They walked the streets. They frequented emergency rooms. They lingered in rundown, residential hotels. Eighteen PSU graduate students in the School of Social Work left their safe, dry classroom for the streets and social service agencies of Portland in February, 1985. One month laler, they had gathered valuable data on 190 homeless women. But beyond statistics, the study provided insights into the lives of the women, dispelling public myths and raising the consciousness of the students in the process. "There have been very few studies of homeless women," Sandra Anderson, professor of social work, points out. Most research focuses on homeless men and is often collected at a single site such as a lemjXlrary shelter. Previous research on Portland's homeless population, also conducted by PSU students, studied primarily males. Advance work for the new study began in thc fall of 1984 when Anderson and lynn Hingson ('63), program manager with the Multnomah County Department of Human Services, modified a Questionnaire previously used by Anderson while studying women on the Bowery in New York City. Groundwork also included contact with 75 Portland social service agencies. By the time registration opened for "Homeless Women," Anderson's seminar was filled with graduate students anxious to move into the community for research. Students were assigned to a variety of agencies. Some were on 24 hour alert, wearing pagers to announce the arrival of potential interviewees. Other students formed "street teams" and wandered the avenues of the Burnside Community in search of interviews... "Can I buy you a cup of coffee?" was a standard introduction for ina Geller, who was ~ 81 PSU Perspective. Winter' 986 In Search of Homeles PSU graduate students in social work con on the streets of Portlan Photos by R. M. Collins III, © 1985 pari of a street team. After initial ice·breaking protocol in the warmth of a coffee shop, she sometimes spent more than an hour pursuing data ranging from age and marital status to sexual abuse history and mental health concerns. But beyond Questionnaires and hard data, the students were drawn into the stories of the womens' lives. "I was louched by everyone I interviewed," Geller says. "My perspective changed every week." She was oot alone. "My consciousness was certainly raised," ~ y s Tome Bce ('76, '85 MSW), now a social worker at 51. Vincent Hospital in Portland. "I think the tragedy of the situation became more real for me. " Doe was student coordinator of the project with Sharon Smith ('85 MSWj. "There was less alcoholism than I thought," says Smith, a family counselor with Youth Adventures in Portland. "There is a major conception that everyone on Burnside is a drunk and that's not what we found at all." "II was a major event that had put them on the street," she elaborates. loss of spouse, families, children or parents by divorce or death was often mentioned. Smith found that there was a fine line between having a permanent shelter and living on the streets_ "In the same situation, without support, I could have been them," she says. The students were as likely to have stereotypes about homeless people as the general public, according to Anderson, who saw the attitudes of her students change during the research proJcct. "Their notion radically changed during the course of the study," she says, "I think they were put much more in touch with the reality of Ihe current-day homeless." The study revealed a number of findings which contradict the stereotype of the h o m c l e s ~ person as a white, chemically dependent, single male, characteristics of the pre- 1970 homeless population, Anderson says. "I think that is still what people's stereotypes are, that you go down there and really dig around to find the women. That's not so. They are there and they are there with children." Anderson and her class nOI only found women without homes, but also subjects who were very willing to discuss their situations. "Many of thes interviews lasted much longer than we
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