Salvation City: Sign Of The Times

Editor's Note: Why would anyone want to camp out on the corner of Main and Ann Streets in downtown Ann Arbor? The truth is that the 30-35 residents of this tent city would rather be somewhere nicer. And they'd rather not be camping. "Salvation City" occupies a vacant lot which used to be the site of the Salvation Army Thrift Store. The corner lot is now owned by the county and was serving as a park. With 10 camping tents, one large mess tent, and a port-a-john, it is now the location of one of the city's most ambitious and visible protests in recent memory.

Salvation City was organized by the Homeless Union (HU) and the Homeless Action Committee (HAC). With a one-month permit in hand, organizers on April 15 erected a main tent and held a rally which about l00 people attended.

Salvation City's residents range in age from a 17-year-old to a senior citizen. And, according to organizer Sister Charlie Long, about two-thirds are men.

After considering the first two weeks of local media coverage of Salvation City, AGENDA felt that people needed to hear from residents of the tent city - in their own words - what life is like on the street, without a home. The following interviews with Rhonda Sweed, Koran Boze, and Dave Hackstadt are not meant to be representative of all homeless people. They are the stories of three individuals, each with their own unique circumstances, hopes and dreams

Rhonda Sweed, a member of the Homeless Union and the Homeless Action Committee, is one of the organizers of Salvation City. She has been homeless for about a year. A graduate of Beecher High School in Mt. Morris, Mich., Sweed is 30 years old and has four children. She has been a resident of Salvation City since April 15.

AGENDA: Where were you living before Salvation City?

Sweed: I was at the Ann Arbor Shelter on West Huron for about two months. My last stable living situation was in Flint about a year ago. You see, I'm a rehabilitated drug user. I'm self-rehabilitated. I'm a mother of four so I wanted to better my self for my kids and my family. I visited here in '88 and Ann Arbor gave me a chance to be myself in a positive manner. And I like Ann Arbor so I came back to get back that self esteem I once had. I started finding it in the Homeless Union, talking amongst people who were in the same situation I was in. AGENDA: Where are your four children? Sweed: They are with my mother in Flint. I have a 13-, 11-, 10-, and 9-year-old. I was strung out on drugs for three years. I lost my Children due to the fact that I was so strung out, I attempted suicide. I turned over full custody to my mother voluntarily. At first she said she would never take them. But when she saw how severe my problem was, she took them all so they wouldn't be separated. So she kept them to keep us together.

AGENDA: You're -"-rehabilitated. How long have you been clean?

Sweed: I've been clean for a year. (see "SALVATION CITY" page 7)

SALVATION CITY (from page one)

AGENDA: What kind of jobs have you had?

Sweed: My first job here was when I worked at Burger King on Liberty. Then I went to Olga' s, then the Ann Arbor Inn. I got licensed for adult foster care. I did that. I also completed my asbestos training so I am certified with the state of Michigan for asbestos removal. Most recently, I worked at Burger King back on Liberty again. That job paid $4.25 an hour. I worked about 30 hours a week.

AGENDA: During the time you were employed, what was your living situation?

Sweed: I was staying at the shelter, and staying with friends, some college students I know. I'd switch back and forth. I kept my clothes at the day shelter and at the night shelter. And I would leave clothes at my girlfriend's house.

AGENDA: When you were lucky enough to have a job, did you look for a place to live? Did you look in the newspapers?

Sweed: I looked in newspapers and I walked around looking at signs. I looked at housing lists at the Michigan Union. Friends would tell me about apartments opening up. But everything that I went to I couldn't afford. You see, I don' t want to stay anywhere but in Ann Arbor. I don't like Ypsilanti. It's also hard when you have to give 420 [W. Huron, the shelter] as your address. People shy away from you. Even in the employment field. I have found some rooms, but once you get there, you have to be a student. It's frustrating. But eventually something will come through.

AGENDA: Do you get any government subsidies, welfare or anything like that?

