David Pirtle

Recent Activity

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  David signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  President Obama: Free the Hungry Billion
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  David signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Tell Sarah Palin: Start Telling The Truth
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  David signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Tell the U.S. Senate: Pass Comprehensive Climate and Energy Legislation Now
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  David signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Urge Congress to Help End Violence Against Women
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  David signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Tell Congress: Stop Outsourcing Our Security to Blackwater and Private Mercenaries
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  David signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Stop Iran from Executing Mother Accused of Adultery
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  David commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  What We Talk About When We Talk About Homelessness

   

  
  

  Kevin, I don't think it's helpful to start parsing the homeless community into this or that group, or trying to proclaim that one is more genuinely homeless than another.  I think that it can never hurt to communicate as many different experiences as possible, so that people understand that homelessness doesn't have a single face.  It's not monolithic.  

  
  

  Most people who are homeless are in fact more like Becky than like yourself. Less than 20 percent of people who are homeless remain homeless for more than a year or slip into a pattern of homelessness.  Most of those who do fall into the category of the 'chronically homeless' have more issues than just their lack of housing to overcome.  Myself, I was struggling with schizophrenia.  I'm not sure what your experience has been, but I imagine that the inability to afford an apartment hasn't been your only challenge.  

  
  

  I'm glad to read that you have been off the street for a while now, and I hope that you continue remain housed.  I think that your voice is an important one in the homeless/formerly homeless community, but I don't think that you need to attack others in order to express yourself.

  
  

   

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  David commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  Do Homelessness Simulations Do Any Good?

  As someone who's watched over kids doing the Homeless Challenge in Washington, DC, and as someone who lived on the street here for a few years myself, I can only tell you why I work with the program.  

  
  

  The very first experience I had with 'homeless simulations' was a sleep-out on the quad at the University of Maryland in 2006.  I was still homeless at the time, and I was invited by one of the project leaders to participate and talk with the kids there.  I was disappointed at what I saw.  Most of the students took the experience as a night's entertainment, joking and (in a few cases) drinking, generally having a 'good time' pretending to be homeless, and only a handful of students spent the whole night out, most of them having wandered off after getting bored.

  
  

  Shortly after getting off the street I was asked to get involved with the Homeless Challenge at the National Coalition for the Homeless.  My first reaction was 'not again.' However, I decided to participate because I wanted to help the kids actually learn something rather than just messing about for two days.  

  
  

  Since that first challenge in 2007 I have done several, and though not everyone who participates learns something to their benefit, I don't think it's any less valuable an experience than coming to DC to serve soup at a kitchen.  After all, I always tell my students that our soup kitchens aren't going to close their doors just because some college students didn't come across the country to volunteer for the afternoon.  That experience isn't for the homeless men and women being served.  It's for the kids doing the serving, so they can hopefully interact with and learn something about homeless people.  

  
  

  I take the same attitude with the Homeless Challenge.  I see it as my job to make sure that the kids I am with are focused on the fact that for most people, this isn't a 48 hour experience.  It lasts for months or years, usually without any end-game to shoot for.  I tell them that they will get out of the experience exactly what they put into it.  If their goal is to have a 'weekend adventure', then that's what they'll have.  If their goal is to engage with other folks on the street and to learn at least a little something about the day to day challenges that people like myself have had to deal with on a regular basis, then they will do that too.  

  
  

   

  
  

   

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  David commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  Do Homelessness Simulations Do Any Good?

  As someone who's watched over kids doing the Homeless Challenge in Washington, DC, and as someone who lived on the street here for a few years myself, I can only tell you why I work with the program.  

  
  

  The very first experience I had with 'homeless simulations' was a sleep-out on the quad at the University of Maryland in 2006.  I was still homeless at the time, and I was invited by one of the project leaders to participate and talk with the kids there.  I was disappointed at what I saw.  Most of the students took the experience as a night's entertainment, joking and (in a few cases) drinking, generally having a 'good time' pretending to be homeless, and only a handful of students spent the whole night out, most of them having wandered off after getting bored.

  
  

  Shortly after getting off the street I was asked to get involved with the Homeless Challenge at the National Coalition for the Homeless.  My first reaction was 'not again.' However, I decided to participate because I wanted to help the kids actually learn something rather than just messing about for two days.  

  
  

  Since that first challenge in 2007 I have done several, and though not everyone who participates learns something to their benefit, I don't think it's any less valuable an experience than coming to DC to serve soup at a kitchen.  After all, I always tell my students that our soup kitchens aren't going to close their doors just because some college students didn't come across the country to volunteer for the afternoon.  That experience isn't for the homeless men and women being served.  It's for the kids doing the serving, so they can hopefully interact with and learn something about homeless people.  

  
  

  I take the same attitude with the Homeless Challenge.  I see it as my job to make sure that the kids I am with are focused on the fact that for most people, this isn't a 48 hour experience.  It lasts for months or years, usually without any end-game to shoot for.  I tell them that they will get out of the experience exactly what they put into it.  If their goal is to have a 'weekend adventure', then that's what they'll have.  If their goal is to engage with other folks on the street and to learn at least a little something about the day to day challenges that people like myself have had to deal with on a regular basis, then they will do that too.  

  
  

   

  
  

   

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  David commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  Now This Is How You Close Down a Tent City

  And we can hollar, M R.