What it means to be homeless, a personal experience

This is a 3 part story on how I spent a night on the street in Seattle as an experiment to better understand the life of homeless people that I pass by every day:

• Part 1: What it means to be homeless, a personal experience
• Part 2: My notes from the night I was homeless
• Part 3: What I learned from being homeless

 

Part 1: What it means to be homeless, a personal experience:

As I walking to our Microsoft Christmas party I passed by a homeless shelter that is in between my house and the Seattle Center where the Christmas party was being held at. I thought to myself I should come at stay at this shelter for one night to experience what it would mean to be homeless. Then I read the notices on the door saying that in order to stay there at night you have to register in them morning before 7:00AM. So sleeping on the street was my only option if I wanted to do this tonight.

It is a pretty cold night tonight, there is a light frost on the street which makes it a bit slippery but I am still determined to do this.

The contrast between a posh Christmas party and sleeping on the street will be memorable. I have seen absolute poverty in India and China before and I have been somewhat hardened by it. When I look at homeless people in Seattle I feel much less sympathetic because I compare them to homeless people in India and China who beside a rag around them have nothing. No shoes, no pants, no backpack, no sleeping bag, no jacket. They simply have nothing. They are very malnourished and skinny to the bones. It is very hard for me to see that level of poverty.
Poverty and suffering from it is very relative. I don’t doubt that homeless people in Seattle in Toronto are suffering. When they compare themselves to people that see everyday driving by in their car or going into their apartments they see the contrast with their life and it makes them feel poor. But what if you could take the same person to India where they would see that they are very rich indeed compared to the other homeless people around them. They would see that they are relatively well off. They would appreciate their shoes, pants, and not suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition. Now, would that person feel less pain for being homeless after coming back to Seattle or Toronto? Would they feel blessed to have as much as they do?
Every winter in Toronto a few dozen homeless people freeze to death. I tend to believe that there are shelter beds that left empty every night meanwhile some homeless people refuse to use those beds because they can’t put up with the rules and regulations that they have to abide by. They rather be sleeping on the street and being free but cold instead of sleeping the shelter and being warm but having to put up with curfew time, light out time, no drinking and not doing drugs. So they end up sleeping on the street in winter nights when it gets to -30 degrees Celsius and they freeze to death by the sunrise.

At least homeless people in Seattle don’t have to worry about freezing to death at night. I wonder if they think about that problem.

I don’t think sleeping one night on the street with sweat pants and sleeping bags will give me the same experience as being homeless. But it is one step in the direction of me to putting myself in someone else’s shoes and viewing the world from their point of view.
As I was walking back from Christmas party to my house at around 1:30 AM I consciously thought about what I was wearing.

• My suite and tie, which I wear probably only once a year, = $200
• Shoes = 80$
• Camera that I took with me to Christmas party = $2000
• Money in my wallet (I almost never carry cash with me) = $0
• Multiple credit cards = priceless (well, that is a luxury that only a couple of percent of people in the world can afford)

As I am mentally preparing myself for the long night on the street this is what I am thinking of wearing and taking with me.

• Jeans and long johns and sweater = $100
• Cash = $20
• Driver License, in case I get hassled by the police
• Pen and paper, to write down blogs
• Sleeping bag
• Cardboard boxes out of the recycling bin, to put me sleeping bag over

As I was walking to my house I kept looking and thinking about where I could sleep. I can’t sleep in someone’s door step. I would probably get kicked out immediately or in the morning. I also don’t want to risk getting arrested for trespassing. There is a small park by my house where some homeless people and Mexican immigrants hang out. I probably can stay there without being bothered by police or homeowners.

My next problem is getting robbed. I discussed with Jana on where I should put my shoes as we were walking home. I don’t want to take them off and put them beside me because it might get stolen. But I also don’t want to put them in my sleeping bag and get it dirty. So I am going to take them off and put my feet and the sleeping bag over them. Cool, the first problem of being homeless, solved!

I really hope that I don’t robbed or arrested. Beside that I can’t think of any other problem that I would run into.

It is already 2:00AM and I am sure all the homeless people are already sleeping so all I need to do is to find an empty park bench and camp out. I am pretty determined to stay out until sunrise. I will write more after I come back.