On any given day of the week it is probable that you will spot a person on the Drag in Austin, Texas holding out an empty cup, begging for spare change, in hopes that someone will drop some money in it.  It is also probable that you may have just walked on by and never genuinely thought about why this person is homeless. Perhaps you chalked them off as just another “dragrat” who serves no other purpose.  Are they just plain lazy?  Do they lack the love and support of a family? Do they lack motivation to build a more secure life for themselves? Or, does our capitalistic society actually work to keep them down and socially immobile?  The answer to this question lies in two possible social theories: Karl Marx’s Social Conflict Theory, and Emile Durkheim’s Functionalism Theory. From a social conflict perspective, society is marked by class conflict which arises from competition between classes for scarce resources like housing, education and employment.  The upper classes (capitalists) can be understood to be battling with those with much less power (workers), in an effort to maintain their influence, status, and prosperity.  Essentially, the “haves” control social institutions (like education, law, and even religion) and set them up in favor of their success, while the “have nots” are held in a fixed subordinate position without much ability to advance their position on the social ladder. 
             On the other hand, the functionalist theory explains that homelessness serves a purpose in our society.  According to this perspective, the homeless population is simply one of many interrelated parts of our society that must all work in accord for our society to operate properly.

            In an effort to gain a viewpoint that would reflect what homeless people on the Drag are actually doing and thinking, our group set out to interview two homeless individuals living on the Drag. Doing this sheds some light on whether or not the homeless population on the Drag serve a necessary purpose in our society and maybe shed some more light on Functionalism Theory .  For those who may be confused as to what the "Drag is" , the Drag is a portion of Guadalupe Street that runs along the western edge of the University of Texas campus.  The bookstores, sandwich shops, clothing stores, and even places of worship that line the Drag provide the homeless people with potential food and money.  We first met Martin, who was a 53-year old White male, looking for a “simple restaurant or landscape job” and then we interviewed Paco, a 30-year old Hispanic male, who was also looking for any type of employment and any kind of “tax-free money”.  The following details these two interviews:

Paco

Q: Where are you originally from?

A: Dallas, TX

Q: How did you end up in Austin, TX?

A: Hitch hiking. Austin is more enjoyable. It’s much "calmer".

Q: Do you work? If not, do you want to re-enter the “normal” working society?

A: I do whatever pays. I like tax-free money. In the past I’ve worked as a mover charging $10/hr for small furniture items and $20/hr for larger furniture pieces such as bed or couches. I’ve panhandled in the past too.

Q: Do you find it difficult to find employment?

A: Yes.

Q: What’s a typical day like for you?

A: It’s spent on the Drag.   (He didn’t want to elaborate).

Q: Do you have friends/family that you see daily?

A: Not friends, but associates.

Q: How do the businesses on the Drag treat you?

A: CVS and Chipotle help him with food and water once in a while.

Q: Have you ever been arrested? If so, for what?

A: Yes. I have a DWI, driving with a suspended license, public intoxication, and public urination.

Q: What do you believe will help you get out of homelessness?

A: Money! Also, an apartment. But it’s hard to get one without a ‘good’ background, experience, or qualifications.

                       

Martin

Q: Where are you originally from?

A: Born in Detroit, grew up in Chicago, and finished high school in Jacksonville, FL.

Q: What did you do before living on the streets?

A: Worked at Whole Foods Market for 10 years.  Had corporate jobs, 2 kids, and a wife, but became stressed out with corporate job and I left it. But, at least I have my freedom.

Q: What’s your daily routine?

A: Rigorous. I have to sleep in various spots, find places to bathe, and work is hard to get to. I find myself getting sleepy between 4 – 6pm, but it’s hard to take a nap when you have to sleep out in public.

Q: Do you have a skill or technique to try to get money?

A: Right now I go door to door handing out flyers, coupons etc. But I’m currently looking for simple restaurant or landscape jobs – but the economy has been bad and I haven’t been able to find any work. I try everything I possibly can to make money – handing out coupons, flyers, even panhandling.

Chart taken from The New York Times

*side note- At end of meeting, he told us he had pawned his guitar for money. He hoped he could earn enough money on Monday and Tuesday to get it out of the pawn shop by the following Wednesday.

Q: Can you give us examples of some of the nice things people in Austin have done to help? And less kind things?

A: My wallet was stolen at ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless) sometime ago. I went to Trinity [a place that serves the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of people experiencing  homelessness and poverty in Austin] to try to get my ID back but it’s been over 3 weeks and I am still waiting. Also, CVS employees give me water and cigarettes.

I have a lot of acquaintances/friends on the Drag that are also homeless – there is always a lot of [reciprocity] between them.  I will share my bananas or Ramen Noodles with the other homeless people if I can.

