Documentary sheds light on economic crisis

Pennsylvania filmmaker Hannah Dobbz is shedding new light on the economic housing crisis with a film screening of her documentary “Shelter” at 7 p.m. tonight in the Fine Arts Building.

“Shelter” follows three squatters, people who occupy unused land or buildings without having legal rights to do so, in San Francisco – an area typically known for its high cost of living. It outlines the troubles they face with police and landlords and documents their defeats and victories.

With homeless numbers rising and a current unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, “Shelter” could not have surfaced at a better time, Dobbz said.

“It’s suddenly so valuable,” she said. “People are getting desperate. People are getting scared.”

Peter Schanz, campus organizer for the Indiana Public Interest Research Group, said he agrees.

“The amount of poverty and hunger we are experiencing is something we can’t solve unless everyone gets involved,” he said.

INPIRG – a student-directed, student-funded, nonprofit organization which focuses on problems such as hunger and homelessness, is sponsoring the screening of Dobbz’s documentary at IU to bring more interest to the current economic situation.

“It brings squatting to the forefront of the mainstream consciousness,” Dobbz said. “It exposes it to people who are not typically exposed to it.”

But Dobbz said she has other expectations for “Shelter” as well.

While the number of squatters and supporters of the movement continue to grow, most landlords and other bystanders continue to have strong oppositions to it, Dobbz said, so she hopes to change their negative perceptions of the movement.

“I want people to shift their mindsets and look at squatting as a tool for social change,” she said.

Dobbz said she hopes people begin to understand the positives of squatting and take an initiative to do something productive about it. Turning abandoned buildings into community centers or housing facilities is something that could be done to benefit an
entire community, she said.

Heather Zurek, INPIRG hunger and homelessness campaign coordinator, said she understands that community activism is something Bloomington needs. Specifically, she said she hopes “Shelter” will bring awareness to the problems that local homeless shelters are dealing with.

“Homelessness is a huge problem,” Zurek said. “The numbers are rising drastically.”

Unfortunately, though, numbers are not the biggest problem for Bloomington shelters.

“Funding for homeless shelters is decreasing,” Zurek said. “The shelters are not going to be able to support themselves. Their services are going to run out.”

But whether the problems addressed are national or local, the main focus of “Shelter” is to bring squatting out from underneath the rug and elaborate on the problems that are often ignored.

“It illustrates the unpublicized elements of the economic crisis we are in right now,” Schanz said.