Challenging the Candidates to "Take the Plunge"

Challenging the Candidates to “Take the Plunge”

By Christopher Platt

We Americans are mighty sick of many things -- the war, the administration, soaring healthcare costs, a do-nothing Congress -- essentially, all the things you read about on this website. But one item stands out: We are sick to death of all these contrived, and frankly, premature, political debates. Watching the Presidential hopefuls go through this made-for-TV exercise overandoverandoverandoverandover isn’t just not constructive, helpful or informative. It has proven to be a crashing bore. It will be interesting to see whether we feel the same about debates held a year from now.

Consider this essay as a challenge, or an open invitation, if you will, to all the Presidential candidates—not just the handful of Democrats or Republicans whose names we already know, but the dozens of others who have expressed interest in the job (look at www.vote-smart.org to see how big the list really is), to try something different.

Between now and the 2008 elections, those of you running for national office will be traveling thousands of miles, at the mercy of the weather, eating all kinds of bizarre foods, kissing uncounted babies, shaking innumerable hands, and sleeping away from home in unfamiliar surroundings for weeks on-end. Much of this activity is essentially meaningless, but is deemed necessary if you are to succeed in your quest. Everybody knows that. But, here’s a campaign activity that is, in fact, full of meaning and significance. And, minus the kissing babies and shaking hands, you might even say it’s not a lot different from what you are doing already. Let me explain …

A couple of months ago, the mayoral candidates in Nashville, Tennessee, made history. After participating in a Homelessness and Housing Mayoral Candidate Forum, organized by the Nashville Homeless Power Project, all six agreed to “take the plunge.” In this case, that meant The Urban Plunge, a program devised by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) more than 20 years ago, to give economically privileged people the chance to dress down, do without showers or baths for a few days, empty their wallets, and try their hand at living on the streets overnight. Although many thousands of people from nearly all walks of life have participated in Urban Plunges since the 1980s, politicians running for office had not been among them. Not until Nashville.

In Nashville, the purpose was to provide all the candidates with a firsthand experience of homelessness, so they could more-fully understand the impact of public policy decisions on those who live in the streets. They all committed to spending ten hours on the streets of Nashville. That’s not the 48 hours The Plunge normally entails. But, it’s a start.
In their short stints as faceless indigents, the candidates had a few simple goals, including …
• Find a legal place to sleep outdoors
• Sleep on a bench in a public place for 20 minutes or more
• Enter a restaurant and ask if they could sweep the sidewalk or do some other menial work in exchange for food
• Find a place to eat breakfast
• Ask for money (“panhandle”) in a place where they would be least-likely to be recognized
• Find a place where they can go to the bathroom when necessary…

One of NCH’s supporters was so impressed by the Nashville experiment that he suggested inviting -- or challenging -- all the candidates running for national or even statewide office in 2008, to take the same bold step as the mayoral hopefuls in Nashville. The letters that organization is now sending out say, in part, “Take this chance to show your commitment to a population that really needs your commitment. Take the opportunity to show your supporters -- or even your opponents -- that you really care about the downtrodden and want to help. Take the time to learn what life is like when the safety net of friends, family and community that most of us take for granted, has holes big enough to walk through.”

The Urban Plunge is an experience you don’t soon forget. And, unlike those who are living there already, The Plunge is completely safe. Participants are accompanied at all times by an experienced homeless person, serving as their guide, whom NCH (or its local affiliate) provides for their stint on the streets. The organization has collected the stories of hundreds of people whose lives have been enriched and ennobled by seeing what life is like without money, food, showers, or shelter. Yours will be too. And think of the power that will flow from your post-Plunge press conference.

I hope that all the candidates -- and NCH is writing to them all -- will take advantage of this opportunity. Even if you aren’t a candidate, this is a meaningful learning experience for anyone. If you contact NCH, at 2201 P St NW, Washington, DC 20037, Phone: 202.462.4822, Email: info@nationalhomeless.org, or its counterpart in your home town, you can get more details and information on the program, and reserve a place for yourself at a Plunge location in your home state, or in Washington, DC.

Homelessness in the land of plenty is nothing new. But the first national discussion of the problem, as far as I can recall, didn’t happen until after one memorable TV broadcast in late 1987. Sunday Morning, hosted by Charles Kuralt, told the story of “The Grate People of Foggy Bottom,” that is, the homeless Americans who could be found warming themselves over the sidewalk steam grates near the State Department. Then, as now, a booming economy, coupled with a tightfisted (at least for social programs) Republican administration, had put a critical number of Americans out on the street. Then, as now, private organizations, church- and synagogue-run shelters, and the forerunners of NCH, tried to pick up the slack, while trying to spread the “There but for the grace of God… ” message. That’s when the Urban Plunge began.

Sadly, history has repeated itself – with a vengeance. This is the issue that’s always here, even as those of us in urban America try to step delicately over or around it, and close our eyes and our hearts to the tragedy unfolding on our streets. Whoever ends up winning the White House next time will have a chance to do something substantive about homelessness. How much easier it will be for a President-elect to lead us to a remedy, after gaining the firsthand knowledge of the problem by simply “taking the plunge.”

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