“Having compassion from a distance was not enough,”

Part of me cheers the man for his effort because most folks don't give two turds for the folks they see broke and busted on the street.  

But I can't help the feeling that the man is sensationalizing his experience and really not grasping the true dilemma of homelessness.  

Sure, it's a bitch to have to walk everywhere, stand in line for meals and a place to sleep, and struggle for a daily existence.

But the real trauma of homelessness, the deepest part of the misery of homelessness, isn't that crap.  

It's the feeling of being trapped and hopeless and nobody gives a shit.

It's that part of the experience that one cannot get when one has a safe, warm place to return to once they're done "playing homeless."

Walking in the shoes of the homeless

A minister goes undercover on the city streets to see life from the other side and raise awareness

By MICHELLE BEARDEN
Tampa Tribune

Published September 10, 2009

Photo by Rob McNeel/Tampa Tribune Used with permission

TAMPA (Tribune)—Every time he handed over a dollar or two to a homeless person, or volunteered to serve food in a soup kitchen, Leo Villanueva felt guilty.

He had a home, a wife and daughter, a good job, and a successful career in music. He always knew where his next meal was coming from. How could he possibly understand what a person living on the street was going through?
So for three days earlier this month, he joined them.

“Having compassion from a distance was not enough,” says Villanueva, student music minister at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz and winner of the 2006 Dove Award for Spanish Album of the Year.

“I needed to walk in their shoes and experience it in the flesh. Only then would I truly know.”

He calls his three-day experience last month in downtown Tampa a “personal and spiritual journey” to rededicate his own commitment to working with the homeless.  He’s also sharing it with the public via the Internet to ramp up awareness and inspire others to get involved.

He set up a Facebook group called “Leo the Homeless Man,” where people could follow a blog report, video diary and photos shot by freelance photographer Rob McNeel. The two men had a predetermined location to meet for a short period each day for filming.

“If I wasn’t there, then he knew I was in trouble,” says Villanueva, 36.
To blend in, he grew a beard. On the morning he was dropped off, he wore jeans and a Tampa Bay Lightning T-shirt, which he wore all three days. He had a backpack with a blanket, toothbrush, sunglasses, a book about the homeless crisis and a notepad.
He also brought along the most essential item a homeless person can have: a Florida ID.