On Friday night, a handful of people who wanted to know what homelessness feels like spent the night in oversize appliance boxes in the parking lot of the Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency’s annex building on U.S.-23 South.

Four NEMCSA employees spent the night bored, cold, and uncomfortable, hoping to better understand the experiences of the people they serve every day.

No community members opted to participate in the sleep-out.

Around a fire pit, in the dark hours of the evening, the women passed the time talking about the people in Alpena County who spend winter nights in a shed or a tent or on a park bench.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A child watches a video in a box during the early hours of a homelessness awareness sleep-out at the Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency annex on U.S.-23 South in Alpena. The child did not spend the night at the event, but some Northeast Michigan children have no home where they can sleep warmly and safely, advocates say.

Many people believe anyone could have a home if they just tried hard enough, said Amanda Bergeron, lead housing resource specialist for NEMCSA.

But, she said, many homeless people in Alpena County have full-time jobs with health benefits.

They have cell phones and even nice cars, purchased before they lost a job, or got evicted, or had to run from domestic violence.

Many people without homes, ready and able to pay rent, can’t find anyone willing to take their money because of Northeast Michigan’s critical lack of affordable housing, said Courtney Holmes, housing resource specialist for NEMCSA.

While some choose homelessness, many people fight tooth and nail trying to get back into a home, Bergeron said, holding her hands toward the fire.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency staff members and children settle into boxes on Friday during a homelessness awareness sleep-out at the NEMCSA annex on U.S.-23 South in Alpena.

Several hours into Friday’s event, two women stopped by with a blanket to donate.

“I just can’t imagine it,” said Alpena resident Sue Fitzgerald. “It breaks my heart to think of kids living in cars or under a bridge. It’s like another world.”

Homeless parents, especially single moms, have to decide whether to spend most of their paycheck on child care or depend on public assistance they don’t want, said Housing Intake Specialist Traci Schuelke.

Accepting help takes courage, the women said.

Passing the long hours until they crawled into their boxes, the women compared notes about upcoming Christmas shopping trips. The talk slipped back to homelessness. They wondered what a holiday feels like with no home.

Some, staying at a shelter, can invite guests and cook their own holiday meals.

Others may pick up take-out Thanksgiving meals from the local soup kitchen and celebrate the holiday in their car or on a park bench.

Two of the women left the fire and walked across the street to a gas station to ask to use the restroom. The others wondered: what happens to those without homes when all bathrooms close for the night?

Some of the people who ask them for help smell bad, the women said.

Asking for a job becomes more difficult when you can’t get clean, they said.

In the summer, Alpena people without homes can sometimes shower in bathrooms near the beach, but the city closes those in the cold months.

Showers at a truck stop, the only public option in winter, cost $7 — too much for a homeless person’s budget, the women agreed.

Though nobody showed up for the sleep-out, people do want to help the homeless, but many don’t know how, they said.

Maybe, Bergeron suggested, one solution is to start the conversation.

Stand around and talk. Throw out ideas.

Think outside the box.

As the evening turned to night, the women pulled their boxes closer to the fire and crawled inside, shoes tangling in sleeping bags.

Just as they got settled, a man on a bicycle approached with a question.

“I have to ask,” he said. “What’s with all the boxes?”

Bergeron told him about the sleep-out and asked if he had a place to live.

Yes, he said. He recently found a job in Alpena, but the only rental he could find was 45 minutes away and expensive, so he bought a camper.

“It’s warmer than a box, anyway,” he said.

He might still need help, Bergeron suggested kindly, offering him information about NEMCSA services.

The man probably didn’t know he counted as homeless, she said after he left. She hoped he would call.

At 2:30 a.m., Bergeron groaned from her box, “My whole everything hurts.”

The cold was bad, but the hard pavement was worse, they all agreed from their sleeping bags.

An hour later, the women still lay awake.

“How does a person try to fix things without ever getting a good night’s sleep?” Bergeron wondered, sitting outside her box, giving up on rest for the night.

At 5 a.m., the women doused the fire and stored the boxes. They climbed groggily into their vehicles and headed home to hot showers and soft mattresses and the realization that, for some, every night is a night in a box.

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