A man sleeps behind a pole on Commercial Street in Vancouver Nov. 22. After a day of panhandling to explore compassion in Vancouver, we gave him the gloves and toques we’d been given earlier in the day.
The cold was crippling. I had not thought about how cold it could be sitting, on cardboard with my boyfriend’s hunting jacket the only thing keeping me from the biting air. Who knew that Vancouver, the warmest city in Canada, could be so cold?
A homeless man came rushing by and shocked me as he handed us two cigarettes. I’ve never smoked a day in my life, but when he handed them to us, I wanted to. People who had nothing were trying to give us things to keep us warm.
I felt my heart go to my throat as I watched more people walk up and down Granville Street. It’s amazing how cold it gets when you are sitting still for hours on end, despite the fact we were both wearing layers of warm clothing.
On the cardboard we had put down, we had written minimal, colourful words such as “anything helps” and “hungry.” We waited.
The cardboard we were sitting on in Vancouver, Nov. 22. Someone gave a donut to eat while we sat in the cold.
It wasn’t until that moment of freezing fingers and chattering teeth that we realized that this project was not what we had expected. We thought that it would be simple; so many journalists have done something like this before. It’s almost the type of project every journalist needs to go through. As clichéd as it was, in the small number of hours we stayed outside, our minds changed.
People walked by us, barely paying us any attention. What little attention we got, was in the forms of nervous or pitying stares. This continued for many minutes.
The first person to stop by was an older gentleman. He showed us two bottles of water and a pair of dried beans snacks. He asked if we wanted them.
He was the first of several. Out of the hundreds of people who walked by us, only 14 interacted with us in any way, beyond staring. Their interactions were also not what we expected.
When first conceived of this experiment, to explore compassion and a small part of the reality of being on the streets, we predicted people would be giving us loose change. While we did get a total of nine dollars and 50 cents, we received a lot more food than anything else. The calculated value of all the food we received was about 60 dollars.
Nine dollars and 50 cents we made during our time of panhandling in Vancouver. We gave the money to another homeless man later that day.
One woman who helped us out did more than give us food. She was wearing a blue Vancouver’s Ambassadors jacket, and she looked concerned once she saw us.
“Are you guys okay?” she asked. “What do you need?”
Ten minutes later, she returned with a variety of items: She handed us a pair of granola bars, two pairs of heavy gloves for the cold, and two toques.
Some people really are willing to go the extra mile to help out others.
The variety of responses conform to the varied nature of human personality. Some people were willing to help others in need. Most were content with going about their day without giving us any consideration. Neither is right and neither is wrong.
The first moment we started panhandling on Granville Street in Vancouver. Someone gave us water right away.
At one point, a man saw us and kept walking. He stopped, shook his head and walked back to us. We both felt our hearts drop to the floor. He would be the last person we would talk to before we decided to leave with all of the food, to give to other people on the streets. He got down to our level to look us in the eyes and asked, “How are you guys?”
After being shown so much kindness from random strangers, neither of us knew what to say. We felt guilty for going undercover when there was so many others that needed this kind of attention. At the same time, our respect for humanity only seemed to grow. How blessed we are to live in a place that takes the time to pay attention to those less fortunate. It was a humbling experience.
There are several other factors that have to be considered when interpreting what we saw.
The amount of food we got while panhandling. We had more than enough food for a few days.
The location could be a big factor in the behaviour of people. If we had gone to another street or neighbourhood, we could have had some very different results.
In addition, the fact that people saw a man and a woman together on the streets could have been a big factor. People may have assumed us to be a couple, and people may be more willing to help a couple in need, as opposed to a single man.
We had come into this project with the intention of experimentation, but what we did not expect was the change in what we knew about being homeless.
David Bauerfind
Wow, good work guys. I remember you explaining this to me in class, but the end result really is something else. This was very brave of you guys and the amount of work you put in really shows. I really liked how you managed to weave a narrative throughout the story as well; that really added some poignancy to your piece. Pretty impressive!