Q: Do you have any friends or family that you see regularly?

A: Not friends, but lots of acquaintances.  My family is in Chicago and I rarely speak to them. Mainly because I feel embarrassed about my situation. They’ve never seen me like this. They were alcoholics in the past because of the stressful restaurant business my family works in.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share about being homeless?

A: The homeless community is a tight-knit community, but there is a lot of riffraff – or ‘assholes’.  All the crackheads and thievs are downtown – so I stay away from that area.

Functionalism
              According to Conley (p. 238), “[s]tratified societies are those where human groups within them are ranked hierarchically into strata, along one or more social dimensions.”  Sociologists use the phrase, socioeconomic status to describe a person’s position in a stratified order.  According to Conley (p. 246), socioeconomic status refers to “any measure that attempts to classify groups, individuals, families, or households in terms of indicators such as occupation, income, wealth, and education.”  The five types of social stratification (estate system, caste system, class system, status hierarchy system, and elite-mass dichotomy system) operate within our society to preserve a social hierarchy that keeps homeless people at the bottom of the rung.  We will focus on the class system of stratification, which is grounded in the economic situation of an individual as we examine homelessness on the Drag.  Ideas of class are strongly influenced by Sociologist Karl Marx who believed that to place an individual into a particular group that has a particular set of interests also means that they will stand opposite to those of another group. (Conley, p. 241)  Since class is related to a position in the economic market we must question who gains capital and who controls resources because of the fact that these people’s (for ex., capitalists) interests directly oppose another group’s (for ex., working class) interests.  
           For Karl Marx, it “all boil[ed] down to two antagonistic classes in a fully mature capitalist society….”  Martin, the homeless man on the Drag made it clear that it was extremely difficult for him to get a job because of his social status.  Without enough money and proper qualifications (good credit score), he is unable to attain his own vehicle to get to and from work every day.  Furthermore, his bedraggled appearance makes him seem unreliable and unattractive to potential employers and will most likely keep Martin unemployed and homeless. Paco mentioned that finding a home of his own is difficult without a “good” background, experience, and qualifications.  This battle over limited resources that Marx wrote about shows up very clear here; the “haves” controlling social institutions  and setting them up in favor of their own success.               

            Businesses and people along the Drag (picture taken from cyburbia.org)

             Upon examining homelessness on the Drag from a functionalist perspective, we understand that the homeless population plays a necessary role within society in order for society as a whole to function properly.  Functionalists highlight the ways in which this inequality is actually functional for society.  Take a few questions into consideration: Have you ever volunteered your time at a homeless shelter? Have you ever given money to a “drag rat” or other homeless person? Or given away old clothes to the salvation army? Did doing these things make you feel better about yourself for being so caring?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then perhaps the homeless do serve a role in our society.  Moreover, perhaps your own career involves working with the poor and homeless; well, in that case the poor and homeless provide you with employment. Proponents of the functionalist theory also point out that the poor play a pivotal role in our society – they serve to engage in the jobs that “no one else wants to do.”  During our interview, Paco told us that he had been a “furniture mover” for some time, which is typically not viewed as a lucrative or attractive career.  Martin hands out flyers door-to-door once in a while for work, which is also a job that “no one else wants to do”.

     According to the functionalist perspective, social inequality is in fact inevitable and functional in our society.  For example, neither of the homeless people we interviewed had attended college which means that they contribute less to society and consequently have a lower income and status.  Their contributions to society are crucial, yet less central.  However, having a college degree means more skills and therefore more contributions to society and a higher status and more income to have mobility and thrive within society.  In effect, the functionalist theory holds that every aspect within a society (even homeless people) play a critical role in the proper workings of a culture.

Conflict Theory

Social inequality

Sociologist Jean Jacques Rosseau Social inequality is shaped by social stratification. Social inequality is caused by the socially-defined characteristics of a person (such as social class, gender, age, ethnicity, etc.) By analyzing the impact of social inequalities, we can better understand the situations homeless people face. Social inequality can be measured by the conditions of a person, and opportunities that person has (Crossman).

For instance, a social inequality can be caused by the housing conditions of a person. Homeless people are at the bottom of this hierarchy, and people with multi-million dollar homes are at the top. In the case of Martin, he is looking for a job in a restaurant or landscaping. He mentioned that because the economy is bad he is unemployed, and until he finds a job, he sleeps in the street.  His housing condition is lower compared to other individuals in the Drag, thus causing a social inequality.