Sweed: I get food stamps - $111 a month.

AGENDA: Why are you here in tent city?

Sweed: I'm lucky because I have a lot of friends who say I could come stay with them. But there are a lot of people out here who don't have the ability to speak up for themselves. And there' s a lot people who have quit. And I've been down that road. So I make it a personal endeavor to try to get other people to realize that there are people out here with problems that need housing . And if the sacrifice is for me to be out here to make that statement - you know, it's practice what you preach.

It's also a personal thing for me to try to get everyone here who has given up to get self-motivated, to stand up for some type of cause in the positive - to start saying that "I am in control of my life and I do have a choice."

Also I want the public and the politicians to stop looking at us and stereotyping the homeless as drug addicts, substance abusers, and alcoholics. It's not true. There is a lot of us out here who have just been dealt a bad hand. We are people who have the right and the desire to live as you live. I know it sounds simple.

Another reason I stay: I've been through the substance abuse and the alcohol abuse and I know how hard it is to pick yourself back up. But everybody has got that light on the inside of them that they need to pull out and start shining again. Some people are a little rusty and need a little help, so I tell them, 'deal your own deck. Don't let anyone else come along and tell you how to live your life. You are in control no matter how down you are.'

But people are not the all the same. Everybody gets motivated differently. What did it for me was my daughter. She knew I was strung out on drugs and she knew why she wasn't living with me. She knew I didn't have anywhere to stay and she carne to me and said "Momma, I'll give you my allowance if you just stay home." That was my turning point. But everybody else's turning point is just a little bit different.

That's why I use my personal experiences to relate to everybody. I'm not a politician, I'm your friend. I made a vow that anybody I saw who was in the trouble I was in, I would try to help.

I feel that Salvation City is helping people get in transition. I've seen a lot of people change since they've been here. The people that drink a lot have cut back on drinking. You know, we've been here eight days today. I know for a fact that four out of eight days, the people they call hard core alcoholics haven' t been drinking. Regardless of what the County says, we're seeing people back and motivated and alive, not at the bottom of a bottle, not the kibbles and bits you get at the dope houses, not shooting up. These people are starting to become more concerned with what's going on with themselves and saying "I want my life back."

AGENDA: So for you and other people, is Tent City a way of taking control of your own lives in a way?

Sweed: I use that, but Tent City is a political statement. It's to let the County officials know that people are out here sleeping in the streets while you go home and turn on your lights and your heat. There should be some kind of provisions made for people, not shelters. We don' t need shelters. We need homes. I'm also an associate of Society for Human Economic Development (SHED). SHED is a project we are working on to get people to be self-motivated. The company is more to help people bring themselves up and out of poverty. We're working on a literacy program, elderly programs, teen programs, advocacy services, directing people where to go for counseling, mental health, control rehabilitation. SHED is going to have something for everybody. Like the Homeless Union, we all pool our resources. We exchange what we're doing and our contacts.We are just starting. We got it registered and right now we're working on the structure.

AGENDA: You sound like a busy person.

Sweed: I keep busy to keep straight. I'm also going to criminal law school at Washtenaw Community College in September.

AGENDA: How can you afford that?

Sweed: Through grants and scholarships.

AGENDA: Do you plan to get a job again?

Sweed: Yeah. The more I stay focused on the future and getting my kids back and stay busy, the better it will be for me because idleness is the devil's workshop. I get fulfillment out of seeing people starting out because I've come a long way. I was a street walker. I was one of those sack-chasers going from dope house to dope house. My mother was coming to pick me up on the corners to take me home and give me baths. I lived it so I understand a lot of things about drugs and alcohol.

I saw that it was a bunch of bull and I'm glad that I saw it before anything happened, because I want to do something concerning my life and other people's lives in a positive way before I leave this earth.

AGENDA: Are you an average person in the world of homeless people? What has your experience been? What kind of people have you met?

