Stimulation by Simulation: The Problem of Simulating Homelessness

Stories abound in the news media concerning the "what it's like" to be homeless (look here for one example). Across the country we have seen, as the economy worsens, a growing trend toward community initiatives to introduce the well-off to the difficulties of poverty and homelessness by participating in a "night of homelessness" or a "poverty simulation". The intention is empathy and hopefully a resulting compassionate activism, a hope to stimulate change in society by simulating the "other". Let's step back for a moment and reflect on these initiatives to evaluate the message that they send.

For example, how is it exactly that we simulate homelessness?

Recent efforts seem to suggest that sleeping in a tent in a designated area overnight in a group of similarly socially conscious homeowners is a fitting simulation of homelessness (e.g., this one in Wisconsin). Or, to refer back to the previous example, participants get a taste of the difficulties of surviving in a low-income household "from week to week" by participating in an afternoon of 15min "weeks" in which each participant "household" is assigned specific tasks that must be completed (paying bills, caring for children, etc.).

The latter example is perhaps the most comical as, in its essentials, it packs poverty into a board game. Milton-Bradley would be proud. The "night of homelessness" is not much better in that participants take part in a socially recognized (and glorified) campout/sleepover in order to fathom the tribulations of homelessness.

A charitable reader might say, "How nice, all these agencies getting people involved and making us aware of the problems of poverty in our midst." Well, I suppose you're right. They are "making us aware" in some sense. But let's be honest: that experience is nothing like homelessness. One may as well "Shoot Hoops for the Homeless" on a community basketball court as camp out in a city park for as much "awareness" as it raises.

I'll go further. Maybe there is something dodgy even about the "awareness" that it raises. For example, the camp out to experience homelessness seems to suggest that homelessness is just the condition of not owning or renting a domicile. If this were really what homelessness were about, couldn't we solve that pretty easily? Simply putting the homeless into housing doesn't seem to solve the problem, so why do we simulate the condition by choosing the least difficult problem?

If you wanted to simulate homelessness, a much better proposition would seem to be to take on the role of a social and economic outcast for some length of time long enough to experience severe hunger, loneliness, exposure to the elements, and maybe a healthy dose of despair. In essence, outfit yourself to look homeless and then ask a friend to drop you in a strange and dangerous place with no money, ID, or other resources. And then survive. That might come close to a simulation. The one thing that cannot be simulated is the despair. Unless one were actually assaulted during the simulation it is hard to find that sense of helplessness and isolation that accompanies those without an advocate in the world.

That's what I suppose one should do in order to "simulate" homelessness. If you really want the simulation to give people an idea of "what it's like". It seems to me that the pain of poverty and homelessness is the isolation, not sleeping outdoors. The "awareness" that these silly programs seem to generate is a self-righteous paternalism that demands that we "do something to help these people".

What if "awareness" started not with identifying with homelessness, but identifying with a homeless person? Forgive the subtlety. What if instead of trying to understand a condition, we tried to understand just one person. What if "awareness" was actually seeing the homeless as people worthy of individual attention instead of a herd deserving institutional aid.

Unfortunately, I don't have a program to suggest as an alternative to those listed here. The answer is just as banal as recognizing a homeless person as a person, and being willing to get to know him/her.

Quit the simulations. Just go meet the homeless. They'll tell you what it's like.