Forty-eight hours on the street

Seven students become homeless for two days as part of program

An alternative spring break activity gave KU students the chance to be homeless for two days.

By Andrew Wiebe (Contact)

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Katie Hill and Ryan Campbell were hungry. After wandering around Washington, D.C. by foot with only a baloney sandwich to tide them over, the $1.13 that their group of three had collected panhandling that day certainly wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy their hunger.

In the end, Hill, a Wichita senior, Campell, an Olathe junior, and Brittany Wolfe, Kansas City, Kan., junior, settled for a McDonald’s double cheeseburger split among the three of them and a night spent sleeping on the streets.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The experience was just one of many a group of seven KU students will remember the rest of their lives after spending 48 hours on the street while participating in the Homeless Challenge during spring break.

Participants spent a 48-hour period living exactly as a homeless person would , sleeping on the street, begging for food and money and attempting to find work despite lacking a home address, as part of the KU Alternative Break program. Though seven began the 48-hour period on the street, only four continued after the first day. The others opted to end their period of homelessness early.

Hill said she felt uneasy about the potential danger initially, but that she never felt scared or threatened during the two days she spent homeless. The most eye opening part of her experience was the hatred and disgust people exhibited toward her, contrasted by the way fellow homeless people treated her, she said.

“People that society had written off were the only people that cared,” Hill said about the warmth and caring shown by others living on the street. “Other people wouldn’t even give you the time of day.”

Campbell said he assumed that they would just be ignored by passersby, but he was surprised by the severity of their treatment by strangers. He said the aspect of the trip that would stick with him was the realization that money and material possessions weren’t necessarily the route to happiness, especially after experiencing the hardships that thousands go through everyday with no end in sight, he said.

“You are cold, you are tired and you are hungry,” Campbell said. “It’s absolutely miserable, and we knew we only had to be there for 48 hours.”

Other than feeding themselves, the group faced sleeping on the pavement both nights. Participants are allowed to bring a sleeping bag, though carrying it with you all day can be tiring, Campbell said. For even more insulation against the near freezing temperatures, the group was forced to forage for newspaper and cardboard in dumpsters and trash receptacles.

“Dumpster diving is exactly what you think it would be,” Campbell said. “It smells really terrible, and you get really filthy. You just dig until you actually find something.”

Sarah Rosa, Homeless Challenge Project Director, said the program offered Homeless Challenges for students as well as politicians that wanted to know how their policy decisions affected the homeless. She said the program provided a safe environment in which to get a taste of street life, and that nobody had been hurt in the 20-odd years of the program’s existence.

The groups are paired up with a guide, usually someone who has experience living on the streets of Washinton, D.C., who makes sure they are safe at night and carries a cell phone in case of emergency.

Rosa said the goal of the program was to show the human side of homelessness so people can see just how difficult it is to survive on the streets.

“They are doing something willingly that millions of homeless people don’t,” Rosa said. “No one ultimately chooses to be homeless.”

— Edited by Jared Duncan

Discussion

All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.