Eric Sheptock Interview, December 20, 2023
Primary tabs
- View (active tab) Next1 of 2
- We are at the Homeless Memorial Vigil at Freedom Plaza in
- Washington, DC.
- Could you tell us your name?
- Eric Sheptock.
- Hi, Eric.
- Would you mind telling us what you think the biggest causes of
- homelessness are in DC? Well I think that the list hasn't
- really changed at all over the years.
- First is lack of affordable housing.
- Second is lack of a living wage job.
- Of course, they kind of go together because your income
- determines whether or not the housing is affordable.
- So those two together are the leading cause.
- And then of course there's lack of affordable health care which
- causes the person to have to choose between paying for their
- health care and medications or paying for their housing, making
- those sorts of tough choices.
- And then I know that domestic
- violence is also a major cause.
- More often than not, it's the
- woman who is the victim and who has to run from a violent man, and
- that leads to homelessness.
- And then untreated mental illness
- can cause people to make really bad choices that cause them to be
- homeless.
- Thank you, thank you.
- What do you think are the most critical issues to work on in the
- movement to end homelessness? Well, I think that the city has
- really stepped up in terms of helping the disabled, mentally
- physically disabled, but they've really tried to ignore able-bodied
- people who can work and who want to work and pay rent and hold
- their own.
- And it's just my suspicion that
- they feel like if they were to make housing affordable for all
- able-bodied workers, including those who make minimum wage, that
- then they'd have a massive influx of able-bodied people who want
- that affordable housing, some of whom used to live in D.C.
- And want to return.
- If you could get 50 people to join
- in with you on any kind of action, What would that action be to end
- homelessness? Ooh-wee.
- Well, I guess I would want to have an action where we pressure the
- mayor and the council into confronting landlords, taking away
- some of their freedoms that they have to basically run roughshod
- over the city and create unaffordable housing and just kind
- of force them to bring the rent down.
- Don't just stop the rent from going up if it's already too high.
- We need to actually force it down and make them justify their
- expenses and make some sort of rule where maybe they can't go
- more than 5% higher than the calculated cost of providing that
- housing.
- Excellent.
- If we, if, for you, what would a better world look like?
- Well, I'll sound a little bit repetitive here, but all
- able-bodied people would, number one, have jobs.
- And number two, they'd be able to afford all of their necessities.
- I mean, let's remember that they talk about many people being
- unmarketable, unemployable, but during slavery there was 100%
- employment rate for black people, you know.
- So I think we can get there again, but without the slavery element.
- And so all people who can work would have jobs and be able to
- afford what they need.
- And all people who can't work
- would be taken care of, not ignored, not left on the street.
- But then I guess that also kind of goes to another issue, which is
- people's rights, because people who are mentally ill, severely
- mentally ill, they make bad choices, choices to stay outside
- even when they don't need to, and to me that's not a choice because
- if you're not thinking clearly, then whatever choices you make
- that are, you know, unconventional and unusal are not really choices
- because they're coming from your mental illness.So anyway, there
- you have it.
- Thank you.
- Okay, one last question.
- Is there, today's, we're at the
- memorial vigil, homeless memorial vigil.
- Is there anybody you'd like to remember tonight?
- I actually have not received word of somebody that I know that died
- within the past 12 months.
- The way that the list is made,
- they used initials rather than full names, which is unusual to
- me.
- My first time seeing it done that
- way.
- So I don't even know who it is
- that passed away.
- I do know there are some people
- that I have tried to contact in the last few months that I've not
- been able to contact, and I don't know if they have passed on.
- So of the people that I know that have passed on in previous years,
- there are a number of different advocates that I would say, I wish
- were still here.
- Rita Samuels, let me see, a man
- named, oh, I'm trying to think of his name.
- I can think of his face.
- I know his last name was Carlisle,
- but anyway.
- Yeah, and I actually had the honor
- and privilege of knowing Terry Huff, who used to be a
- professional singer.
- And he was best known for a song,
- I Destroyed Your Love for Me.
- And so those are people I would
- like to remember.
- And I wish that I actually knew of
- all the people who I was acquainted with that have passed
- away.
- But unfortunately what happens is
- that a lot of times you don't find out about the person's death until
- this memorial because we really don't have a system for letting
- people know when their fellow homeless person has passed away.
- If they pass away in May, June, July, we don't find out until
- December.
- Thank you.
- Is there anything else you'd like to share with us tonight?
- Yes, I would say this, that I've been really hard on city officials
- over the years, and I do like to give credit where credit is due.
- And it's unusual for me to compliment the government, but I
- do think that they have made some strides in terms of bringing down
- the numbers of homeless people, but I I do wish that that they
- would do things even faster than they do now and I do wish that we
- didn't have to wait until an able-bodied person becomes
- disabled through years of homelessness and mental and
- physical stress and so forth until they move on to the disabled list
- and then they get housing.
- I wish D.C. were affordable to
- anyone and everyone.
- Thank you very much.
- Appreciate it.
- Alright, thank you.