The Homeless Plunge: Experiencing Homelessness Firsthand

A Look at Regis Jesuit High School’s Homeless Plunge and its Purpose

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Many people experiencing homelessness are forced to live and sleep on the streets.

It is the middle of the night, and you are in your warm bed. You become more and more restless as you realize that your sleep will be inevitably interrupted- you need to go to the bathroom.

After wrestling with the idea of getting out of bed for a good five minutes, you finally tear off the covers and make a beeline to the bathroom. You are freezing from the cold floors and the room temperature air.

It is the middle of the night again but this time, you have no covers to keep you warm. In fact, you only have a light jacket and pants on. You are lying down on a sidewalk. You are hungry. You are trying to fall asleep.

Uncertainty fills your mind: you don’t know what you will do tomorrow, and more importantly, you don’t know where you will find food and shelter. You have a job interview in two days, but don’t know where you will find a place to shower or a place to buy decent clothes. On top of all of this, you have no money.

Imagine if this was you daily. This is the reality that many people experiencing homelessness live with 24/7.

At Regis Jesuit, the idea of being men and women with and for others is encouraged daily. Without actions though, this is only an idea. The Homeless Plunge does just that: it puts these words into action.

2014-10-13 09.54.59 pmJack Hardin, a Senior and a homeless plunge veteran said, “The homeless plunge is all about being men and women with others. It is about experiencing what it is like to be homeless and sleep outside on a cold winter night. It is about understanding the circumstances that keep people experiencing homelessness on the streets.”

Understanding those circumstances that cause and continue the vicious cycle of homelessness is the first step in reaching the goal of this immersion experience: awareness.

Although this awareness comes in many different forms, one of the best forms is having conversations with those people experiencing homelessness firsthand. Mrs. Vela, who goes on the Plunge every year, said, “I love the part where we are on 16th street mall with the outreach workers, and we get a chance to interact with people [who are experiencing homelessness].”

So, why should someone consider going on the Homeless Plunge? Alec Jotte, a Senior and a Homeless Plunge veteran said, “It’s really easy to dismiss it [the Homeless Plunge] and say ‘One night of camping out at Regis is gonna do nothing for me.’ But it’s also really easy to go out on a limb and go. Put yourself in a uncomfortable position purposefully and learn something from it.”

If a person going on the Homeless Plunge enters into it with this attitude, they will not only learn something about homelessness but also build relationships with new people who they would have never gotten the chance to otherwise meet.