The Impact of Photojournalism to Homelessness

    One of the most challenging points in life to overcome is being homeless. Homelessness is a long run global pandemic. According to the United Nations-Habitat, “Globally, 1.6 billion people worldwide living in inadequate housing conditions, with about 15 million forcefully evicted every year, which has noted an alarming rise in homelessness in the last 10 years. Young people are the age group with the highest risk of becoming homeless.” Life is full unexpected outcomes, life happens. This problem could happen to anyone at any time. It is an increasing concern for social and public health agency. It might be hard to believe but even the richest country in the world is being congested with many people begging for money in the streets. This was an opposition to my expectation before I moved here in the US last 2017. I thought I wouldn’t encounter the same problem I was facing in my third world country- Philippines. But I was surprised when I was walking on the main street of Northampton, Massachusetts, I saw a lot of people asking for help. According to the, State of Homelessness-2021, Smiljanic Stasha found that in 2020, the statistics of homeless people in the US is estimated approximately 552,830. Which is a massive number for the first world country. Homelessness is a serious conflict in humanity. Many people become very physically and mentally ill, violent, develop behavioral problems, increase in substance abuse, and etc. People living under poverty or lower class is at higher risk of this problem in the society. 

     

     The image below is a homeless man in the Philippines taken by my friend who has a passion in photography.

Photo by: Michael Jan Leornas

 

     I believe that photojournalism has a significant impact in the issue of homelessness. I've been interested documenting and exploring the causes of this issue. Fortunately, with the help of this project I was able to interview someone who has been homeless for few years and seek out some subjective evidence to support my hypothesis about this issue. For this project I went back to Northampton, MA which is the first place I noticed to have plenty of homeless people. When I parked my car, I immediately saw the person sitting outside the church who I was able to made conversation eventually. Robert Waden, an African American, is originally a resident of Hartford, CT. Who became homeless subsequently after he lost his apartment in Amherst, MA. He lives from shelter to shelter with inadequate resources. He said without hesitation that drugs became his serious habit before he ended up losing everything. On top of that, with the consequence of substance abuse, he became disabled, who is now evidently using cane to walk and unable to get a job. He also added that he doesn't feel safe around the street because of other homeless people who has the same interest with him e.g. food and could become hostile over it. Additionally, he thought people who aren't homeless view homeless people as worthless and lazy for begging for money. But that is not the case all the time, the world is just unfair and there are not a lot of opportunities for homeless people. Additionally, the government is not helping that much as what we expect. At the end of our conversation he made few interesting closure statement. He described homeless in three (3) words: positive, hope, pray. He advice people who are abusing drugs to stop immediately before it's too late because it will apparently destroy life.  

     

    Photojournalism has a discipline that allows the people to share their story. Making the world to have equal opportunity for everyone to express their feelings. With the use of this field, I am able to maximize my perception about the homelessness and conquered my fear to face the these people.

Photo captured by Luigi Zebrowski was taken on the 10th of March 2021. Robert Waden, 60 years old, was a resident of Hartford CT and ended up in the Main Street of Northampton, MA for being homeless.