha Kleider wanted to gain an understanding of just how difficult it was to live on the east side of Vancouver where homelessness and crime was extremely prevalent. To do this, he decided he would leave behind his normal life and become a homeless man himself for 30 days on the streets of Vancouver. The harsh reality he faced during this time was shocking. Before he even began, he was doing a report about the state of the east side of Vancouver after hearing that Vancouver was voted to be one of the most “livable” cities. During his filming, he had a bottle broken over his head and was bleeding. Some of the behaviors and actions of the homeless people he encountered portrayed just how hard it is to survive in this section of Vancouver. During this time, he saw people using drugs, stealing, and assaulting each other. Most of this was just survival behavior to get food or other life necessities.
The drug abuse was also evident in this documentary. The drug scene in Vancouver is notorious for being very open in plain sight, making it easier for junkies and others to purchase drugs. After staying the night with another homeless person, they gave him heroin as a thank you/goodbye gift for staying with them. He also decided to try crack as well, to get a better understanding of what the Vancouver homeless feel like on a day to day basis. In an effort to better his living situation, he had asked people where the closest shelters are. He was able to find one called “The Gathering Place.” Here he was given a shower, clothes as he began his time with just underwear at the beginning of December, and some food. He then found a place to sleep for a few days at another shelter. However, he decided after a few days to sleep on the streets, just like others who had overstayed their time in the shelters were forced to do. He did his best to try to find places that were covered and make the best of the situation. He typically slept in alleys or random abandoned storage structures until it got too gross and he had to find a new spot. In the alleys people would always take from each other or assault each other in order to get things such as food or drugs from people. Eventually, with just five days left, he decided he had had enough and quit. At this point he had looked and began behaving completely different than when he started. He was more on edge and aggressive. He was tired and fed up with the lifestyle he put himself in. This would be in part due to the drugs but mainly the changed mindset on how to survive.
Analysis: This documentary expands on the idea we talked about in class about how the system is unfair to those in poverty. There are very little options for them as far as food sources, they are forced to fight to survive which could very easily put them in trouble with the law. If that happens, as we have already talked about, they would be inevitably tossed into prison and put in even more financial debt due to the inability to have a lawyer, pay bail, or appease other court ordered tasks (Edelman, 2017).
The perspective presented in this production is that homeless people, in this case the ones in Vancouver, are constantly forced to fight to survive with the risk of being arrested and thrown into our criminal justice system always lingering in the back of their mind, when they are not high or drunk, of course. The portion of this film where he was trying to find a place where he could get food reminded me of the one reading that discussed prohibiting food sharing, ultimately limiting the food sources homeless people have even more (National Law Center of Homelessness & Poverty, 2019) . Unfortunately, this film did not propose any ideas for improving the life of homeless people or try to find a solution for reducing the number of homeless people or crime in general.
Personal Reflection: This video really opened my eyes as to how tough it can be to be homeless and exposed me to behaviors I never thought much about when thinking about how homeless people live their lives. One of the most eye-opening things I observed in this film was the fact that he had lived the life of a homeless person for just 25 days and was fed up and quit. That just makes me think about the people that have to live in that manner for essentially what could be the rest of their lives. I also think this video does a great job of showing why people in poverty have trouble getting out of it and finding a job and bettering themselves. I feel this way because it shows how low the part of the city is economically in the first place so that makes it even more difficult to find sources of money or work. Lastly, I would recommend this media source because I believe it accurately portrays how life is lived on the streets as a homeless person. It includes the dangers, difficulties, and obstacles these people face on a daily basis. It could also show people the reasons why people in poverty commit crimes, because they are compelled to in order to survive.
References
Edelman, P. B. (2019). Not a crime to be poor: The criminalization of poverty in America. The New Press.
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. (2019). Housing Not Handcuffs: Ending the Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities.
Eric Dawkins