Library:Interview with Robin Stuht

Interview with Robin Stuht
By Saul Wenger, February 2024

Question 1: What was your introduction to working with and assisting the unhoused community?

Reply: Please watch the sixteen forty-nine documentary on You tube [sic] that I produced and Ruben Burgos directed.

Question 2: What is the nature of your work? How do you help the homeless population in your area?

Reply: I help remove educational barriers for students and families expereincing [sic] homelessness. This includes providing basic needs resources such as food, hygiene products, shelter information and transportation just to name a few. I created a Beloit Area Task Force on Homelessness that includes 149 multijurisdictional partcipants [sic] that meet monthly to collaborate services and help alleviate challenges for those expereincing [sic] homelessness.

Question 3: What are your motivations for doing such work?

Reply: I want to be a voice for those that do not have one. I care about our students and families experiencing and want them to have opportunities to rise up and out of poverty and homelessness.

Question 4: What, generally, are the living conditions for the unhoused population?

Reply: The Unaccompanied Homeless [sic] teens, are those experiencing homelessness without being in the custody of a parent or guardian. Some couch surf from friends houses night to night. They are vulnerable to Human Trafficking and not having anyone to guide or help them with their basic and academic needs. Some sleep outside, or in storage spaces. Some families double up with other families or friends which is usually only possible for a night or two. Some sleep in cars with their [sic] children. Some are in shelters. We do not have enough Shelters so there is usually a long waiting list.

Question 5: How do non-homeless members of your community treat the homeless? If their treatment varies, what groups treat the homeless better or worse?

Reply: All of our participants of the Beloit Area Task Force on Homelessness treat those experiencing homelessness with dignity and respect. Some that are upper class citizens do not understand what it is like to experience homeless and can judge harshly. The NIMBY (not in my back yard group) treat those experiencing homelessness the worst. They label our homeless families as those that are lazy and do not want to work. They believe that are homeless families are on drugs and are criminals.

Question 6: How has the local government treated the homeless community? Have their measures been meaningful or harmful to the homeless population?

Reply: Our local government city officals [sic] are part of our BATFoH task force. They are trying to get developers in to build affordable housing as the majority of our families are working.

Question 7: How have current events such as the 2020 pandemic and resultant recession effected the homeless community?

Reply: Yes, ultimately it caused rents to double or triple. Property Management companies bought a lot of the rentals and there have been many evictions.

Question 8: What areas need to be altered or improved to resolve the problems faced by the unhoused community?

Reply: We need the HUD definition of homelessness to mirror the McKinney Vento defintion [sic] of homelessness to allow more funding from the federal level. We need more emergency shelters. We need more case managers to help teach families to be able to navigate resources needed, and to create goals for future success into housing.

Permission was attained by the subject of the interview to share its contents with others.