Pastor sleeps on street to understand homeless

Norman, Okla. -- Pastor Dustin Buff traded in his job, his house and his sense of security for a backpack, a Bible, a sleeping bag, one change of clothes, identification, and a cell phone.

For 10 days, Buff and youth minister Philip Nguyen were intentionally homeless, wandering the streets of Norman in a personal quest to understand the plight of the homeless.

Andrews Park, a mile and a half from the University of Oklahoma, is a temporary home to many of the citys homeless. Buff estimates 300 people live on the street in this city of 113,000. In the park, the homeless gather in gazebos, sleep in faux forts on the playground and lounge on the steps of the amphitheater.

Buff pointed to the municipal buildings that ring Andrews Park.

All the city offices are right there, he said. Homeless people are sleeping here at night right across the street from the police station. Ive read government estimates that Norman has 1,700 homeless residents if you include transient housing, shelters and the streets.

Buff is the lead pastor at Grace Church, an independent evangelical church where Nguyen serves as youth minister while he finishes a degree in music education at Oklahoma University.

The pair spent their days moving through Norman, looking for gaps in homeless services and engaging the homeless in conversations about their lives and their options.

I was surprised to discover how easy it was to get food, Buff said. You can get two hot meals a day thanks to Food and Shelter. Finding a place to sleep is harder.

Food and Shelter is a Norman-based nonprofit that serves about 250 meals per day, but the agency has limited sleeping space. Buff and Nguyen were going to spend one night on the floor at the shelter, but the limited space only holds four dozen people.

We decided that we would rather people who actually need the shelter take our spots that night, Nguyen said, halfway through his homeless experiment. We ended up sleeping between houses.

Read more here:
Pastor sleeps on street to understand homeless