Sweed: They are not self-motivated and they've quit and they've given up. They're just sitting up waiting to die. That's what I see. I've heard a lot of them talk about suicide. They have a lot of animosity and hostility built up because life has dealt them such a bad hand and they don' t realize that they do have control to start doing for themselves.

I've heard them say "How can I work. I don't have a place to live." They don't realize that once you start working toward something positive, positive things happen. The type of people I've met varies. There's other people like me, that have different places to stay, but I've always been one of those to have my own. I've lost houses, apartments. I have lost literally everything, even my life. I wasn't even myself. My mother didn't even know who I was because I was out there so bad with drugs. I feel that if I can do it from as far as I have come then everyone should be able to do it.

AGENDA: What do you think holds people back?

Sweed: Themselves. It is not society. It is not politicians. People want to blame the problem on someone else instead of looking within themselves and saying, "wait a minute, there might be a problem with me." They would rather blame it on someone else because that is the easy way out.

AGENDA: If you could get face-to-face with some average Ann Arbor people, what would you tell them?

Sweed: The same thing I tell them every day. There is a problem out here that needs to be addressed. People want to put their hands over their heart and pledge allegiance to the flag saying "in god we trust," and "liberty and justice for all," and it's just a bunch of malarchy. If you're going to say "I'm a Christian," well, Christians wouldn't see this. I'm not blaming anything on any other person that has somewhere to stay, but I do fault them for not having any type of morals to try to help get the situation resolved.

AGENDA: What would you have them do?

Sweed: Write your congressman. Write the politicians that are in charge of everything. Most of the people who do have homes are registered voters. Control who gets in office. You walk around town and you see people with their whole life on their back and you tell me you don't feel anything? You read it in the newspaper and you see it on the news that homeless people have died in the street and you don't feel compelled to do anything? It could be someone in your family. A lot of people don' t want to have anything to do with something outside of their family. But at the turn of the tables, the closing of an office, the closing of a shop, it could be their family.

I always promote the idea: come down and talk to the people. Go to some of these county and city council meetings to get educated about what's going on. Talk to the politicians and see why things are this way and why they are making the decisions that they are making. And also, just show some support. We have gotten a lot of public support, and help from businesses as well.

When we came out here we didn't expect to get as much support as we have gotten. They've been bringing in a lot of food, packaged things like a razor and soap and personal hygiene things. A lot of the restaurants know the bathroom facilities aren't great here [there is one port-a-john] and they don't mind us going there and using their bathrooms.

But I have to say, if you haven't lived it, you don' t understand. I don' t care how many books you read or how many people you talk to, if you have not lived it you don't know. You can get an idea, but you don't understand. This is the reality of it. I lived the hard core part of it. You just can't write a feeling. Even though I'm a woman, I've been forced to sleep in a police department, hospital lobby room, outside, anywhere I could, the library, the Michigan Union, just to survive. It's not a handout I wanted, just a hand, but it's not only for myself because I do a lot of speaking. It's not just for me.

AGENDA : What would you like to see people do for Tent City in the coming weeks?

Sweed: I would like more awareness of letting the county know that there are concerned people out here, and start writing more to the politicians. As for supplies, I think we need a couple more tents and more blankets.

(SALVATION CITY, see NEXT PAGE)

"Not everybody has the ability to get up and go to work every morning. They physically cannot do it. I'm 23 years old and mentally I want to do it but my body says" 'No, it can't be done.'" - Dave Hackstadt, Salvation City resident

AGENDA: Did you grow up in Ann Arbor?

Hackstadt: I was born in Muskegon Heights and grew up in a project that was so bad they built a police station right in the middle of it. I lived there for about 12 years. We moved here to Ann Arbor when I was three and then we went back to Muskegon. We moved back here when I was 15. I went to Pioneer High School, but I didn't graduate here. I got into some trouble and went away for awhile. While I was away I got my GED and then went to Eastern Michigan University for two years. I quit for stupid reasons. I thought the school wasn't paying enough attention to the students and that messed up everything.

