By Imran Ahmad, HAC Staff Attorney
Upon hearing his gruff, rumbling, raspy voice outside the HAC front door, I started working on Carl’s1 order. One-part instant coffee and one-part Swiss Miss. I’m proud of my improvised mocha. Making the most with what is available – the HAC way. It’s sweet enough, but I know he’s going to ask for more sugar, so I grab a couple of packets along with a stirrer. Exiting the office, I find him sitting on a chair surrounded by bags filled with his belongings.
“Hey, man. What’s happening?”
“Not much. I just want my mail, a snack pack, and well, you already got my coffee, so I think that’s it.”
Carl’s usual request. Occasionally he’ll ask for my help with other tasks. Like when we returned a gold chain he wasn’t feeling or composed a strongly worded email to a former employer or made an appointment with his audiologist. But today, Carl just wants to kick it for a while before going on his way. He could be back tomorrow. Or not for another month. I never know.
Much has been made of the disappearance of so-called “third spaces” – locations outside of the home and workplace that facilitate social interaction, community building, and social supports. Examples of third spaces include public facilities like libraries and parks but also commercial businesses and privately owned organizations like coffee shops, bars, barbershops, shopping malls, community centers, and places of worship.
Third spaces, in theory, are places where individuals can socialize, play, and relax, providing them with opportunities for self-expression and community building beyond their familial and occupational responsibilities. As such, what might seem to some as ordinary “spaces” become “places” – locations that assume a measure of value to an individual because they have become meaningful in some way.
The rhetoric of public safety has allowed for increased social policing, the proliferation of surveillance technologies, and the deployment of security forces in these spaces.
Individuals experiencing homelessness and housing instability undermine the narrative of third spaces, revealing its limited applicability to those who have secure housing and stable jobs. Moreover, numerous policies and practices restrict who has access to these spaces and what behaviors are appropriate – such as anti-loitering laws, camping bans, and defensive or hostile architecture designed to make it difficult to comfortably spend time in public settings. Furthermore, the rhetoric of public safety has allowed for increased social policing, the proliferation of surveillance technologies, and the visible deployment of public and private security forces in these spaces. Rather than providing a source of comfort and well-being, third spaces are increasingly becoming sites of everyday stigma and discrimination for unhoused and unstably housed individuals.
Despite its limitations, the theory of third spaces raises the issue of how socially marginalized communities uniquely build meaning within their respective place contexts. In the growing absence of places where individuals can feel safe, let alone welcome, drop-in at HAC provides some of the benefits third spaces are thought to offer: a place that promotes well-being through social support and feelings of belonging. HAC offers drop-in services Monday through Thursday, from 1 – 5 PM, at both our West Oakland and central Berkeley offices. Anyone may come to HAC during those hours and speak to an advocate or attorney, receiving help with public benefits, referrals to services, or assistance with other questions.
Drop-in at HAC addresses a very pressing need as people experiencing homelessness are at the intersection of different system failures, requiring multiple, simultaneous forms of supports, particularly when facing logistical barriers to connect with the various services they need. At drop-in, we do our best to help clients navigate this serpentine terrain, whether it be directing them to formal services, connecting them to social services, or advocating for them. And even if our efforts at times prove futile, I’d like to think the work and dedication we put forth builds trust, creates stability, and perhaps, meaningfully supports the well-being of clients.
Drop-in at HAC addresses a very pressing need as people experiencing homelessness are at the intersection of system failures.
However, as important as providing these services is, the value of drop-in is so much more. Drop-in is the everyday practice of the core values of HAC: a harm reduction based, no barrier to entry, non-judgmental program that meets clients where they are in their lives. These non-hierarchical, open access imperatives foster a level of collaboration and creativity. Given the needs of our clients, we aren’t simply benefits advocates. We become mail readers, job appliers, complaint filers, utilities consultants, cooks, baristas.
Former clients who come back to drop-in become holders of institutional knowledge as they recount how their HAC advocate fought for them and how those victories changed the trajectory of their lives. Drop-in is also a bellwether of larger societal forces, as we are beginning to see more and more newly displaced individuals come in for assistance. It’s even a place for self-expression, whether it be the young artist who donates his sculptures to decorate our office or the client who DJs with his boombox while waiting for his phone to charge.
Drop-in does not only benefit our clients. Successfully resolving an issue for a drop-in client provides a level of accomplishment for HAC staff members that can seem infrequent in our substantive work. Furthermore, helping drop-in clients with particularly complicated issues requiring multiple visits often leads to fruitful and instructive collaboration between staff. Finally, the rare instances where a perilous situation arises during drop-in test our commitment to our values around trauma-informed de-escalation and force us to put them into practice, which tends to further strengthen them but also leads to a more nuanced appreciation of the gap between theory and practice.
The old HAC office on Shattuck epitomizes what distinguishes a space from a place. Every square foot of that building had a story to tell. The office was so meaningful for so many people in so many ways, we were worried how our drop-in clients would react to our Berkeley office’s move in January to our new space on Dwight Way near Shattuck. It’s true that people make places. But places also make people, and I believe that the Shattuck office molded HAC staff into committed, knowledgeable, and loving advocates, and created a sense of community that is strong enough to withstand a move down the street. In fact, it warms my heart to see how happy our long-term drop-in clients are about the new office. In a sense, we all moved to this new space, and we will all work to make it a place that provides meaning and a sense of well-being to both staff and our clients.
Carl likes to tease me. One day he asked if I went to law school to serve him coffee. I laughed and brushed his comment aside. But what I should have said was that making him coffee often feels like the most meaningful thing I can do.
- Client’s name has been changed to protect confidentiality. ↩︎