The Unheard Voices of People Experiencing Homelessness
By William Hoang
In this week’s podcast Phoning Home, Professor Donig interviews Kevin Adler and Jessica Donig who are the founders of Miracle Messages. The non-profit organization based in San Francisco was created as a reunion service to help the homeless reconnect with their loved ones and form support services. Hearing Kevin’s story on how Miracle Messages originated was very uplifting and impactful. The idea of having Go-Pros equipped by the homeless can provide a real glimpse in their daily lives. This kind of technology allows us to see the hardships and offers a more meaningful insight in the lives they inhabit on a daily basis.
One point made by Kevin and Jessica during the podcast, was the importance of narrative in storytelling and its roles in society. The goal of Miracle Messages was to bring unheard voices and stories to the surface in order to generate awareness to the problem of homelessness. Just as Kevin stated, if we don’t account for the different perspectives in society, then it will change how we perceive the world. By bringing these stories to light, homelessness can be seen as an experience not an identity that people embodied. Ultimately, we can connect on a human level with one another and not view it as a social problem. While social media has its pros and cons, it definitely has reconnected the homeless with their loved ones. For instance, Kevin’s story about a homeless man named Jefferey was able to reconnect with his loved ones with just a video. If not for social media, it will be much difficult to tackle the problem of homelessness on hand.
Even though I never experience homelessness in my life, it is an underlying problem whenever I walk the streets of San Francisco. I would see tents that filled an entire street making it un walkable for some pedestrians. There was no sense of community among the homelessness. No one to guide them or comfort them in a way that will help them. With the ongoing pandemic, I could imagine that it has worsen the conditions of people who are homeless. However, like stated in the podcast, the pandemic has disrupted the lives on many people. Barely surviving on one paycheck has forced people to experience homelessness and isolation. Though COVID-19 has negatively impacted lives, I feel it has bought more attention to the homelessness crisis. We as a society can begin to see that the problem can affect anyone not just those with less privileges. It again points out that homelessness is not an identity but an experience that anyone can go through.
In order to solve the homelessness problem in our society, I believe technology needs to be created in a way that can benefit all different kinds of people. In addition help people connect across the world.