AGENDA: When did you quit?

Hackstadt: About 3 years ago. I got into a serious car accident a couple weeks after I dropped out and I had my knees crushed and my collarbone broken, so I really couldn't work after that. I have pains in my back all of the time so I collect disability now. My legs started hurting while I was over there working on that tent. The ground doesn't help it at all.

AGENDA: Have you been able to work since the accident?

Hackstadt: I can't stay up on my legs too much. I can do odd jobs now and then, something that doesn't require a lot of strength. I am unemployed now. But I do work for people, like passing out stuff, some clean-up stuff for nothing, just to help out and have something to do. AGENDA: Where have you been living for the last three years?

Hackstadt: I stayed with my mom for a month or two and I was putting a lot of strain on her because she doesn't make that much money and she has my sister staying with her. I thought the best thing for me to do was to leave. I was managing good, I had an apartment and everything. I signed a year lease and then the owner died and the wife decided to sell the building and now I don' t have a place to stay.

AGENDA: When did that happen?

Hackstadt: That happened last month. After leaving my mother's I had no place to go. I had two big bags and I went to play some basketball that night. I grabbed my bags after I was done and started walking. I remembered my sister had an apartment so I was going to go and see if I could stay there. This guy named Daniel was the caretaker of the place from the management company. I knew that nobody could stay there that didn' t pay rent there, so I decided to go there for just a little while, until 1 1 p.m. and fïnd out what I could do then. So Pm sitting there. I didn't have any money. I didn't even have any money for cigarettes.

And Daniel said, "So, where are you going to live?' I told him "I don't know." It was the fifth and I didn't have money until the first. He said, "You can stay here until you can pay me the rent." So I helped around the house, putting locks on the doors and I signed a year' s lease and then I paid my money . I paid my rent on time and one day they just came over and said "everybody's got to go" and they shut off the heat on us and everything. That happened March 1.

AGENDA: Where were you staying before Salvation City?

Hackstadt: After I left my apartment I was staying in hotels. If not, I would walk around downtown while my girlfriend would stay at the shelter, because she's allowed into the shelter. I've done that since I lost my apartment. I've been getting a lot of help from different organizations that have been putting me up a couple nights here, a couple nights there until I can get back up on my feet.

AGENDA: Why aren't you allowed at the shelter?

Hackstadt: About a year ago I was there because I was going through some problems again. A guy there was calling me "nigger this," "nigger that." He kind of pushed me and I put his head in the wall and they threw me out.

AGENDA: So you got in a fight. Are you banned forever?

Hackstadt: No, they said I had a bad attitude, but I never caused trouble. I did work for them. When they didn't have enough people to work I would go there and wash the clothes for them. I never presented a bad attitude. I never thought I was and if I was I was sorry about that. I mopped floors at the shelter for them. They were really dirty . The people who stayed there never respected the building at all. They'd spit on the floors and stuff like that The lady that works there has a real bad attitude towards everybody, even her staff, the people that are staying there. I've met people who didn't have anything, but they had respect for people. That's all most people want. The Shelter Association does not respect anybody. They think they can tell you what to do and they treat you like their children and that's why I think they have the problems that they do have.

AGENDA: Are things different here at Salvation City?

Hackstadt: Yeah, because everybody works together. With anything you do you have a bad apple. We have ours. But we deal with it in a positive way and everybody works together when a crisis comes up. Everybody deals with it. Everybody sits down and thinks "what can we do to solve this problem?" That's the overall goal, to have people sit down and say "Yes, there is a homeless problem, there' s a budget problem where every thing has got to go sky high and there are people that cannot do it." Like myself, I can' t go out and make money to totally survive like most people. I get $436 a month and I'm supposed to live off that.

AGENDA: What would you like people to know about your experience on and off the street that could help solve this problem?

