Why is homelessness such an unimaginable task to annihilate? Have we given up on the simple task of helping out the less fortunate? There are simple things to do that will help anyone down on their luck, or that are chronically homeless. How do I know? I’ve lived on the streets.
No I’ve never been poverty ridden nor have I been forced to live where people shouldn’t; I chose to live homeless. I will not pretend to know the truth of the lives of the homeless, because I did not truly experience what some go through. As part of a school project, each senior chooses a topic that is meaningful to them; projects ranged from construction, to service, to science experiments.
My chosen topic was obviously that of homelessness. The initial research of my project was the physical, mental, and social effects on individuals living in non-livable conditions. After the research was completed, I had to do a hands-on experience that I could later ellaborate to in a project at the end of the school year. Sure I could have voluteered at a soup kitchen or at a shelter, but I was not convinced that I could make a large difference in this way. I decided to live four days and three nights homeless.
Now let me just say, I have been both critized and praised for this project; there is nothing anyone can say that I haven’t already heard. Humans tend to be much more negative than positive collectively. From “This has already been done, what good can you do?” to “This project is demeaning to those your are trying to help,” I understood that this project would not be widely accepted. So why still do it? I am an 18 year old student and I saw an opportunity that I believed could make a difference, and I took it.
My journey began by walking out of my front door and putting one foot in front of the other for the next couple of hours. Being a varsity cross country runner, I believed walking would be a cinch. I was wrong. I walked with a backpack and sleeping bag hanging from my shoulders like an unending piggy back ride. After the initial trek, I stopped at my first destination, a large local church in my town. Here I was welcomed with open arms even though I can’t imagine I looked (or smelled) good enough to even be accepted by dogs. The service was over and it was time to find shelter.
Of course I had previously considered where to go before this point; I wouldn’t have been allowed to leave without a game plan. But this is where I learned the first hardship of homelessness, plans change. The one place I had planned on sleeping had multiple gang symbols painted across the once thriving building, which also provided very little protection from the elements; time to move on. I found a church not too far from where I was planning on staying and settled in for the night. Here comes the next hardship, the cold. I did this project in the middle of winter with no chance of snow, but very windy and very cold.
I made the mistake of trying to sleep at 7 pm the first night. I do not say mistake lightly, this could have been a very health threatening blunder. I lay on the cold earth seperated by merely a sleeping bag and a coat for hours. My body lay losing more and more heat with each passing ice-forming breath that left my lips. This was the one and only time I granted myself the phone call home. I slept in my warm comfortable bed that night.
The next days were much of the same, with one growing problem; I was alone. Obviously there were people all around me. After all, I live in a city of approximately 42,000. There were cars passing, people talking on their phones, all stuck in their own worlds, never giving me a second glance. This was the problem: isolation. The Medical School from the University of Michigan showed that the brain has the same responses to social rejection as it does to physical pain. This speaks for itself; everytime we shun someone that is different than us, their brains undergo the stress of physical pain. We are literally slapping someone in the face every time we look away from them!
Now, I restate that I can not even pretend to know what true homelessness is like. I did not starve, I did not get sick, I was safe; some people never have those luxuries. Why do we become complacent when last year the were over half a million people living on the streets?
This is not something to push to the side. There are so many ways to help that it would be impossible to name them all. Maybe it's building “tiny houses” that are designated for the homeless, maybe it’s volunteering at your local shelter, but the one thing I recommend is simply having a conversation with someone. This is hard, even for me; it is difficult to strike up a simple conversation with a complete stranger, but we need more people that can do this.
I leave you with a quote from Linda Lingle that sums up this post quite nicely.
"We have come dangerously close to accepting the homeless situation as a problem that we just can't solve."
