by Judy Le, The Virginian-Pilot

By the end of the month, 36-year-old Melinda Morris didn't know where the money had gone. Her disabled mother-in-law needed medicine, and they were working hard to keep their utilities on.

Still, they did better than others. All around them, families had been evicted.

Morris is not real. She was one of dozens of low-income personas taken on by participants in Wednesday's poverty simulation, put on by the Virginia Cooperative Extension office and sponsored by Virginia Beach''s departments of Human Services and Housing and Neighborhood Preservation.

Dozens of educators and members of local government and faith-based organizations gamely sought to survive one month, made up of 15-minute weeks, on a very limited budget.

The intent of the exercise was to help people better understand the experience of being poor....
]]> Sue Fitzgerald, left, from Wave City Care, Susan Steed of the Virginia Beach Department of Human Resources and Jamal Gunn from U.S Rep. Glenn Nye’s office read over a packet to see what roles they will be playing in the city’s poverty simulation program at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
(David B. Hollingsworth | The Virginian-Pilot)

by Judy Le, The Virginian-Pilot

By the end of the month, 36-year-old Melinda Morris didn’t know where the money had gone. Her disabled mother-in-law needed medicine, and they were working hard to keep their utilities on.

Still, they did better than others. All around them, families had been evicted.

Morris is not real. She was one of dozens of low-income personas taken on by participants in Wednesday’s poverty simulation, put on by the Virginia Cooperative Extension office and sponsored by Virginia Beach”s departments of Human Services and Housing and Neighborhood Preservation.

Dozens of educators and members of local government and faith-based organizations gamely sought to survive one month, made up of 15-minute weeks, on a very limited budget.

The intent of the exercise was to help people better understand the experience of being poor.

Some had disabilities and couldn’t be left alone. Some could work but had limited transportation. And those who didn’t make it to work didn’t get paid. Some did have cars but had to go to the bank to make loan payments.

Those with small children brought them around, and they acted up. Child care was hard to get unless you were on the list. And a lot of people were not on the list. Volunteers staffed the agencies, and every agency had a long line.

Those running out of money turned to the pawn shop, known for short changing sellers. Melva Martin – in real life, a Community Services Board member – was shocked to find her $100 microwave was worth only $20. She negotiated it up to $52.

Next door, the payday loan joint was charging 1 percent to cash a check and 30 percent interest over two weeks on loans.

Simulation volunteer Myra Labens, 41, brought her experience. In real life, the single mother, now unemployed, once worked in payday loans.

“I’ve seen people try to repay them. The interest eats you alive,” she said. “I hope this experience helps people understand how hard it really is on people.”

By the end of last year, the city had 27,344 individuals participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or what was once called food stamps. That was an increase of 35.6 percent from the beginning of the year, according to state statistics.

Andy Friedman, the city’s director of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation, said at the outset that he hoped the exercise would allow people to see what it was like on the other side of the desk. By the end, he had. “I’m surprised to see how frustrating it is to have your fate in someone else’s hands,” he said.

Julie Barnes, a member of Beach Fellowship, said the experience showed her a different side of herself. “I consider myself to be a person of integrity, but I threw it out the door. Right away I was looking for ways to cheat the system, and I had no guilty feelings about it,” she said. “It blew me out of the water.”

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From one commenter:  What the article describes is a good experiment in getting people to place themselves in another’s shoes. But now what? It’s good that some of the participants now have a better understanding of what it is like for some of thier clients, but how will that understanding be put to good use? Aside from being kinder or a little more compassionate, both good things on their own, what practical applications will now be implemented to help those they portrayed for an evening rise out of such frustrating and desperate circumstances? A followup story on the answers would be a great idea.

Originally published on January 21, 2010 in The Virginian-Pilot