Guest Blogger Tamara Weikel

On Monday night I took part in a very interesting volunteer experience that involved running around downtown in the dark and asking complete strangers if they had shelter for the night. Everyone I met. Whether they looked homeless or not! (What does a homeless person look like? Are you sure? Because I’m not.)

The event partnered organizers from the City of Seattle, United Way of King County, and the Committee to End Homelessness with the University of Washington to find out more about the needs of homeless people, by going out and, um, asking. The city is trying to find out how they can improve the ways they’re spending money on services, and hear specifics from people not in shelters that night (thus the late start.)

I would like to state, for the record, that this sort of thing is way outside my comfort zone. The system was pretty straightforward though, and once I attended the training I felt better about it, especially upon learning that other cities have done similar things without incident. We were in small teams with a team leader and a tiered system of support. I was with a friend, we all had cell phones and check-in procedures, we had a very specific set of questions to stick to. We had a small reward for those willing to answer questions. And respect for the subjects of our study was of the highest priority.

We canvassed an area from Cornish College of the Arts to Olive along Westlake downtown, a surprisingly odd collection of buildings including fancy new condos and a Whole Foods, the aforementioned art school (and my alma mater, incidentally), FareStart, a couple of hotels, the Library for the Blind, the Oceanaire restaurant, the Greyhound station, some serious construction, more than one shop specifically dedicated to fancy lighting, the Seattle Police Department and the U.S. courthouse. Plenty of doorways to sleep in. We did not bother sleeping people, and we weren’t there to count, although I will say that the huddled forms numbered more than the fingers on my hand.

We were to approach every single person we saw, ask them if they would “be sleeping indoors tonight”, and proceed with the survey for anyone who said that they would not be. It was hard to start and we were rather timid at first, but people were so nice. I was surprised how well we were received, actually. Not everyone was willing to be bothered of course, but everyone showed more courtesy than I expected, from people being approached by a person with a clipboard in the dark. One person by the Whole Foods, headed home to a warm apartment, said “Oh yeah, I read about that” and sincerely wished us good luck. You could see that some people were taken aback by the thought that they appeared homeless to someone, but once we got a “yes” and I could tell them that we were required to ask everyone, they relaxed. That was probably the hardest part.

It’s a good thing we really did approach everyone, because the last person I interviewed did not look homeless at all. This person had a truck to sleep in, and had been living in it for quite. This person was coherent, intelligent, upbeat… rather a joy to talk to, actually. Unfortunately here is where the things I most want to share, the personal stories, have to stay unsaid. We all signed a confidentiality agreement “to ensure that the secrecy and protection of the identity of each individual”, a sign of respect I stand behind 100%. Identifying information was not included in the survey itself, nor was the exact location of any individual.

I can tell you that we did a few interviews, the experience was fascinating, and everyone I surveyed was polite and helpful. And no two were alike – I really look forward to viewing the results. When we think “homeless,” we don’t think about the incredible diversity – the people, the circumstances, the constitutions. We don’t really see or count the people and families who are sleeping in their cars, couch-surfing for months, or trying to make it work in a motel room. We don’t consider the idea that homeless people can have jobs and lives and look just like us.

I strongly believe that if more people could have volunteer opportunities that enable them to interact with a homeless person, face to face, and see these people as the humans they really are, that everyone involved would benefit profoundly, and this would be a better place to live for all of us.

By the end of the night it was incredibly cold. After several hours of walking around, my friend and I were chilled to the bone, our speed tempered by our team leader’s. I had dressed in several layers, good clothes with no holes (okay, very few, but those are my fault), wore comfortable shoes. The luxury of going home and snuggling with my pet under a warm blanket was poignant, to be sure. Still, in the morning my muscles ached from the experience. I could never survive a night out there, on a winter sidewalk with no dinner. The few nights I’ve had to spend outside were never this cold. And compared to this past winter it was nothing, it’s amazing what a human can survive. How can you not respect that?

Tamara Weikel