The Vikings

Houston contains about 10,000 homeless people on its streets on any given night. More than 3,000 of these individuals are considered chronically homeless, and more than fifty percent of these individuals have been diagnosed with mental illness and report having a substance abuse problem. According to Scott Arthur, Director of Public Relations for the Star of Hope Homeless Shelter in Houston, these same people call themselves the Vikings. The national average for a person to remain homeless is 8 months; the current Houston average is a little over 3 years.

Through these photographs I explore the current sociological situation of the homeless people of Houston, Texas. I talked to them all, and tried to record them through their possessions, their countenances and their surroundings.

-DY
2009