News > November 15, 2007

By Robyn Showers | Staff writer

A group of 15-20 bundled-up university students sat cross-legged in a circle next to the tents that would serve as their bedrooms for the night. Though it was a Saturday night, this was no fall break camping trip.

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About 20 students have been sleeping outside to protest for an emergency homeless shelter. (Nick Babladelis/Old Gold & Black)

A group of 15-20 bundled-up university students sat cross-legged in a circle next to the tents that would serve as their bedrooms for the night.

Though it was a Saturday night, this was no fall break camping trip.

Since Nov. 8, these students have been braving the November cold in protest of Winston-Salem’s new zoning laws, which have forced some 30-50 of the city’s estimated 500 homeless citizens to sleep out in the cold.

“These are people who want to be in the shelters,” senior Eric Lange said.

“They’re actually lining up every night and they’re being sent away because of the restrictions.”

The situation began earlier this year when the Winston-Salem City Council set a 100-person cap on the four current homeless shelters.

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Council for the Homeless planned to run a shelter for about 40 people out of First Baptist Church on West Fifth Street.

According to articles in the Winston-Salem Journal, the plan was derailed when First Baptist failed to meet the occupancy fire code for new buildings.

Although the building is an existing one, its new function as a homeless shelter requires the county to hold it to different standards.

The church would need to install a $100,000 sprinkler system in order to pass inspection. “The irony is that these shelters that are established now don’t have the sprinkler system because they were built before the building code was passed,” Lange said.

This was confirmed by Sonjia Kurosky, the ex-director of Samaritan Ministries.

According to Lange, the sprinkler system is the main obstacle preventing the emergency shelter from opening. If the shelter opened, there would be two monitors awake at all times, “which I think is more effective than sprinkler systems in the event of a fire,”Lange said.

First Baptist’s insurance coverage is also appropriate for what is required, according to Ginny N. Baritt, a Wake Forest alum who works with Advocacy for the Poor.

The Corpening Plaza campout was organized by seniors Lange, Jordan Jones and Richard Roberts as an expression of solidarity with the many homeless people with whom they have become friends through their Saturday tradition of serving meals to the homeless.

Since last February, they and other students have been serving lunch to the homeless on Patterson Avenue between two of the city’s shelters, The Bethesda Center and Samaritan Inn.

“We started lamenting the fact that often at Wake Forest, inside ‘the bubble,’ it’s hard to experience what’s going on outside of it,” Lange said. “We’d all done volunteering at different places, but wanted to have a more personal connection, so at some point we just decided to make a bunch of sandwiches, bring them down to where the homeless shelters are, go out, get out of our cars, and ask people, ‘Do you want some hot chocolate? Do you want a sandwich?’”

According to Lange, the experience has expelled many stereotypes he and the others originally had about the homeless.

“The basic idea is that every homeless person is your typical skid row bum who doesn’t speak English or doesn’t have teeth — and that’s just not the case. To stereotype any population like that is detrimental.”

In fact, an estimated one in four homeless people are veterans, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Others are often in a transitory period of life, according to senior Paul Smith, due to medical bills, debt, or unexpected layoffs.

“Just acknowledging that they’re there says a lot,” sophomore Duabhav Lee said. “People automatically assume that they just need their fix for the day or they need money for alcohol, and that really stops us from helping the ones that are really in need.”

Lee and Lange said that helping the homeless doesn’t necessarily begin with one’s wallet. “What’s more important is sitting down and talking with somebody. If you have 5 or 10 minutes to just sit down with them and hear their story, that will really change you.”

While many of these students have committed to spending every night on Corpening Plaza until the City allows the emergency shelter to open, many others have been stopping by, bringing coffee and generally supporting the students’ efforts.

“We’re Wake students, so we have papers, we have tests, we have dodge ball games to go to, so some nights people just can’t make it,” Lange said. “Anyone who wants to come out and join us is totally welcome to come. Anyone who wants to just come and experience this for a couple of hours before going back and writing their paper or whatever, they’re completely welcome.”

While the students plan to stay out in the cold until Winston-Salem’s homeless have warm places to sleep, Lange and Lee agree that the emergency overflow shelter is only “a symptom of a greater issue.”

“The overall issue is, even if our efforts to raise awareness leads to the ordinance being lifted or the building being used as an emergency shelter, there are still homeless people out there who are not accounted for,” Lee said. “And the winter months are just getting colder. It’s what, 39 right now, and I’m, like, shaking — and we’re in layers.”