November 5, 1998

Sleep-out promotes local awareness

By Garret Leiva
Herald staff writer
     
      It is in the bitter chill of three in the morning- lying inside a flimsy cardboard refrigerator box- that reality becomes as hard as the ground beneath you. By 6:30 a.m. the happy faces of 12 hours ago have hardened as well.
      "Be around here at breakfast time, it is a whole different atmosphere. It's like, 'Oh, this isn't fun anymore,' and what some of them start thinking about is, 'What if I had to do this the next night?,'" said Lois Lannin, Homeless Advocacy Coordinator of the Goodwill Inn Homeless Shelter and one of the organizer of the fourth annual Traverse City Homeless Sleep-Out.
      Held Friday on the grounds of the Grand Traverse County Civic Center, the Homeless Sleep-Out brought together church youth groups, college students, social service agencies and individuals for a 13 hour event to raise community awareness about the realities of homelessness in northern Michigan. The Sleep-Out is sponsored by the Goodwill Inn Homeless Shelter, a branch of Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan, Inc.
      Although one night outside can hardly simulate homelessness, Lannin noted that the purpose of the activity is to promote advocacy and education - especially among the youth sleeping out.
      "It is a way of getting young people aware of the fact that, yes, there are homeless people here in Traverse City," said Lannin, who noted that last year 103 children went through the 44 bed shelter; a number which makes up  of the total homeless population.
      "You don't see people sleeping on grates. Maybe you'll see an occasional person in the park or in the woods up at the old State Hospital building, but there are people who have to live that way."
      Fighting misconceptions and misguided notions is another underlying purpose of the Sleep-Out, said Lannin.
      "Some people wonder why these people don't just get jobs? But guess what? Many of these people are working two and even three jobs just to pay rent," said Lannin, who remarked that issues of affordable housing, sprawl and reliable transportation systems remain at the crux of the homeless problem in northern Michigan.
      "There are low income apartments in the area but there are such long waiting lists, that even if you are homeless, it can take four to 6 months."
      Getting even a small taste of this struggle is important for Bob Bowersox. As youth leader of St. Mary's of the Woods Catholic Church of Kalkaska and St. Aloysius of Fife Lake, Bowersox has seen the sobering effects of sleeping overnight in a cardboard box.
      "They start out the night talking and all happy, but come morning you can't even get them to crack a smile. Nobody says a word," said Bowersox, whose youth group takes part in the Goodwill Inn's "Adopt-A-Room" program.
      "This is a good taste for what it's like to be homeless. They really appreciate how good they've got it."
      For others taking part in the Sleep-Out, the evening was all about appreciation and advocacy. As youth minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Charlevoix, Patty Furtaw said her group was hoping to get a better understanding of what it means to be homeless.
      "They spent a week this past summer down in Detroit working in a soup kitchen, so they have a little bit of a taste of what it means," said Furtaw, who even had some youth members that were unable to attend the Sleep-Out take part in spirit by setting up a box in their backyard.
      "Feeding 280 people everyday, they realized that not everyone has a place to eat, or a place to sleep."
      For Goodwill Industries Executive Director, Ken Homa who presided over a candlelight service at Friday's Sleep-Out, sometimes a healthy, but unpleasant dose of reality is all it takes to set the wheels of change in motion.
      "Sometimes, there is nothing better than to take from the bitter drink to realize that its bitter," he said.