SILENT SISTERS
SERIES IN HEALTH CARE FOR WOMEN
Series Editor: Phyllis Noerager Stern , DNS, RN, FAAN
Helpers in Childbirth: Midwifery Today Oakley and Houd
Menstruation, Health and Illness Taylor and Woods
Silent Sisters: A Study of Homeless Women Russell
In Preparation
Violence Against Women: Nursing, Research, Education, and Practice Issues Sampselle
SILENT SISTERS
A Study of Homeless Women
Betty G. Russell, Ph.D.
Baltimore, Maryland
Fint published by HEMISPHERE PUBLISHING CORPORATION
This edition published 2011 by Routledge:
| Routledge | Routledge |
| Taylor & Francis Group | Taylor & Francis Group |
| 7 11 Third Avenue | 2 Park Square. Milton Park |
| New York, NY 10017 | Abingdon. Oxon OX 14 4RN |
SILENT SISTERS: A Study of Homeless Women
Copyright 1991 Betty G. Russell. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 B R B R 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book was set in Times Roman by Hemisphere Publishing Corporation. The editor was Amy Lyles Wilson; the production supervisor was Peggy M. Rote; and the typesetters were Darrell D. Larsen, Jr. and Wayne Hutchins. Cover design by Debra Eubanks Riffe.
Cover art and inside art by Frank Russell. Copyright @ 1991 by Frank Russell.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russell, Betty G.
Silent sisters: a study of homeless women / Betty G. Russell,
p. cm.(Series in health care for women)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Homeless womenMarylandBaltimoreCase studies. I. Title. II. Series.
HV4506.B35R871991
362.83 086942dc2091-7401
CIP
ISBN 1-56032-098-2
ISBN 1047-4005
Preface
In 1980, when I returned to Baltimore City as a permanent resident after 23 years of living in the suburbs, I noticed numerous street people in my travels through the city. Frequently, they were women. One day I was surprised to find a disheveled woman raving on a street corner not 50 feet from my apartment in a middle-class neighborhood. I became curious and concerned. Who were these women? What events had brought them to such pathetic circumstances? What did the future hold for them?
In 1983, as a student in an American Studies course in ethnography, I chose to study the bag ladies of Baltimore. I spent several months interviewing homeless women and volunteering at a daytime mission. I became even more concerned with the complexity and difficulties of these womens problems. During the following summer, I continued my investigations by living as a homeless woman for three days, sleeping in shelters, and eating in soup kitchens in Baltimore. This study is an extension of those preliminary investigations.
Silent Sisters is based on an ethnographic approach to cultural anthropology. Rather than studying homeless women from the cultural distance of the mainstream, I wanted to describe their point of view, both toward themselves and the mainstream. Participant observation, the methodology of ethnography, allows a researcher to learn about a group by observing the culture and then participating in itan insiders, or emic view. I wanted to describe the world of these women, however, not only as an exercise in cultural analysis, but also to provide understanding that may help improve their situation or alleviate their problems. It is my hope that my voice may speak for them.
Acknowledgments
For help in this study I would like to thank the homeless women of Baltimore who, notwithstanding their own pain and fear, were willing to share their lives with me. At times they cried as they told their stories; we also laughed, for, in spite of their situation, they run the gamut of human emotion. In addition, the service providers were invaluable in assisting me: they gave their time, they provided me with helpful written materials, and they opened their doors to me. Carol Melvin and Renee Fries of the Womens Housing Coalition, Nancy Clark of the Park Avenue Lodge, Sister Pat McLaughlin of My Sisters Place, and Peggy Vick of the Salvation Army are women who have given their time and experience to help their silent sisters survive. My thanks also to those who directly or indirectly are involved with the homeless and gave their valuable time for interviews.
Dr. John Caughey, Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, was instrumental in the development of this research. From my initial interest in this topic in his course in ethnography through my research and writing of the dissertation, Johns patience and encouragement provided me with invaluable support. His suggestions helped me mold the original manuscript.
Holly Swartzs typing and proofreading were helpful in saving my time and energy for other tasks.
The publishing support of Ron Wilder and Carolyn Baker is much appreciated. They demystified the world of publishing for me. Special thanks to Amy Lyles Wilson for her excellent editing of the book. She helped me to clarify and to provide coherence.
I am grateful for family and friends who were always there and interested. Most of all I thank my husband Frank. When the task seemed overwhelming, his devotion and humor helped me immeasurably. His own visual statement of concern for the homeless has enriched all who have seen it.
1
INTRODUCTION
She sat in the corner of the large room, staring into space. Suddenly, her arms began to wave wildly and her face contorted and twisted into spasms. After 30 seconds or so, she again became still and resumed her trance-like state. I asked who she was. She was a teacher in Baltimore City, her name is Betty, and she has recently been released from Springfield [a state mental hospital], explained the woman in charge of the day shelter.
I teach in Baltimore County, and my name is Betty Russell. In my search for who the homeless women of Baltimore are, I found the answer on the first day I visited a shelter for homeless women: the homeless can be anyone. The memory of Betty is still vivid, for she was the first of many homeless women I have met during the past seven years.
Ada, for example, is between 55 and 65. Her head seems grotesquely misshapen on one side because of the huge mass of her grey-white hair, which she tries to cover with a scarf. Many of her teeth are missing and her face is deeply lined. Even in the warmth of a May evening she wears layers of clothes. Her legs are swollen and ulcerated, and her bare feet, propped on a box, are black with grime. She said she had been sleeping in a deserted house with dozens of cats, and the infected scratches on her legs bear testimony to her statement. Sitting on a metal chair, she waits for the Salvation Army canteen truck from which she will get her evening meal. She is one of Baltimores bag ladies.
