Sleeping outdoors gave new perspective to a pair of Vernon volunteers  

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“I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t know how you could sit on your butt and not do a darned thing and be totally exhausted. By Sunday I was totally exhausted, but my thinking on that was it’s because your brain doesn’t shut off. Even if you’re sitting there relaxing you are not relaxed, you’re watching faces that go by, you’re remembering people, you are just on alert all the time.”

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Sleeping outdoors gave new perspective to a pair of Vernon volunteers

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Tracey noted they were actually more privileged than most as they slept in their car over the weekend and not in a tent. That meant when the couple were forced to move in the middle of the nights to new locations to finish their rests they could do so with relative ease, whereas others would have to pack everything up, move, and set up their camps again before getting back to sleep.

Tracey also said the experience showed how the unhoused are just people and will look out for one another if given the chance.

“[The unhoused] have always been super respectful to us when we’ve been out there [with Packman], when we’re bringing them food and everything else, but to sit there and watch from the sidelines as all the unhomed actually deal with each other kind of blew my mind,” Tracey explained.

“They are totally for each other. Like somebody will have a sandwich and if there’s four of them sitting there they’ll rip that sandwich into four just so everybody gets something in their stomach. It’s totally not like what half the world thinks they are like. They’re human, they care.”

She also told Vernon Matters the experience showed the lack of resources available to the unhoused, such as public restrooms that stay open late into the night or more garbage cans for people to throw away their trash. Tracey said if those were available there would be less mess made by the homeless, and that could also help shift the public’s perspective.

The Millers plan to turn May 1 into an annual event to raise awareness about what it is like to be unhoused. Tracey said she was not sure if that would be through community events or by sleeping outside again, though noted if they chose to do the latter they would challenge local leaders and stakeholders to take part and share the experience and see the shortcomings first-hand.

The couple planned to stay out for 72 hours, though started at noon Friday, May 1 and only made it to around 9 p.m. Sunday, May 3. They were able to stay out long enough for the weekly visit from Packman and be on the other side of the table accepting a donated meal instead of handing them out to people in need.

The couple also interviewed and spoke with many people while sleeping out, and plan to share those stories in a documentary. A timeline for when that would be developed was not known as of time of publication.

Packman Open Hearts, the local group the Millers are involved with, provides people experiencing homelessness in Vernon with hot meals, essential items, personal connections, and assistance in accessing local supports and programs.