Homeless outreach has become something we are all very passionate about, especially after a semester in an Advanced Nonfiction class with a focus on homelessness and especially after working on a project like this one. I think it’s safe to say that most people, including ourselves just a few months ago, don’t fully understand all the hardships that homeless individuals face. Between struggling for basic necessities like food and shelter, experiencing harsh judgment and/or hate crimes from people in society, and being the subject of new laws and policies where, more often than ever before, are effectively making homelessness a crime (e.g., criminalizing sitting or lying down in public spaces, etc.), these individuals cannot catch a break. So, when Stormy had the project idea to tell the stories of some impacted homeless individuals through creative nonfiction poetry, we thought it was a great idea. The first step in garnering understanding was to get these stories told, and because we are young, educated individuals with connections at our university, we thought we would be the perfect people to tell these stories and to get people to listen to them.

When we all got the chance to be a part of this project, we were ecstatic. It was great to work with a team of creative and thoughtful people who shared the same passion for doing this kind of work. Sharing the stories of people who would otherwise remain invisible in society through this medium helps give a voice to folks who are often not given the opportunity to speak themselves — at least not to anybody who will actually listen or do anything about it. Writing poetry was something new for a lot of us, since most of us have had to write poetry for different classes but it’s not something any of us practiced consistently. However, we think this made the project even more creative and thoughtful. The fact that each members’ poems were unique and different from one another reflects the diversity of the people whose stories we are sharing. No two poems are the same just as no two stories are the same.

Whether we were writing these stories from a first-person perspective or a third-person perspective, we were still forced to put ourselves in the shoes of these homeless individuals. This opened our own eyes so much and increased the amount of empathy we already felt for these people. Because once you start looking into it, you realize just how much that homelessness is not a choice and how deep of a hole it is to climb out of once you fall into it. All of us now have dreams and aspirations of doing even more to help our homeless communities in the future, because we understand that this isn’t an issue that is fixed easily nor quickly. And we hope that if any of us ever end up struggling with homelessness ourselves, that the people who encounter us will treat us with the same empathy, respect, and humanity that we tried to exhibit.