Call them Willie, Joe and Betty.
They were among Richmond's homeless yesterday, with no ID and just $5 and a bus ticket.
In real life, they're Art Raymond, principal of Moody Middle School; Alex Evans, minister of Second Presbyterian Church; and Cathy Howard, vice provost for community engagement at Virginia Commonwealth University.
They took on the identities of three homeless people for a simulation called "Walking in Their Shoes," part of Affordable Housing Awareness Week. The program was hosted by Homeward, the region's planning and coordinating agency for homeless services.
Twenty-two community leaders walked throughout the day -- 6 miles or more in some cases -- as they traveled from the city jail and nearby Conrad Center, which provides food to the area's homeless and working poor, to areas of downtown Richmond and back.
For Raymond's group, the day started with a 2-mile hike to Willow Lawn because Willie and Joe had lost their ID cards. They couldn't get an ID card without a birth certificate, so they went to the Division of Vital Records office, where they found out they couldn't get a copy of a birth certificate without an acceptable ID.
At the service window, Willie learned that his probation officer could give him an offender information form to prove who he was. Even simpler would be for someone in his immediate family to request the birth certificate using his or her ID.
So they left with nothing but another avenue to try, which was a common refrain at the afternoon's debriefing session at the Conrad Center.
For many, the one success of the day seemed to be getting to St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Ninth and Grace streets in time for the free weekly lunch for the homeless.
"Today I did not accomplish anything I needed to better my kids or myself," said Judie Overcash, who was portraying a mother who had lost her home. In real life, she works for Altria.
"It was really frustrating how much it felt like a Catch-22. I could eat or take the kids to the doctor," she said. "Each time I tried to ask for help, they would say, 'I'll call you back.' I had to keep saying, 'I don't have a phone.'"
Participants in yesterday's exercise said they had trouble getting change for $5 so they could ride the bus, finding a phone to make a call, and getting around the city to apply for services.
Three people portraying homeless veterans spent hours on city buses, getting from the Greyhound station on the Boulevard to McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in South Side, then to the Department of Rehabilitation Services in the West End.
"There is a safety net," Raymond said. "It is hard to connect the parts. There is a need for more coordination."
The exercise was useful, said John Sarvay, a management consultant and blogger.
"We don't put ourselves in each other's shoes often enough," he said. "We spend our time observing from afar."
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or kcalos@timesdispatch.com.
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