Filmmakers interview Herbert (above), an aged Portlander on the brink of losing his housing, March 12 Credit: Photo courtesy of "No Place to Grow Old" production team
With storytelling at the heart of his nonprofit work, Larson said he intends to humanize homelessness and inspire community-led solutions. His story started in the foster care system with his siblings before a single mother adopted them, bringing hope and encouragement into their lives for the first time.
“About 40% of kids in foster care age out (of foster care) into homelessness,” Larson said. “I feel a deep responsibility to give back.”
Larson founded Humans for Housing last June, building on the documentary idea with his friend Davey Schaupp. Larson fundraised and conducted outreach while Schaupp directed the film over the last year.
“I want people to know (seniors) are the fastest growing demographic of people entering homelessness,” Larson said. “It’s the first documentary in the nation to tell that story. Though the focus is on Portland, this is happening in every city throughout the country.”
To Larson’s point, researchers and advocates alike are sounding alarms about the aged homelessness crisis.
“As the nation’s population of older adults swells, so, too, does demand for housing that is both affordable and able to accommodate older adults’ changing needs,” a recent Harvard study found.
Preview and premiere of ‘No Place to Grow Old’
In March, Schaupp and a 10-person production team completed filming in 20 days, facing rainy weather and coordinating with homeless Portlanders. They built relationships with the individuals who share their stories in the film and everyone on the team carefully avoided sensationalizing the topic, Schaupp said.
“Realizing I was walking into stories I couldn’t firsthand relate to but not wanting to show a partial picture of who they are, a goal was to speak to the wholeness of them as complex human beings and not just people experiencing homelessness,” Schaupp said.
“No Place to Grow Old” brings visibility to aged homeless Portlanders. The city’s downtown lights, the Willamette River and other outdoor scenes are interspersed with close up shots of people between the ages of 56 and 72 telling their stories. “No Place to Grow Old” seeks to convey their plight while including interviews with academic experts on the topic.
High — and still increasing — Portland housing prices are a primary driver of homelessness for those interviewed. High rents combined with experiences like predatory loans, losing a spouse, losing a job and struggling with trauma all push people off the cliff.
“I want people to know (seniors) are the fastest growing demographic of people entering homelessness. It’s the first documentary in the nation to tell that story.”
Michael Larson, founder of Humans for Housing
Jennifer Molinksy, Housing an Aging Society Program director within Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and leading experts from Portland weigh in throughout the film. Marisa Zapata, Portland State University’s Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative director, also shares her concerns.
“In the tri-county area, we have had approximately 1 million people move to the region since 1990,” Zapata said in the documentary. “We did not, in fact, keep up the pace of housing, though we needed to accommodate that growth.”
Many seniors are homeless for the first time, Zapata said, arguing more intervention is needed to keep people inside.
John Taponga, ECOnorthwest senior policy advisor, spoke about the history of Portland’s housing market. He said housing shortages, a lack of federal investment and substantial rent and housing price increases in the past few decades drove many onto the streets and are keeping them there. The impacts go beyond financial and spatial problems.
“Having nobody and nothing and nowhere is very, very difficult,” 56-year-old Belinda said in the film.
The documentary seeks to remind viewers each homeless person had a childhood, and many had stable employment and housing at one time. These individuals have more in common with housed people than is often acknowledged, and the film encourages viewers to find compassion and start there.
“I deserve a chance,” 59-year-old Laura said in the film.
At a time in life when the body slows down, people are living with fear, cold, illness and extreme discomfort. Jerry, 66, said his knee and hip hurt while he sleeps outside every night.
The documentary production team (left to right): Ryan Tidrick, Davey Schaupp, Noah Wallace, Michael Larson and Isaac O'Farrell.
“I don’t think anyone’s really gotten a handle on how to explain to the housed people why we’re out here and what the plight is,” Jerry said in the documentary. “They just don’t understand it. They think we’re out here just cause we’re lazy or we don’t want to do anything or we’re stupid or we’re drug addicts or whatever. There’s a lot more to it than that.”
After the Sept. 27 premiere at Newmark Theatre, five experts will join a panel discussion about homelessness, including a few familiar faces from the documentary.
“We felt like storytelling would humanize this issue,” Shaupp said. “In Portland there is empathy fatigue but storytelling would bring people back to the table to talk about solutions.”
Larson sees the film as a love letter to Portland with the beautiful shots and the ways the city balances beauty and hardships.
“People won’t want to miss the event and it catalyzes a movement,” Larson said. “This is so much more than a documentary screening, but truly the start of a larger movement around seeing our unhoused neighbors as humans with stories and as part of a larger issue we can’t look away from.”
Humans for Housing
Humans for Housing is growing in numbers and Larson credits an incredible team with carrying out the work of this movement. The team includes two close friends on the founding board along with administration and about 13 others who help with plan events and run operations. Many are involved as contractors and give time to the organization when they can, Larson said.
“The film was funded by individuals who care deeply about this project, the smallest gift being $25 and the largest gift being tens of thousands of dollars.” Larson said. “Every dollar counted to pull off the production of this film. In the last year we’ve raised $175,000 to date to produce and launch ‘No Place to Grow Old.’”
Now the goal is to raise money for distribution costs in different communities, which include renting venues, staffing and management of screenings. For each screening, Larson said they hope three or four more screenings come from it. The plan is to start with Portland and build out across the state with a national scope early next year.
“There is so much power in stories,” Larson said. “It is so easy to dehumanize people who are homeless. We forget that these people have lives.”
Humans For Housing will create more storytelling opportunities in the future, with the possibility of other films and projects. Beyond expanded distribution, donations will fund the next projects.
“Even though it takes extra emotional energy to see people beyond their circumstances and stereotypes, it is always worth it,” Schaupp said. “Leaving space for the complexity of what it means to be a human is hard but it is worth it.”
A path to giving back
Larson’s motivation for starting Humans for Housing was rooted in his childhood experiences. He was adopted at age 12 after 10 years in foster care with his two siblings.
His adoptive mother introduced the children to a world of mentors, teachers, faith leaders, coaches and supportive adults. With encouragement, Larson and his siblings used their influence to make an impact. They created the “It Takes a Village” scholarship to assist Black students and/or students with experience in the foster care system to go to college.
Larson remembers his high school student leadership teacher telling him he could do whatever he put his mind to.
“She believed in me and my abilities and that belief rubbed off on me,” Larson said. “It was people like her that helped push me along the way to pursuing higher education and encouraged me to make a difference in the life of others.”
While earning a sociology degree from Gonzaga University, he was able to take a step back and see issues at a larger scale. Larson’s passion for serving people experiencing homelessness developed when he learned about the pipeline of kids aging out of foster care into homelessness.
“Having made it out of my childhood with positive outcomes, I was convinced to give back in whatever way I could,” Larson said. “Storytelling became my tool for humanizing and catalyzing change.”
This storytelling began when Larson directed a short documentary, “Humanizing Spokane,” about four individuals experiencing homelessness in Spokane. The documentary was released to four colleges.
With 20 other students involved in the film, Larsen led a march to get the city of Spokane to focus on housing policy in order to build affordable housing. The idea of turning stories into sustainable organization grew. With endless optimism, resourcefulness and a growing nonprofit, Larson said he will continue this work in the future.
“At the end of the day it’s going to take every single one of us to do our part,” Larson said. “It will take everybody doing what they can to get out of this crisis. We are past the point of relying on people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
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