| Chapter 1: | Background and Significance of the Study |
As part of their duties, Joy Junction personnel and program participants record every incident that they feel needs to be brought to the attention of or addressed by shelter managers. These reports include summaries of events in which the police came onto the Joy Junction property, new guests arrived seeking housing, allegations of drug or alcohol use, which are prohibited, and disagreements among guests at the shelter. As a result, the logs often reflect the outbreak of hostilities and anger among guests of the shelter. The logs also provide descriptions of routine issues that need to be taken care of, such as putting locks on trucks, the need to check a dumpster, and the need for a driver to change among the vans used to transport residents to the shelter.
For example, as contained in Appendix F, one individual commenting on an incident wrote in the log, “Patrick came in drunk, and this was his third time on the alcohol list. Driver took him to People for Jesus church on 5600 Central S.W.”
Another individual wrote in the log, “Rita called in, as Lois and the van driver did not pick her up as she is on the not welcome list.”
A comment in the log from another individual read, “There was a confrontation between overnighters Doug and Jessie. They were yelling in each other’s faces, slapping and pushing; the two were separated and told to stay away from each other. This is the second confrontation in the past week.”
The respondents selected were a theoretical sample. Those residents interviewed at Joy Junction were members of the shelter’s Life Skills Program. The homeless people I interviewed were not staying at Joy Junction. They had responded to a sign-up sheet placed at three Albuquerque agencies by a marginally “homed” individual who coordinated this interview section of the project. The homeless respondents were compensated $10 and the coordinator was compensated $50.
Media personnel interviewed were those with whom I had enough of an ongoing relationship, due to my work at Joy Junction, to contact. The questions asked of the media personnel arose as a result of the responses from the homeless interviewed. There was no written list of questions. The media interview sessions were much more unstructured.