Meet Will (above). For the next 6 days, he will be living out of his car to raise awareness for the homeless.

Homeless and Working

By day, Will works as a web developer for Capstrat. Every year the company looks to see how they can make a difference during the holidays. This year, Will volunteered to live out of his car to draw attention to the plight of countless individuals and families that endure cold winter nights sleeping in a shelter or living out of their car.

Will will continue his 9-5 job, albeit at different hours. During the day, he’ll be spending time volunteering at shelters and other various homeless-related charitable groups to learn and help. Later in the day, he’ll be keeping up with work on his laptop at various coffee shops and other places with wifi.

Internet Capable, but no Home

He pointed out that many homeless are active on social networking sites and email, despite not having a stationary place to sleep each night. One local example is Daniel Schooley, who spends his time on Fayetteville Street drawing beautiful streetscapes and city scenes—available for sale at $20 each. He may not have a permanent place to sleep, but he has an online resume and uses email to scout out potential job prospects.

According to Will, the idea isn’t to do stupid human tricks to raise money for a specific group or organization, but to simply raise the awareness level for those who don’t have a permanent home to go to each night.

He makes no attempts to pretend he’ll live the actual lifestyle of someone without permanent housing, but he does come pretty close to the countless people who may have until recently lived a middle-class lifestyle. There are a few simple rules he’ll abide by for the next few days:

• I can’t go home. This goes without saying, but thought I’d be clear about it.
• I can’t go inside the Capstrat offices. A little less obvious, since lots of folks who find themselves without shelter still have jobs to go to. They’re just under-employed, or don’t earn enough to support themselves and their families. But since we have shower facilities inside our office restroom, I wanted to eliminate that convenience for my week. Not sure how or where I’m going to get a shower during the week. I’ll keep you posted on that.
• My budget for the week is $20. Plus one tank of gas. No credit cards, ATM cards, etc. I don’t intend to panhandle, and I don’t intend to take a hot meal from someone who needs it much more than me. My plan is to hit the Kroger for ramen noodles, cup-a-soup, or whatever else I can warm up on my backpacking stove each day. I’ll be tweeting my expenses as they happen. I don’t see any problem coming in under $20 for the week, but it seemed right to set the budget ‘out loud.’ Of course, I won’t have the most balanced, nutritious and vitamin-filled diet for the week, but I’m okay with that.

Keep Up with Will

He will be posting continuous updates via his blog and twitter (@iliveinmycar) of what he’s doing, as well as information about the homeless and how to help.

Every homeless person has a story, a name, a mom, a favorite color, and opinions as well as a past and a future.

—Will

Related Articles

• Daniel the Sketch Artist

Further Reading

• Homeless for the Holidays (official site)
• Faces of Homelessness (The Indy)
• Living Out in the Cold (The N&O)