To listen to this BISC 1008 presentation click here.
This presentation describes community engaged scholarship through Dr. Tara Scully's course, BISC 1008 Understanding Organisms. Students in this course partner with local organizations to design and implement projects related to ecology.
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Hi Ashley,
Thanks for your presentation. I really appreciated both the passion with which you discussed the two issues and the variety of solutions you offered at the end for how folks could get involved to advocate to end homelessness or to address the overpopulation issue.
My question for you based on your time at Miriam's and your research, what do you think are the connecting factors between overpopulation and homelessness? If I am hearing you correctly, your thesis is that too many people (overpopulation) require more housing that we are unable to provide which leads to more homelessness. While that may be true in part, I am wondering if your time at Miriam's exposed you to other reasons that folks may be experiencing homelessness in addition to just the overpopulation issue.
For instance, you mention housing affordabilty in your presentation as an issue connected to homelessness. What additional factors may exist? I am thinking of the lack of affordable housing being built by private contractors, the zoning restrictions which prevent more housing from being built in richer areas, the lack of rent-controlled apartment spaces, and the housing inequity common in parts of D.C. (where some have multiple homes and others can't afford one) as being just a few of the housing-related issues. There is also research that suggests many folks' reasons for being homeless include reasons such as domestic abuse, lack of stable employment, lack of a living wage, an unexpected personal hardship (like loss of a relative who was the chief monetary provider) and in some cases, unaddressed addiction or mental health struggles.
I think overall that you are right that we must be aware of the earth's limited resources and how we as a human population are overly taxing them. Where I am more curious and may disagree with you is how much is our collective overtaxing of resources is due to simply too many people versus the inequitable distribution of goods (like food, clothing, housing, etc.) within our communities? Like most issues, I expect there is some truth in both our positions, and I really appreciate that your presentation pushed me to try to connect those two issues together.
I think addressing the rate of our population growth is a good thing to monitor and consider and I also think there are multiple factors that must also be addressed to truly combat homelessness in D.C. I hope you continue to learn and get involved in Miriam's Kitchen this Fall and commit to keep working on this issue! Well done! I
Ashley-thanks for this work. I agree with much of what was said above - it is a broad issue -have you thought about creating a systems map for this work in DC it may really help find connections between different push/pull factors. Example here http://www.public-sector.org/file/2019-Why-Is-Flooding-Increasing-A.pdf and finding point of leverage?
Thank you for a great presentation Ashley. This is of course a very complex topic with many nuances, but I think you did a good job of providing an overview. I especially appreciated how your calls to action work on a few different pathways of service, rather than just one.
Really interesting presentation! I would want to look historically and cross culturally at the issue of homelessness to see if the primary driver is overpopulation or something else. Glad you have been able to work with Miriam's Kitchen!