(picture taken from rejectedunkown.com)

Furthermore, Social inequality can be also be caused by the opportunities individuals have. For example, a person with a higher level of education is more likely to be hired for a job. Martin has experience working in corporate jobs, but having only graduated from high school, employers will hire people with higher levels of education. His lower level of education compared to college graduates causes a social inequality. 
Health status can also affect the opportunities a person has. Having a severe medical condition or bad hygiene affects your chances of obtaining a job.  Homeless people are at the bottom of the health status , once again. They lack the resources to maintain good physical health, hence the difficulty of being hired. 

To summarize, homeless people are faced with many social inequalities. Patterns within these inequalities always show homeless people in the bottom compared to other people. As a result, homeless people have no power and they struggle to make societal progress. However, if a homeless person obtains a job, there is the possibility of moving higher up in a social class. This leads to social mobility.
 For more information on social equality click here

Social mobility  

            Another important aspect worth analyzing  to better understand homeless on the Drag is social mobility. Social mobility, as defined by Conley, is the “movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society”  (Conley, 257).  In other words, social mobility is the likelihood that an individual has to “move” to a different social position in the social hierarchy . Martin’s and Paco’s stories give us special insight into social mobility between individuals on the Drag.

            In our interviews with Martin and Paco, we learned that they both held jobs at some point in the past , but later grew frustrated with them. Martin had a couple of corporate jobs and also worked as a chef. He left his jobs as a result of the high level of stress in those environments.  Paco only mentioned taking temporary ones, such as helping college students move. He would make sure to look for jobs in which he would get paid in cash to avoid paying taxes. Paco seemed to have always belonged to the "poor" class since him and his family never held stable jobs. Martin , however, used to belong to the working class  but  vertically descended to the level of “poor” when he became homeless.

            Paco and his family always took jobs with similar occupational status in the category of unskilled labor, reflecting horizontal mobility. Martin and his family  , on the other hand, held more varied types of jobs in which their occupational status were in different levels of the social stratum. For example, Martin’s corporate job was in a higher social stratum than his job as a chef. His chef position though , was much higher than his current homelessness status in the social stratum. Martin’s daughter is currently in the military and therefore also in a much higher social stratum than her father. By the variety of jobs in the different levels of the social occupational hierarchy that Martin and his family held or have, they show that they have much more vertical social mobility than Paco and his family.

            Despite Paco’s and Martin’s differences in social inequalities and their types of social mobility, conflict theory is very relevant in both of their situations. Both Paco and Martin expressed a willingness to work but certain aspects of their state of homelessness resulted from competing societal interests.
           Paco wanted to work but he felt that the government was extremely unfair because they used to deduct a major portion of his check in tax deductions. Due to all these deductions, he didn’t have enough money to sustain himself and  resolved to resort to only jobs that paid in cash. Unfortunately, the availability of jobs that pay in cash is more scarce and this decision worsened his financial situation. 
          Martin enjoyed working hard but his corporate jobs grew extremely demanding and stressful. Martin was more interested in leading a calm life while his company was more interested in being as profitable  from him as possible , in other words, exploiting him. This level of stress led Martin to resort to heavy drinking and smoking , not only taking a toll on his financial situation but more importantly , his health.

Conclusion
              Functionalist and Conflict Theory offer opposing approaches to the homelessness culture. Looking at homelessness through Functionalist lenses, homelessness serves a purpose in society and there will always be a need for someone to serve the role of the "needy". In order for people to be more self-fulfilled, the homeless provide the role of the ones being in need of help and give people opportunities to do community service. This , however , through Conflict Theory seems unfair because while Functionalism might serve the interests of the people wanting to provide community service and do good deeds, it goes against the interests of the homeless. Not all homeless people are homeless because they chose that lifestyle. Paco and Martin's current states of homelessness wasn't what they would have chosen  , they both wanted a place to live where they wouldn't have to worry about being in harm's way like they often were. However, not acknowledging that their situation is also  a result of personal choices would be too simplistic. Since our sample size only consisted of two subjects it may not be as reflective of the overall population as if we had had a larger sample size to study. In the end, it's important to deeply analyze people's situations using the sociological imagination. It's not enough to say that people are homeless because it's their fault, like we often tend to think in a capitalist society. Analyzing the context of individuals in a larger society would lead us to a more accurate understanding of the homelessness culture on the Drag. 

                   (Short documentary made by RTF students in UT Austin interviewing homeless people on the Drag)



Extra Relevant Link:
This blog contains an interesting video on homelessness in the general downtown Austin area. (Separate from the Drag, yet still dealing with the same issues - housing, jobs, the lack of social equality, etc.)

   

        

References:

Conley, D. (2011). You may ask yourself, an introduction to thinking like a sociologist. (2nd ed ed.). New York: W W Norton

Crossman, A. (n.d.). About.com sociology. Retrieved from http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Social-Inequality.htm