Being homeless is not something one normally chooses to do, but staff members at The Cadre, University of Prince Edward Island’s student-run newspaper, decided to take up the challenge earlier this month.
Josh Coles, Tristan Gray and Patrick Callbeck packed the few belongings they were allowed to bring Oct. 4 as they prepared for their “hobo week” on campus.
The project started a year ago with only a few rules. From Monday to Friday, the participants had to sleep on campus, but they were not allowed to sleep in residences or in the Cadre’s office. No strict limitations were set for money, but no one “spent more than $30,” Coles said.
Coles, Callbeck, and Gray shared their experience throughout the week on the Cadre’s website, www.thecadre.ca, where videos of their adventures were posted. They also gave daily updates on Twitter.
Although the project was not created to support any particular cause, the staff at the Cadre did create an example of how to survive on a university campus with barely anything in hand.
For food, Coles said they planned around various receptions. The Dean’s Honour and Award Ceremonies hosted receptions on two different nights of the week, creating an ideal opportunity for the campus hobos to satisfy their hunger.
“We basically pillaged and plundered the snacks,” Coles said. He said they collected large amounts of pita breads, dips, fruits, and juice. “We pretty much lived on that for three out of the five days,” he said.
“Another tradition with hobos is drinking,” Coles said. “Being the youngest of the hobos, I went a bit overboard on the booze and passed out in the Cadre’s office,” he added.
Because the rules stipulated that sleeping in the office was not allowed, Coles had to be forced to wake up, which resulted in a tussle. “The hobos got in a fight,” Coles said.
As for finding somewhere to rest, “the idea is mostly lounges” Coles said, but classrooms were also added to the list. A place to sleep was not, however, always easy to find. For their last night on campus, after realizing all the university buildings had locked their doors, the hobos had to “climb a window and ended up sleeping in the history lounge,” Coles said.
Hygiene was another difficulty that the staff encountered during the week. “[Gray] didn’t shower at all and two of us only changed our underwear once,” Coles said. Callbeck found a shower in a university building and Coles managed to clean himself up in a friend’s residence, he said.
Living in such conditions definitely made the participants anxious to get back to their ordinary lives. “Incomplete list of things I’m excited for: shower, clean clothes, real food, laundry and girlfriend. Pumpkin pie too,” Gray tweeted on the last day of his homeless experience.
Although the original intention of the project was to have fun, Coles said he would like to do things differently next year, including doing it for a cause. “I feel bad when we call ourselves hobos whereas some universities go all out and people actually do sleep out in cardboard boxes in the street and they do it for legitimate causes,” he said. “We just did it to be bums.”