There are nights at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre
Dumfries when the talk or the question and answer session following a films
screening is more interesting than the film itself. It happened again after the Film Club screening
of the American documentary The Overnighters (2014). Let me
explain, the RBC had arranged for a local representative of Shelter Scotland to
give us a post-film talk on homelessness in Dumfries because the subject matter
of Jesse Moss’s film was to do with homelessness in and around the oil boom
taking place in North Dakota located in the Upper Midwestern region of the
United States of America. But it turned out that the problems Shelter deal with
are far wider ranging than these seen in the documentary.
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| Man travel from allover the US for the prospect of work. |
Moss was not only the director but also the writer and
producer, as Ellen Mitchell told us in her introduction to the documentary, and
has six previous documentary’s as director to his credit. She also said that his latest work has been
described as ‘painfully relevant’ and ‘hard hitting’.
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| The Pastor preaches to his "new" congregation. |
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| The men are introduced to their new sleeping quarters. |
The film is set in Williston, which is enjoying a boom in
the oil industry. The local population are beginning to imagine that all the
unemployed men in America are descending on the town in search of employment. But
the reality is that these men are chasing the broken American dream we all keep
hearing about and Williston is no different. There are in fact slim pickings as
far as work prospects go and an even bigger problem for both employed and
unemployed is that there is quite simple no where to sleep. Pastor Jay Reinke
of the Concordia Lutheran Church comes to the rescue and arranges for the
migrants to bed down on the floor of the church much to the disgust of not only
the Pastors congregation but also to the wider public of this small introverted
community. He also opens up the church car park allowing them to sleep in their
cars and RV’s. The situation becomes even more heated when it’s revealed that a
lot of the men staying under the protection of Reinke have chequered pasts.
Some have served prison sentences while others are on the sex offender’s register!
Gradually the pressure mounts and the Pastor begins to come to the realisation
that this refuge for his fellow human beings may have to be closed down.
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| Things get a bit too much for Pastor Jay. |
Described in the press notes as “
A modern-day Grapes of Wrath, The Overnighters engages and
dramatizes a set of universal societal and economic themes: the promise and
limits of re-invention, redemption and compassion, as well as the tension
between the moral imperative to “love thy neighbour” and the resistance that
one small community feels when confronted by a surging river of desperate,
job-seeking strangers”
.
As commendable as the film is, by the end, and I won’t give away a wee twist in
the last ten minutes, you’re not really sure whether the documentary is about
the endemic problem of unemployment and the lack of descent affordable
accommodation amongst people whose rights are decidedly limited by their social
standing or is it the story of a humanitarian’s downfall? Either way is a
difficult situation and you will just have to go and see the documentary and
make your own mind’s up.
As I have said previously, the screening was followed by a
talk from Victoria Long who works for Shelter Scotland as a Family Support
Worker based in Dumfries and Galloway (D&G). She started by telling us a
little of the registered charity’s history. Shelter was launched on 1
st
December1966 encouraged by the outcry that was raised after the showing of the
BBC’s Wednesday Play
Cathy Come Home
written by Jeremy Sandford, directed by Ken Loach
and starring Carol White and Ray Brooks. The play highlighted the plight of a
family, including their two young children, who fell on hard times and eventually
were made homeless. After seeing the play, social campaigner and political
activist Des Wilson helped to set up Shelter.
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| The well known charity shop in Dumfries High Street. |
Victoria went on the explain that in D&G, Dumfries and
Annan are the most problematic area’s and with a 1000 to 1200 increase each
year over the last five years and with Westminster changing the benefit rules
homelessness can only get worse. Because of the ‘bedroom tax’ single people
cannot afford to stay in two-bedroom accommodation any longer and the stock of
cheap one-bedroom flats is almost non-existent.
Couple this with the fact that the Government no longer pay private
landlord’s their rent direct (Universal Credit gathers together six means
tested benefits and tax credits including housing benefit and pays the claimant
once a month), rents are sky high and if you make a mistake whilst making a
claim for job seekers allowance your ‘sanctioned’ which means you get no money
for a minimum period of four weeks and up to a maximum of three years! The
authorities have 28 days to investigate so you’re going to be without means of
support for some time. Lack of employment opportunities in the area does not
help the situation either.
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| Is this the right place for an solider? |
Shelter Dumfries, supports both single people and families,
people with drug and alcohol problems and domestic abuse victims. Two teams
work in the D&G area; one deals with families the other with single people.
The local council, who also provide housing and funding, refers clients to
Shelter.
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| Campaigns to raise awareness and funds. |
Working along side other support services Shelters work
includes many other aspects related to helping people, mainly male, with
problems including rent and mortgage arrears, landlord disputes, eviction and
repossession, damp and dangerous housing, overcrowding and general legalities
in regard to housing rights. Shelter believes that everyone should have a
decent home, warm and safe, it’s a pity that our lords and masters don’t
believe the same! They also advice people on how to manage their finances and
any legal problems they may have in connection with their accommodation. All their work does not just involve people
of working age but also older folk who have lived in tied housing as part of
their employment and now they have reached retirement age have nowhere to live.
There was also something Victoria said that particular raised my hackles where
as families turn out their own children? How the hell can you sink so low that
your prepared to make your own kids homeless!!
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| This is someone's son! |
This was a very informative introduction to the work of
Shelter Dumfries and I for one would like to thank Victoria Long for
sacrificing her free time to come along to the RBC on a cold Monday night. It’s
just a shame that more people were not there to benefit from it. We are all
aware that our system of government is based on exploitation and greed and does
not really care about the ordinary working class person, but unless our
governmental system is changed completely the poor will continue to be
exploited for profit and never get a fair crack of the whip. Organisations like
Shelter and the Food Banks will be ever more stretched; eventually with the
cutbacks we are promised they will probably get to a stage when they are unable
to cope at all. Then what?
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| The despair of people living on the streets in one of the richest countries in the world! |
Ken Loach has said that despite the public outcry
following the play, it had little practical effect in reducing homelessness,
other than changing rules so that homeless fathers could stay with their wives
and children in hostels.
