Experiencing Homelessness Over Spring Break

When they walked by, they looked right through me.

Or pretended to text.

Or crossed to another street.

During spring break, I spent a few hours on a busy street corner of Washington, D.C. I called out to people passing by, encouraging them to spend one dollar on Street Sense, a newspaper written by and about people experiencing homelessness in our nation’s capitol.

Selling copies of the paper is the only source of income for its vendors. Men and women experiencing homelessness buy each edition of the paper for 30 cents, and sell it for the suggested donation of one dollar. For the Street Sense vendors, this is the money that pays for food, clothing and medicine. For some, it has been an avenue to escape homelessness.

Throughout the week, I learned a lot about hunger and homelessness. All of this was possible through Elon’s Kernodle Center for Service Learning. I participated in one of the center’s alternative spring break trips. I went with a group of Elon students to D.C. to volunteer in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, food banks, and more, but working as a vendor was my first experience that combined my interest in journalism. Selling newspapers is serious stuff. With The Pendulum, our student newspaper, we put the newspapers in the rack and people take them or they don’t—but we never have to witness their decision. By approaching people face to face, I experienced painful rejection. People would do anything to avoid answering me or looking me in the eye. They would conveniently answer phones that weren’t ringing, or glance at their watch while they walked by.

This is what it is like to be experiencing homelessness.

The vendors who work for 12 hours a day to sell papers rarely get a reply. It was truly humbling to experience what they do on a daily basis. As a journalist, I learned that papers are difficult to sell. As a human being, I learned there is nothing more valuable than a smile of acknowledgement. The Kernodle Center at Elon gave me the opportunity to learn that, and I am so grateful.

*Rebecca Wickel is a senior from Long Island, New York, and current university guide studying journalism, with minors in American studies and Asian studies. Although nothing beats a slice of New York pizza, she loves eating garden burgers from Elon’s Octagon Café, writing for The Pendulum student newspaper and reading on the lawn by Lindner Hall.