Invisible

It’s Monday, 7:30am in the late fall. The temperature is rapidly dropping in New York City and it’s time to start our weekly commute to school and work on this frigid morning. The fastest way to commute in NYC is via the subway and NYC subway travel is always a production. Surveying the train as it pulls in to the station; the commuter goal is to get a seat. Trains are always delayed, overcrowded, signal problems, sick passenger, power outage- you name it and it happens before 8am in NY. Yet the biggest pet peeve of all, for most New Yorkers is sharing the train with the homeless people who decided to make this place home overnight and now into the morning rush hour.

Big black garbage bags, store shopping carts filled with recyclable bottles, food scraps and a smelly train car- this is how we will commute this morning. Looks of disgust accompanied by conversations begging the question, “why hasn’t the transit authority asked them to get off the train”; but no one dares to tell them to move. We will now act as if they are “invisible” for the duration of the commute.

I continue to stare. As a Social Worker, I have many questions:

“Who are they?”

“What are their names?”

“Do they have family?”

“Did their family give up on them?”

“How was their childhood?”

“What did they want to become in life?”

I am certain the answer would not be “homeless”. Who says, “I want to be homeless when I grow up”.

While many commuters see the big black garbage bags as a burden and an indicator of hoarding- the social worker in me understands this is their property and they are unable to leave it in a safe space behind a locked door called “home”. They will travel back and forth with their belongings losing some along the way. While many commuters seem bothered by the unpleasant smell, the social worker in me understands that they could have been denied a basic human right such as using the bathroom with dignity in a public space due to their disheveled appearance. While the younger generation whisper to each other, ridicule the “bums” and calls them crazy- I, the social worker understand the symptoms of mental illness and what the disability looks like when it remains untreated.

What if they looked different- would others be more willing to engage with them?

The core value of dignity and worth of the person has taught me the importance of giving a voice to the unheard and to respect every person as a human being regardless of their walk in life. I am not here to judge the homeless; in fact I’ve spent the last 5 years of my social work career working with the street homeless and have met some of the most creative, straightforward and knowledgeable people- but many are “invisible” since society only focuses on garbage bags and the stench not the basic human needs.

Kenia Maldonado is the Founder of OnBoarding Solutions and continues to work around homelessness in New York City.