Spotlight: Jeremy Goldsmith and Interning at a Men's Shelter

Jasmeet Bawa
Mar 4, 2016
4 min read

Hi! My name is Jeremy Goldsmith. I'm a senior at Rutgers studying Social Work & Psychology. I'm from Cheltenham, PA, a culturally-thriving neighborhood that borders North Philadelphia. I came to Rutgers University because I felt drawn to the diversity of the student body and the opportunities offered by such a large, prestigious instution. While I'm a part of several organizations at Rutgers, I'm currently most active in Verbal Mayhem Poetry Collective and Ben Azzai: Social Justice Through a Jewish Lens.

As a social work student, I'm sure you've read and analyzed the social issue of homelessness on multiple levels and through many lens. I'm curious about how you perceive homelessness in New Brunswick and what you think are solutions.

My perceptions are similar to most New Brunswick residents, in that homelessness is an obvious problem. While there are resources in the city to help homeless citizens, they're not doing enough. And there's definitely no one solution for problems like these. Even though I've been working with the homeless population in various ways since my freshman year, I can't say I have a solution. While some suggest rapid rehousing projects to get people in immediate shelter, others suggest criminal justice reform in our state, to make job opportunities more readily available to those with criminal backgrounds. I think the solution will come from several different methods and approaches to the needs of the homeless community.

What do you think are major roadblocks to ending homelessness?

From my experience, the greatest roadblock I've witnessed is the lack of access to jobs for those with criminal backgrounds. Most of my clients at the men's shelter have criminal backgrounds, and finding them any occupation outside of a minimum-wage temp job is nearly impossible. And while the temp jobs can provide an income, the competition for those jobs is through the roof in New Brunswick, and most workers only get called in for work a few times per week. $8.50 an hour for three days per week can't pay a rent bill or mortgage.

The field of social work places a strong emphasis on the strengths-based approach when working with clients where the social worker is expected to focus on one's strengths instead of their weaknesses.

Can you elaborate on working at the Ozanam Men's Shelter?

During the senior year or Rutgers' Bachelor's in Social Work program, all students must work an internship for 15 hours per week at a social service agency. I had the honor of being offered a case manager internship at the Ozanam Men's Shelter, and it sounded like too meaningful of an experience to pass up.

I manage the cases of five clients at the shelter. From intake to exit, I am responsible for meeting with them every two weeks, and linking them to any community resources in which they may need. Some common needs include healthcare, employment, and counseling.

The case managers are fantastic and really dedicated to bettering their clients' life circumstances. They are knowledgeable of services offered by the community, and are effective in connecting clients to them. Ideally, case management could be even more effective if there were more case managers on site. The unfortunate truth about social service agencies is that they are often grossly underfunded, which prevents more staff from being hired. If Ozanam could afford more case managers, attention to clients would be more individualized, which I believe would help them find housing quicker.

I took one of my clients to a local art show, where his art was being displayed. The field of social work places a strong emphasis on the strengths-based approach when working with clients, where the social worker is expected to focus on one's strengths instead of their weaknesses. Although this particular client has had gotten into a fair amount of legal trouble in his past, and has had a really tough time finding employment, his art has kept him positive and hopeful. His work had never previously been shown in a gallery, so witnessing that was really life-changing for the both of us.

Do you see a lot activism on campus concerning this issue? Do you think these movements are effective?

I see a lot of advocacy for the homeless by students, and a strong passion for helping, but many students don't know how to get involved. However, I've definitely noticed groups like RUSH are bridging those gaps more easily.

There are too many resume workshops and not enough actual occupations for people to turn in their resumes to.

How can people be more involved with the shelter or what are some innovative programs that you think the Rutgers community could provide to the homeless population?

There are several ways in which students get involved helping homeless residents on an individual level, such as volunteering at Elijah's Promise (the New Brunswick soup kitchen), or at the Rotating Shelter, which hosts an overflow of men from Ozanam during the winter months. These opportunities are meaningful and useful. However, students should also use their power to advocate for change in accessibility to resources for the homeless. As mentioned, I think advocating for more employment opportunities for those with criminal backgrounds is a crucial step. There are too many resume workshops and not enough actual occupations for people to turn in their resumes to. Aside from advocacy, it would be great if the Rutgers community could set up events to bridge the gap between the homeless and student populations. If passionate students had more opportunities to speak with homeless residents one-on-one, they could better understand their needs from the community. Similar to how the community runs conversation cafes for English and Spanish community members to converse with one another, it'd be great to see similar events for different residents of New Brunswick to converse and learn from each other.

And I just want to end with this question: what is one thing you wish everyone knew about homelessness?

I just wish people could understand that homelessness isn't an issue of personable responsibility. Are there homeless citizens who are too lazy to work? Sure there are. But there are plenty of wealthy Americans who have the same reluctance; the only difference is that some of us have more of a financial cushion than others. More times than not, the causes of homelessness are deficiencies in resources, not work ethic.