Tent City: Brockport, New York

 by Monica Beck

Last week the College at Brockport held a resource fair to raise public awareness regarding homelessness and poverty to protest the federal government’s proposed sequester which will impact programs for the needy and low income workers.  The event culminated in “Tent City” when a dozen or so students from the Social Work program led by student social work volunteer Heather Packer, spent two nights sleeping in tents on the campus to see what it felt like to be without a roof over their heads.

At 8AM on Monday April 20^th the event began with a resource rally where human service and social justice organizations shared information about homelessness and the negative economic and social effects of poverty on families, individuals, and society at large.  Students had the opportunity to ask questions and dialogue with representatives from eight different human service organizations.

Later in the day, at noon, spokespersons from these groups such as the Brockport Food Shelf and the National Alliance for Mental Illness held a speaker’s rally.  They spoke about the issues and how our current economic system exacerbates the problem, reminding the audience that homelessness can happen to anyone, not just the mentally ill and addicted populations.

That evening staunch students from the social science program set up their tents, getting “close and personal” with the issue, sleeping outdoors in tents.  Over the next two nights temperatures plummeted to between 28- 36 F degrees.  One student who forgot her gloves got some frostbite on her hands.  She was so cold she couldn’t sleep.  Imagine what it must be like for people who have no choice and must do that every night.

Many readers of The Brockporter have economic security and you might be thinking “what does this have to do with me?” Well economic disasters can and do happen everyday with the unstable economy, job market fluctuations and weakening social safety nets. We shouldn’t forget we are all at could be at risk.  Our system is broken and sooner or later it will trickle up.