Correction appended.
John Agnone was on a urban hike with his wife in Portland, Oregon, when he saw a young girl lying on the ground.
Upon closer inspection, he observed that the girl had a lot of marks on her legs. The sight compelled document the people affected by homelessness in Portland.
On Feb. 20, Agnone, an adjunct professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communications, presented a lecture on his photographic exhibition “Rough Sleepers,” a project which highlights the plight and conditions of people living on the streets.
Salgu Wissmath, a graduate student studying photojournalism, helped organize the exhibition. Salgu said Agnone’s exhibition was chosen as it “highlights the work done by people that are part of the Visual Communications faculty.”
The presentation started with Agnone listing statistics he has gathered. The rate of homelessness has increased over the years with roughly 100 million people living on the streets worldwide, Agnone said.
“All we can do is keep hammering at the problem, and as I said, I don’t have all the answers. All I can do is shine light and build awareness,” Agnone said in an interview following the presentation. “Once we are all aware of it, then we can think about it clearly.”
Agnone’s research was influenced by Israel Bayer’s TED Talk on the topic of homelessness titled “Homelessness in America: The Journey Home.”
In Agnone’s presentation he gave a brief overview of every photograph he took. Agnone asked all the subjects in his photographs a similar question — “what is your dream?”
The most common answer was the dream of “being clean,” meaning to be off of drugs.
“You can’t be sober on the streets,” one of the subjects photographed replied.
During the presentation, members of the audience said one of the main arguments for people living on the streets is due to the usage of drugs.
“Drugs aren’t what is driving them to the streets, it provides a relief instead,” Agnone said.
Agnone believes one of the many reasons for an increase in homelessness is the high cost of housing.
“Back in the ’60s, there was quite a bit of money under the federal government to housing and urban development,” Agnone said.
During the Reagan administration, the funds for the housing that were being allocated were cut back by 90 percent. That had a huge role to play, causing more people to look for shelter in the streets as a home, he said.
“Just because a person has a drug problem, has PTSD or has just gotten out of jail, they are still people, they still have feelings, they still can contribute to society, given the chance,” Agnone said. “They need help.”
One of the audience members said the presentation made her realize her privileges such as having a roof over her head, a Social Security number and food.
Agnone highlighted an upcoming five-day fundraising event for people affected by homelessness from Feb. 25 to Mar. 2 at West Portico on College Green. All proceeds will be donated to the Good Works, Inc. Timothy House.
Ty Battle, a freshman studying business, recognizes the need to be educated on this topic.
“I feel like we should be investing more resources in reducing homelessness,” Battle said. “It is baffling to see that we have a huge military but still struggle to provide equal opportunities at home.”
Correction: A previous version of this report had several factual inaccuracies including information about the number of people experiencing homelessness. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
