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For most of the evening, it was pouring rain and the cardboard boxes quickly became soggy, but the group of seventeen students was determined to tough it out until dawn.
They wanted, at least for a night, to try to understand what it was like to be homeless.
For the final appointment of the "Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week," organized by the UMKC Collegiate Chapter of NAACP, on March 20, students slept overnight in front of Manheim Hall.
Senior Nikeisha Fortenberry, Criminal Justice and Criminology, like the others with her, was aware the one-time experience hardly compared to the reality.
"This is difficult for me," she said. "But to see a person who doesn't have the options I have - it's scary, because you never know if you'll be in this situation. It just makes me thank God for the things that I have."
Freshman Candace Brown, Criminal Justice and pre-Law, pointed out they had all eaten before showing up in the Quad and knew they would eat again when they returned home the following day.
"Tomorrow we know we are going back to Oak or Cherry or whatever," Brown said. "We get a taste of [being homeless], but it's not the same."
As the students huddled under a few umbrellas and boxes or disappeared inside sleeping bags to keep warm, they voiced various opinions and confronted their prejudices toward homeless people.
Event organizer, freshman Jasmine Powell, said she was convinced people don't become homeless because they are alcoholics or have problems, but instead because they are in a bad situation. She urged the others to avoid common misconceptions and stereotyping.
"There are actually statistics showing most K.C. households are about two to three paychecks away from homelessness because most people don't have savings to fall back on," Powell said. "What's more, about 25 percent of homeless are veterans, most who served in the Vietnam era. I think that's kind of sad - men who have put their life on the line to serve our country and we can't even give them a place to sleep."
Junior Latonya Haynes, Nursing, said she doesn't give money to people on the street and is convinced that, through programs like Job Corps, work is out there for those who really want it.
"I find it hard to feel sorry for them - that's just me," she said. "It could be someone is honestly just trying to find a place to go, but it's those bad people who are the alcoholics and the druggies and stuff that make it bad."
On the bench by the fountain, sophomore Miyako Raula, Nursing, pulled up her blanket, while stating the week of events had really opened her eyes.
"I thought like Latonya did," she said. "Before now, I thought most of them were drug using or winos. But I'm not going to lie to you. When I see peddlers on the Plaza, I will still clutch my purse and walk right past them. I mean, we have to be serious here."
She said she would happily give money to charity organizations like Harvesters and let them distribute it.
"I have to be truthful about it - I fear for my life," Raula said.
In an always civilized and polite debate, as the evening progressed, more and more students raised their hands asking to speak.
One student said she considered Raula's point of view na've.
"You can't assume you have to clutch your purse around them because they're homeless," she said. "The person right next to you with the Burberry shoes may be the very person you need to careful of."
Many of the students seemed to have understood how easy it was to become homeless.
"I could be out on the street if I don't get a job after I graduate and my parents lose their jobs or their home," said senior Asha Glover, Elementary Education.
She was worried many of the resources available were not widely known about, but Powell thought the safety net was not sufficient.
"The welfare system needs to be expanded in these emergency times because going through the program can take forever," Powell said. "I know people who have signed up for [housing] and been on the waiting list for like a year. For people in an emergency situation, that really does nothing for them."
The Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas City estimates more than 14,000 people are homeless at some point during the year in Kansas City and on any given night the number ranges from 3,000 to 7,000 people.
More than 20 percent are under the age of 30 and eviction is the self-reported cause for almost half of the homeless on the streets.
"People aren't very accepting," Powell said. "You hear of men getting taunted and beaten up just because they're homeless. … For college students like us, this is really the greatest time to make an impact and a change because we're the future leaders and people are looking at us. People just kind of push it under the rug. We need to bring light to this situation."
dsimons@unews.com
