Campus Connection

The United Students of African Decent (USAD) in collaboration with Project Jumpstart are hosting a series of talks at Peace & A Cup of Joe entitled “Jabbering @ Joe’s” to address the issue of homelessness in the Baltimore area.  The latest event took place on the evening of March 25^th.

Since UMB is an urban campus, faculty, staff and students alike all receive daily reminders of how common homelessness is and how little is being done to aid the less fortunate.  This location also poises the university to play a role in addressing the issue of homelessness, a point the event tried to drive home to attendees.

Project Jumpstart is a student founded, student run organization headed by Epidemiology graduate student Dan Andersen. The group unofficially began in November 2005 with several students meeting informally to make and distribute sandwiches to the homeless on Friday nights. Now Project Jumpstart is a USGA sponsored group and they have added an additional night, Tuesday, to their grassroots breadbasket efforts. Andersen said that when members of Project Jumpstart first began their work, many of the homeless population were wary of the students. Now, according to Andersen, “the people know where we will be” and show up at the designated areas.

Calvin Coates, a counselor with the Division of Community Psychiatry and the SSI Outreach Project, hosted part of the evening’s discussions. Coates, who worked in New York City for many years in outreach programs involving HIV/AIDS patients, said that Baltimore was “far behind” other metropolitan areas in dealing with the homelessness crisis. He said that places such as New York have been so successful in their crusade to end homelessness primarily because of people who advocate the cause as well as committed agencies. He also attributed New York’s success to the fact that in New York, housing is not a luxury, “it’s a right”.

The discussion also covered the city’s ten year plan to end homelessness that Mayor Sheila Dixon unveiled in January. Although both Coates and Andersen are naturally skeptical about this plan, they each agree that it is at least a step in the right direction for the city.

To find out more about Project Jumpstart’s initiative to end homelessness in Baltimore, or to participate in weekly food drives, contact Dan Andersen at danderse@epi.umaryland.edu.