Hackstadt: I want people to remember that not everybody has the ability to get up and go to work every morning. They physically cannot do it. I'm 23 years old and mentally I want to do it but physically my body says "No, it can't be done." My back is killing me right now even though I'm sitting down. I want a stable place to live. I go to school. I use my mind as much as possible.

Just remember that there are people out there that need help. Don' t look for the profits so much. Do it to help somebody. Make a couple dollars and be happy. Don' t look for the hundreds and thousands.

"I'm 22 years old and I've never partaken of any kind of drugs or alcohol. I don't like taking Tylenol and I'm homeless." --Koran Boze, Salvation city resident

AGENDA: I remember you from Farmer Jack on West Stadium. When did you work there?

Boze: I was homeless and I got here the winter of ' 88 . I needed a job. There was a guy here who was working at one of the shelters named John and he used to work at Farmer Jack and he referred some people there. So he referred me there and in November of 1988 1 was hired. I was doing so well, they were giving me all the hours I wanted. I could leave when I wanted to leave. My checks were bigger than most people in the same position. I was making like $200 a week at $4.50 an hour which means you have to be working 60 hours to do that. I worked there until November '90.

AGENDA: Why did you leave?

Boze: I quit. I didn't like the working conditions at all. They promised me full-time. In the end I was only getting part-time. They told me that was all I was going to get. I looked in the rule book and I didn't see that any where. I talked to the union steward to see about any legal action I could take. She didn't give me any possible avenues into it.

AGENDA: So, when you were working at Farmer Jack, how much were you making an hour? Did you have an apartment or where were you living?

Boze: I went from $4.50 to $6.50 an hour over the two years. I had a place right down here on Catherine just past Division about a couple months after I started working. Before that I lived at the shelter.

AGENDA: Did you lose your place after you lost your job?

Boze: Right after. It' s kind of hard to keep a place when you don't have a job. Then I moved around for maybe a couple weeks and then I decided to go back with my mother because I had no place to stay. I haven't always lived there. We've always lived on troubled water. She lives in Detroit.

AGENDA: Have you worked between Farmer Jack's and now?

Boze: I've had some jobs. I worked at Park Avenue Delicatessen, but I didn't like that too much. I worked at Baskin-Robbins for a minute (about a month). I didn't like that. I went back to my mother's house and hung out. I saw a pattern I didn't like: Every time there was some problems, being 22 years old, I didn't like to keep going back to my mother. I left home four weeks ago today.

AGENDA: Where have you been staying?

Boze: I've been staying in the shelter. First I stayed there five days. I used to work at the day shelter voluntarily. I stayed outside because someone told me about a job there and I'd just come back into town. I said 'I'll take the job," and they said "Do what you have to do but don't go in to the shelter and I'II try to get you the job." So I stayed outside for about five days. At the time, it was freezing. So I'm thinking, "Is this job really worth my health?" So I asked what could be done about speeding the process up. I'd try to be as congenial as possible, but I couldn't stay out in the streets too much longer.

AGENDA: Why didn't they want you to go into the shelter?

Boze: There's a rule there that you can't work there and live there and if you want to work there you have to be out of there.

AGENDA: So where did you stay? A friend's house?

Boze: I walked around all night, caught z's where I could. Sometimes I slept in a campus building. You go downstairs and go in the bathroom and lay down. They read me the Trespass Act and I said "Uh huh, uh huh." That's not going to stop me from going out. I've still got to live.

AGENDA: Then what happened?

Boze: I decided to go back to live at the shelter for a while and find other work. A friend of mine told me about a job. A friend of mine named Rob told me about this organization and we started hanging out at meetings with HAC. Then we did this. It was beautiful. I've been living here ever since. It's been about a week and three days.

AGENDA: You went and got another job?

Boze: Yeah, I went and got a job at Weber's. I'm working there now. Last week I got 15 hours at $5 an hour. Right now I'm looking for a place to stay, although I'm currently living here. Right now I'm worried about money.

