What I Learned from “One Night Without a Home”
As a member of the Lehigh Conference of Churches Ecumenism Committee, I heard about the One Night Without a Home event months ago. I was immediately interested because it gave a structure to my thinking about the housing crisis, homelessness and how social services are impacted. There are so many headlines, (maybe not enough, though) and stories about these concerns. But that could all be abstract and intellectual – quite removed from my secure, privileged bubble. Here was chance to see something for myself, directly.
On November 13, 2021, The Conference asked participants to commit to experience what it was like to be homeless for 12 hours–from 8 pm to 8 am–and to deepen the experience by tuning in to a YouTube program that included hourly activities from 8 pm to 11 pm. The Conference did not put limiting conditions on what it meant to be homeless, so I could decide what resources I could use.
My first lesson was that because of my wealth, I had many options to help me “play homeless” and “survive the night.” I have a car I could sleep in, adequate camping gear including a sleeping bag, a tent, and lights. I knew of several safe places where I could go. I had a phone and people who would come to get me in the middle of the night if I decided to “bail out.”
The weather forecast predicted a 30° night. Friends called me and offered more cold weather equipment and advice, such as bring a fleece liner for my sleeping bag. I did bring a tent, but I decided to try to make do with a tarp and the sleeping bag. I wanted to see if I could improvise using what I found on the ground at the Lehigh Valley Friends Meetinghouse. I checked out the children’s playhouse and considered sleeping under the ramp or on the ramp with the tarp draped over the sides.
I learned in the first hour before the program started that I was cold, bored and a little lonely. I was pleased that fellow Friend Ella Frey joined in the experience so I could have some good conversation. I learned that I could improvise a shelter with a tarp. I used an empty garbage can on its side and I stuck my head and shoulders inside and draped the tarp under and over the sleeping bag. I learned that with some more experience and some more specialized gear I could have a reasonable night’s sleep.
I also learned that if I did have these resources and under the conditions that existed that night, I think that I would not choose to go to a shelter. I have not volunteered to help in shelters, but the media stereotyping of shelters leads me to believe that I would prefer the “autonomy” of choosing when and where to sleep and when to get up and about.
It did strike me how very cold I was outside of my sleeping bag before “bedtime” and in the morning when I crawled out. Where would I go to get warm? Would I find an open public library? Could I ride a bus for much of the day? Could I hang out at a mall? A hospital lobby or chapel? A church? A community center?
If 30° to 40° is THAT cold and for only 12 hours, I can now really imagine what several days would do to me. Not cool at all…in fact FRIGID.