Homeless for a Night, Dirt-Poor for a Year

Students from a Fairbanks, Alaska high school spent a night in "large cardboard appliance boxes in a downtown park" in order to "simulate" the life of the homeless. Leona Allridge, homeless liaison for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, said that the night spent in the boxes "did not represent the many ways homeless people live in the Fairbanks area," although it did include huddling around a campfire for warmth, enduring "curious looks of passersby," and being roused by a local police officer.

The students, undeterred by the criticism, are already planning other events designed to help them "understand the plight of the less fortunate." Kelly Reid, the student organizer, said that they will soon spend "an entire year without adequate food, clothing, transportation, job opportunities, health-care access, self-esteem, and daily showers" to simulate the life of the "dirt-poor." Reid expects that, after the year is up, the surviving students will move on to simulating the lives of "prison inmates" followed by "drug-addicts."