AGENDA: You've read the newspapers. You've seen what's been written about Salvation City and the homeless. How do you respond to it? What do you want to tell people?

Boze: I've read every newspaper. If I could give them my views on how I feel about this problem, I would say, basically, "treat people the way you want to be treated." Give people housing because you want housing. And not only because they want housing but because everyone deserves housing. No one deserves to be on the streets. No one deserves to have to do something illegal or immoral in order to survive.

It doesn't make any sense. I've got four years of college, a high school diploma and right now it's extremely hard for me to find a job. I plan on going back to school but it's really hard just doing anything because people build up stereotypes. If I'm looking for a job and I'm currently living at the shelter, I can forget it. And that's just one of those $5-an-hour jobs like I have now.

Your address has a lot to do with getting employment right now. People advertise that they are EOE, Equal Opportunity Employers. It's bull. That's just a safeguard because people who hire you are going to hire you on the basis of how they want it, not how it's supposed to be.

This is about getting people jobs they are qualified for. If they're not qualified, have training available for certain jobs. And then try to have some kind of affordable housing so that people who have jobs will be able to live somewhere and be able to fit back into society. There' s no reason why there should be people homeless in Ann Arbor. That's the bottom line. Ann Arbor is one of the most and resources-rich places in the country.

A lot of people's attitudes about homelessness is, "yes, we know there's a problem but we don't want to see it so what we're going to do is ignore it." But we're jumping out here and saying you can't ignore it. We are reality and what we want is affordable housing. You're no better than us because you drive a Benz and you can afford to put your children in college, and you can afford the luxuries of life that most people can afford. All we want is a fighting chance.

AGENDA: What would you have people do?

Boze: Support people the best way they know how. Give them someplace to stay. If they have any special talents that they may be able to use in this situation - use them. If they see someone homeless, try to help the best way they can. Not everyone can help as much as another person. You can't really say everyone should do this or that, because everyone's different.

Everyone can help in their own way. The way I can help right now is letting people know that we're here. Because of ignorance, a lot of people in this community just don't know that there are that many homeless people in Ann Arbor, or in Washtenaw County.

AGENDA: A cop once told me: "I don't know any homeless people. All I know are drunks." What do you think about that?

Boze: I think that was a very ignorant statement. Everyone says that we're just all alcoholics, co-dependents and things like that. You can check it if you want. I'm 22 years old and I've never partaken of any kind of drugs, alcohol. I don't like taking Tylenol and I'm homeless. Does that make me a drunk? I don't like alcohol. It's against my religion to drink alcohol.

A lot of people here are like that. They're in a situation where they can't financially turn their situation around. It's easy for people to say "Let's put them in one category because we don't want to complicate the situation. Then we'd actually have to do something about it."

Everyone here in Tent City, just like everyone out there has different personalities. That does not make them all drunks or degenerates. I've seen a guy who has a doctorate in psychology and he's homeless. Right now he's not homeless. He has a job now. He just had some mental problems. We got him some mental help and now he has a decent job. He has a nice place to stay. People say those kind of people do not go to the shelter. It's not true at all. People in their Hondas, in their $35,000 cars, could be out here right now. If one thing turned wrong and they made a bad decision on something, they could be out here.

AGENDA: So what happens after Salvation City?

Boze: Though I graduated from Wayne State with a bachelor' s degree there's not too much you can do with it, work for Community Mental Health or something like that. What I want to do is help people. I'm fascinated with the inner body. What I really want to do is cardiology. I want to go to med school and when I'm finished I want to have a specialty in cardiology. I'm shooting for the fall of '93.

Hopefully I will become a doctor one day and I'll be able to help people. Not only people who need a $300,000 heart job, but the people who have the same problems but don'thave the $300,000. I've always wanted to help people. I also see in my future being married, having children, having a nice place to stay, maybe a house, maybe a decent apartment and just maintaining my life the best way I know how.