Project Unhoused

Project Unhoused - A teenager's plan to understand and feed the homeless.

It was a scorching hot summer day and my father and I were waiting in line at 7/11. As we went to put our two water bottles on the counter, a voice rang through the store. We were pushed to the side by a girl, no more than 19, covered from head to toe in cuts and sores with pus oozing out of them. “I’m next in line” she hollered and she placed her 99-cent can of Arizona iced tea on the counter. She was grasping onto the counter with one hand while her other hand fished through her pockets searching for some change. She started screaming at the cashier with only short pauses to reinforce her feeble grip on the counter, the only thing preventing her from collapsing onto the floor. I nudged my dad and he ran to the counter and handed his credit card to the cashier and said, “It's on me” Instantly, she bolted out of the store and the only sign of her existence were the bells ringing as my father swiped his credit card. When we left the store, we saw her lying on a bench, surrounded by other homeless people and some meager belongings, chugging her drink. I was filled with compassion and a desire to understand how this teenager, only a few years older than me, ended up in this situation. I realized at that moment that I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to provide food, clothing, and shelter to as many homeless people as possible, but I couldn’t figure out how. Using what I’ve learned in school, I decided that in order to fix the problem, I have to understand how people become homeless in the first place. I will be partnering with local homeless shelters and food banks to meet with homeless people in a controlled environment so that in return for prepaid meals at local restaurants, I can learn their stories. I will not only help homeless people in the short term by supplying them with meals and clothes, but I hope to learn the underlying causes of homelessness so that we can know where to focus our efforts to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. Then I will collect these interviews into a book to share their stories and spread awareness about homelessness in America. If you can, please donate to my goFundMe and share this video with your friends. Even a few dollars will go a long way. My name is Zac Levy, and I am a 16-year-old Junior at High Technology High School in Lincroft, New Jersey.