Charity Fest: A Photojournalistic Approach to Stimulating Change by Alyssa Miserendino

“According to the most recent official estimate, approximately 675,000 people are homeless on any given night. In any given year, 2.5 to 3.5 million people will experience at least one night of homelessness. Though the numbers are difficult to track, the Alliance estimates that roughly one million more people will become homeless as a result of the current recession.:

National Alliance to End Homelessness 

Using her camera to document the crisis with the growing number of abandoned properties in the Chicago area, Alyssa Miserendino hopes to increase awareness and in turn stimulate change.  The homeless situation isn’t slowing down, while the number of abandoned properties, especially in the current recession continues to rise.   Some times it’s a photojournalistic approach that a situation calls for to create change!

For the last six months I’ve been capturing homes in foreclosure and shortsale all around Chicago – from the inside.  

 I’ve been to properties with notices up since 1998, walked though gates with layers of cobwebs, into homes with what is left behind – the day a family & children were evicted, the day the owners ran out of funds to complete construction or the day the owner died and the family neglected to clear the home of the deceased’s belongings.  

But what happens after?

We lock up, board up, & ‘toss’ away our homes, making them unusable as time passes on. However, what is wrong with using the old and making it new? It allows our economy to grow in a more cradle to cradle fashion / in a more sustainable system. After all, we no longer live in shrinking cities – we need to figure out how to use what we have. Here in the United States we have the right to use property that is available and unused. It’s called: adverse possession. Essentially, a person takes public possession of a property, improves it, & after a certain amount of time, he or she will acquire title to the property.  

What is important is that property should not remain idle. When it does, it is wasted to the community. However, no one can use this law because we stigmatize these empty homes. Eventually they go into such disrepair the only hope is to bulldoze or allow them to decay into the earth. 

But what about the rest of the world?   Through travel and word of mouth, I’ve learned that other countries, in some cases, create homes out of what is left behind. This is what I want to document next: Our world Insideout.

Our World Insideout was created with the hope that it will incite a visual global dialog concerning the used and unused resources we call home; thus, inspiring change. It touches on many levels of humanity & one of the most sacred places for us: home.