Facing Our Neighbors

On a regular day walking through Harvard Square, there are plenty of things to notice. You can peak into Harvard Yard and look at the historic John Harvard statue. You can also visit restaurants, such as Felipe’s and Boloco. If you want a few books, you can visit the COOP. There’s something else that you’re bound to find in this area as well: homeless people.

It’s no secret to Harvard students that there are homeless people in the Square. They can be seen sleeping outside of the COOP, asking for money outside of CVS, or hanging out close the train stop. Walking past homeless people has become a regular part of our Harvard lives.

Though I see homeless people on a regular basis, I still have not become desensitized to their plight. I still feel awkward when they ask me for money and I am not able to give. I feel a certain tension when I walk past them, wanting to help them, but knowing that I can’t take away their problems by simply giving them some spare change.

We often talk about homelessness from the perspective of a large societal issue, which it is indeed. Of course there are institutional ways to deal with these issues. I applaud the students at the Harvard Square Homeless shelter and other shelters that seek to meet the needs of this population.

However, what I want to focus on is the personal aspect of this particular brand of poverty, from a student’s perspective. We often talk about homelessness in broad terms, the real facts are more than just numbers—it’s people. No matter what we may think about their work ethic, no matter what people may say about how they got in that situation, they are still sleeping outside at night.

When reflecting on how he felt about his experiences with the situation, Tim D. Turner ’09, who is from a small southern town, remarked, “You know extreme poverty and homelessness exist, but to actually see people in sleeping bags was shocking.”

Shocking is only part of it. Awkward is more of the feeling that I get. I saw homeless people back home in Houston. I’d see them downtown, under freeways, and in other places. It wasn’t the same though. It wasn’t personal in those situations. I’d see people while driving and give them money sometimes, and at other times not give them money. I never really talked to them. It was always an interaction with some distant person that I’d probably never see again.

My experience at Harvard has been different. Over the past almost two years, I’ve come to recognize the homeless people in the square. Seeing the same people day in and day out has put a mark of familiarity on their faces. There’s even a certain level of informality with which I greet some of the ones that I notice more. There is a “Do you have any spare change?” followed by an “I’m sorry, brother, I don’t have any change on me.” And it usually ends with a “Thank you anyway, have a nice day.” I end by saying, “You, too.” No matter how informal or repeated the conversation may be, I always walk away feeling a little bad.

What complicates the situation for other people is that they feel uncomfortable not knowing the motivations of the people that may be asking them for money in front of CVS. Katherine L. Sancken ’09 commented, “You get tired of people asking you for money and not doing the best with the money, but on other hand we don’t use our money in the best way either.” This statement represents another form of tension that arises in our interactions with homeless people.

We are often quick to judge homeless people for their situation. But they are not all in that situation for the same reason. Some have mental issues, some have made poor economic decisions, some have drug addictions, and some have just had bad luck. Some have been knocked down by a society that at times has little sympathy for its poor. Just as they may have made mistakes, we have also stumbled off the narrow road at times as well.

We have all worked hard to get to where we are, but most of us haven’t done it by ourselves. We have had some type of support network. If it weren’t for people helping us when we messed up, we might not be where we are today. We have to look at homeless people not solely through their situation of living on the streets, but we must also look at them as individual people.

This has not been easy for me. Looking at them as regular people makes me feel their pain more acutely. While I complain about papers and problem sets that I may have to do, they are out on the streets begging for change. Nobody wants to do that.

These are our neighbors. They live right beside us. They share the same streets as us. They live this lifestyle of abject poverty right next to one of the greatest academic institutions in the world. They make us grateful for our comfortable environment, yet saddened by their wretched state. I don’t have an answer on how to eliminate homelessness, but I do believe that we can all treat them more like humans.



Lumumba Seegars ’09 is a social studies concentrator in Dunster House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.