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October 20, 2006

PC students to live like the homeless tonight

Some Providence College students are planning to sleep outside tonight, in cardboard shelters they’ll create on campus this afternoon, wearing just the clothes on their backs.

They’ll only eat whatever food passers-by might be willing to give them.

As a small group has done for the past two years, they’re hoping to raise awareness of the realities of homelessness, said PC junior Kevin Moore, the president of the school’s Habitat for Humanity chapter.

He hopes to see 25 students at an event that has drawn about 10 each of the last two years.

“It’s always a meaningful event for those who participate, and the larger number of people we have, the more impact it has on those just passing by,” he said. “It wouldn’t be realistic to think it would give you an insight into what it would be like to be homeless because we’re on a secure campus, we have bathrooms if we need them, shelter’s only a few feet away, but it does allow the campus to become a little more aware of the issues of homelessness and the need for affordable housing.”

In a new turn this year, the group of students will also build wooden planters, starting at 4 p.m. on the Slavin Center Lawn on campus. They’ll donate those to the South Side Community Land Trust, which plans to give them as gifts to people moving into a small cluster of affordable houses being built on the south side of Providence, Moore said.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:19 AM | Permalink

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Steve Cassidy | October 20, 2006 12:15 PM link

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