I doubt anyone's surprised that none of the presidential candidates are rushing to take the Coalition for the Homeless' offer up anytime soon and frankly, I'm not sure what good it would do anyway. One night spent camping in any city, surrounded by hordes of security staff, is hardly representative of what it is like to be Homeless.
This "Urban Plunge" was taken here in Nashville this summer by five of our local mayoral candidates and while much of the news media gobbled it up, the vast majority of the Homeless I spoke with were unimpressed, to say the least. To say the most, they felt it was nothing more than a "poverty pimping publicity stunt."
NCH admits that to truly take an Urban Plunge, one would have to eliminate all outside support and contacts, then immerse oneself in street life for a good week or so to fully get the experience.
Don't hold your breath with the current crop of primping, preening pantywaists clamoring for the presidency this year...
Imagine New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady and 2008 Democratic presidential aspirant, trading hotel suites for a sleepless night on a bedbug-infested
That is the challenge laid down this month by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), a non-profit advocacy organization, to all of the announced candidates in the 2008 contest for president: to spend a night as a homeless person. None accepted the invitation; in fact, only Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama — who introduced a bill in April that would provide more housing for homeless veterans — responded to the group, and he demurred, citing scheduling conflicts.
“We would expect them to take the challenge,” Megan Hustings, NCH project director, said. “There’s only so much empathy you can have without actually experiencing it.”
The group, which says 3.5 million Americans will experience homelessness in a given year, calls its program “Urban Plunge.” The idea is to fully immerse the candidate in the harsh choices faced by homeless individuals. With no money or transportation,
“For candidates, their short stints as faceless indigents would help them better understand the impact of public policy decisions on those who live in the streets,” Michael Stoops, NCH acting director, said in a statement.
While the group’s bid to engage presidential candidates in their program has so far served only to gain attention to its effort, a separate group, the Nashville Homeless Power Project, had better success in one local campaign when four of the six candidates for mayor of Tennessee’s capital city took the plunge in June.
Of them is former city law director Karl Dean, a Democrat who is now facing a runoff election for mayor against Democratic former Rep. Bob Clement (1987-2003) in September.
Dean tried to sleep on a bus stop bench on that muggy early summer night, he told CQPolitics.com.
Although he knew the statistics that say Nashville has about 3,500 homeless people, he said he was humbled by the magnitude of the people seeking slumber on an outdoor bench in the Southern heat.
“I’m not frequently out downtown in the early hours,” Dean said. “Just the fact of seeing it was a good thing for me. It helps you understand the city you want to be mayor of.”
Dean said he’d encourage the presidential candidates to take the NCH up on their offer. “If there is a school issue, you go to the school . . . that’s always important to do that,” he said. Dean said that if he wins the city’s top office next month, he will push for more affordable housing and better services for victims of domestic and substance abuse.
