Panel Recap

Homelessness is a problem often associated with large cities and urban areas. The third panel of the Rural West Conference broke from this stereotype and examined the issue from a distinctly rural standpoint.

Jennifer Sherman (video) illustrated the tough realities of homelessness – why it happens and what the consequences are – by relaying stories of the people and families involved in her research. Sherman is an associate professor of psychology at Washington State University, and her research is based in an unnamed area of rural Washington where an influx of wealthy homeowners has made it a site of rapid gentrification. As the cost of living increases in what she calls “Paradise Valley,” Sherman sees housing options for local residents diminish. Moreover, since many locals rely on a seasonally fluctuating tourist industry, their income can fluctuate widely. In recent years, Sherman related, a wildfire destroyed an affordable housing complex that has still not been rebuilt, even as wealthier newcomers continue to build homes. By sharing the narratives of people living in this particular community, Sherman highlighted how changing demographics, drug abuse problems, and the challenge of making a life in one’s changing home town can lead people to struggle with homelessness.

Michele Statz (video), a visiting assistant professor of sociology and history at Carthage College, is based in Chicago, but her work focuses on migrant workers across the United States, and particularly in the West. Through telephone surveys, she is revealing many of the harsh realities migrant farmworkers face daily. Statz pointed to the example of Napa Valley in California. Although the grape growers and wine producers that make the region famous are dependent on migrant labor, the median wage for migrants is insufficient for them to meet high housing and living costs. As a result, migrants are priced out of the areas where they work, and forced to travel long distances and reside in low quality housing. Farmworkers are burdened with many other difficulties as they work to harvest food, Statz emphasized, including the struggle to communicate and the threat of immigration raids and and predatory housing practices.

Rayna Sage (video), an assistant professor at Washington State University, pointed out the ties between inadequate housing and food insecurity, she described her work at a local food bank. An outreach project she helped start is aimed encouraging clients of a food bank to grow some of their own food in small plants or plots at home. Sage emphasized that the work she was doing wasn’t “world changing,” but it was having a positive and direct impact for many women by giving them some agency and more understanding about the food they were serving to their families.

Daisy Rooks (video) presented research that touched very close to home for the Missoula residents in attendance. Rooks is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Montana who uses quantitative research to examine pathways to homelessness. Her most recent project involves talking to homeless persons in Missoula. Although Missoula is technically an urban area, all the interviewees in her project had either been born in a rural area or previously been homeless in rural areas. She and her team conducted 84 interviews with the goal of better understanding the circumstances of those who either find themselves without a home or who choose to be homeless. Rooks found that many of the people that she spoke to in the Missoula area took great pride in their ability to survive in harsh Montana winter conditions,  and in their skills at plant identification, hunting, and trapping. On the outskirts of the city, she said, “there are many trails that lead to illegal, off-the-grid homeless encampments.” She also noted the importance of examining the narratives of individuals in her research. Some stories may include fantastical elements, she pointed out, but they all include important insights into how the subject is shaping their own identity.

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