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Some of the Urban Plunge participants waiting for a bus in the International District, Seattle.

Spring Break Means A Week of Homelessness For Some Seattle College Students

BY Rachel Belle  on March 20, 2013 @ 5:30 pm (Updated: 7:58 am - 3/21/13 )

For many bikini clad, tequila shooting college students, Spring Break consists of a week making out in Cancun. But Spring Break, for a group of Seattle Pacific University students, is very different. They're spending five days on the streets of Seattle, living like homeless people, for a project called Urban Plunge.

"Just completely different from my own experience," 21-year-old Christian Theology student David Meade told me. "Just wanted to be able to empathize better and ultimately I just hope to learn more about the real people that are out here and how I can better love them in the future."

When I met the students, they were leaning up against the brick wall of the Union Gospel Mission, bundled up in flannels and beanies. Freshman Megan Boyd, 18, speaks to the difficulties of the experiment.

"I honestly wasn't expecting to be so affected by the cold. My shoes and socks got soaked last night and I had to put those back on this morning. They were so wet. I don't know, missing meals too."

She's been wearing the same clothes for five days and only has a few possessions with her.

"Sleeping bag, backpack, little journal thing, Bible."

She opted to leave toiletries like deodorant and tooth paste at home so that she could truly take in the whole experience.

The students don't have cell phones or even watches, so they have to ask other homeless people what time the soup kitchens are serving meals. They've been sleeping in churches and...

"We've been sleeping in a lot of different places," says 19-year-old Naomi Metzler. "On benches and in doorways. I'm at the point where I will sleep anywhere if I have to. Also, I will eat anywhere. We've been Dumpster diving. People do that on a regular basis."

They're out on the street from seven in the morning until 9:30 at night, walking from neighborhood to neighborhood.

"We just end up places, talking to people about their stories," Megan said. "People we would usually just pass by. We just learn the most incredible stories. A lot of them are so willing to share and tell us why homelessness is so prevalent. We learn a lot just having time, which we never do."

For Megan, the experience is extra significant. She says she was kicked out of her mom's house in high school and could have easily become homeless.

"For me, honestly, it's been kind of easy to relate because I have been through a little bit more in my life. It's kind of cool to tell them, 'We're not so different. I promise you I've been through things. I only got to college because I decided that's who I wanted to be. I could have been in the same place as you right now.'"

After meeting a bunch of homeless kids her age, Megan says she will longer ignore people she sees on street corners.

"People walk by somebody and they're like, 'Oh, they just want money for alcohol. That's their problem. That's why they're on the streets.' But really, they have issues and that's one of the ways they're dealing with it and we just find other ways to deal with our crap. It's just not the problem and people think it is."

David says one of the hardest parts of the exercise was being ignored.

"We don't have watches, we don't know what time it is. So when we try just sitting on a street corner and we ask people, you know, what time it is, we can see their watch. They wouldn't talk to us. They won't even tell us what time it is. We were standing on a street corner for probably 45 minutes or so and it was a long time before we even made eye contact with anybody."

The students will go home today, to their warm homes, to take showers and put on fresh clothes. But they all learned some really big lessons.

"Just try talking to the people," David said. "Don't just try to come in and fix problems from what you see sitting in your armchair, you know, where you're comfortable, and not talking to actual people."

Rachel Belle, Ron and Don Show Reporter
Rachel Belle is a feature contributor and personality on The Ron & Don Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 3-7pm), and host of Ring My Belle Weekends (Saturdays at 5pm and Sundays at 3pm).
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Comments (10)


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  • chubby wrote...
    I wonder . . .
    March 20, 2013 7:33 pm
    how many times Anne Bremner drove drunk before she was finally caught. Ask her next time you have her on your show, Dori. Hypocrite! Oh wait, Dori says that people drive an average of 80 times before they are caught. And please, please, please start taking phone calls from listeners again. It is torture to listen to you banter with that pea brain producer, Jake. It's talk radio . . . the callers make the show!
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  • maplefish wrote...
    Chubby
    March 20, 2013 7:35 pm
    W. T. F are you talking about?
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  • Citizen of Krazy Town wrote...
    I like this project
    March 22, 2013 10:07 am
    I think those students will have a far better perspective on how to apply any outreach efforts they may be involved in based on that experience. While the task of getting homeless off the streets may very well be impossible, it's not too far fetched to at least find ways to make them safer, more comfortable and provide opportunities for them to have a little self respect. You can't do that without first hand knowledge of what those ways and opportunities might be.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Students on the wrong side of the soup line. They displaced actually homeless people
    March 24, 2013 12:12 am
    Most of the shelters fill up every night and turn people away. How many truly homeless people slept out in the rain so these kids, who all had an apartment or a dorm room they could have gone home to, could play "homeless" for a week?

    I volunteer a half day each week in a mission that reaches out to a group of people who are typically homeless. You don't need to pretend to be homeless, (sucking up food, shelter, and other resources in the process)to develop an understanding of the challenges and circumstances involved with living on the street. Try talking to people who struggle with it every day.

    The problem with the bogus-homeless approach is that people will read about this stunt and assume the only way to really get a feel for homelessness is to pretend to be so. "Well, I was thinking about trying to work with the homeless- but if you have to go live on the street for a week in order to get involved then maybe I will just skip it."

    I will venture out on a limb far enough to say that at least a big percentage of the actual homeless would appreciate these college kids working to deliver some hot soup rather than elbowing into line to compete for a serving of it.

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  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    other people deal with their crap and are still able to take care of themselves too...
    March 24, 2013 7:17 am
    it's called responsibility. Good decision making is also an essential key to not being homeless...a lot of homeless people have made poor choices in life and CHOOSE not to rise above....a lot of other homeless people need to be in a mental health facility and there is of course the stereotypical drug/alcohol homeless person. People do need to help each other but there is a difference between getting help and enabling someone who refuses to better themselves hence becoming a burden and a nuisance to everyone around.
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  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Here's what wrong with this:
    March 24, 2013 7:38 am
    Or perhaps whats not right. In the photo at least, they're all smiling like the group is readying itself for a camping trip to the San Juans. True homeless people dont smile much, if at all. The experience will teach them a bit of stuff no doubt, but the reality is they KNOW they are eventually going back to the warm and comfort of their hot showers, cell phones and Ipads. What will be missing from the experience will be the "hopeless" part. Good for the kids, but lets snag a few people out of that big warm building in Olympia to give it a go and see what they think. I know. Dream on.
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  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Unfortunately
    March 24, 2013 7:48 am
    This might actually be a form of apprenticeship training as graduates enter the 5th year of the Obamaconomy.
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  • Concerned US Citizen wrote...
    Prepared
    March 24, 2013 8:17 am
    I am glad that these students took the time to prepare for life after college. Those taking religious studies better get use to sleeping on the streets or in their parent's basement. Try taking a real major that actually will provde you with some useable job skills and making hambergers doesn't count. Next they will be joining the 99%'ers protesting because they can't get out of debt because they spent 4 years studying some subject no one is willing to pay them for.
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  • Brian Oblivion wrote...
    "Homeless" is PC speak for BUM....
    March 24, 2013 8:46 am
    and these starry eyed kids don't have a clue.
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  • soo purletiv wrote...
    @ maplefish
    March 24, 2013 3:49 pm
    Chubby is just a broken record Dori hater. It posts the same mindless asinine post regardless of the topic.

    As you can see by it posting here, it is not the brightest bulb in the fixture. THIS ISN'T EVEN DORI'S BLOG

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