Execs see what it's like to be homeless

David Perlmutt

Posted: Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

Kelly Chopus (right), who is chair of Charlotte Community Affairs Professionals, attends lunch at Urban Ministry Center on Thursday. She and others corporate executives were on a "homeless walking tour."

They were nine corporate funders, executives who help decide where their company's philanthropy goes, walking the same route hundreds of Charlotte's working poor and homeless take every day.

It was cold and wet last Thursday, a perfect day to learn about the homeless. The walk was part of a "homeless walking tour" that Maria Hanlin, executive director of Mecklenburg Ministries, leads for various groups several times a year.

This was the first time she'd led "corporate professionals," all members of CCAP (Charlotte Community Affairs Professionals), an organization of corporate funders.

"It was a powerful experience that they won't forget," Hanlin said. "It will impact how they view Charlotte, how they approach funding requests and how they understand poverty."

All nine started their Thursday catching a bus at 6 a.m. for uptown's transportation center, then had to figure out how to transfer by bus to Crisis Assistance Ministry on Spratt Street, west of uptown, where each day hundreds of the working poor line up for help with rent and utilities.

There, they listened to stories of the homeless and handed out muffins to those in line. Then they walked the three miles from Spratt Street to St. Peter's Soup Kitchen at the Urban Ministry Center on College Street - a walk hundreds of homeless make each day.

Along the way, they stopped at camps of boxes used for shelter and under bridges where the homeless sleep. At the soup kitchen, they sat with the homeless and ate a bowl of soup and a cheese sandwich.

And they learned at least two important lessons: What it means to be poor and/or homeless in Charlotte, and how the donations from companies and thousands of Charlotte area residents are going to a noble cause of keeping people housed and fed.

"We all hear the numbers - thousands of people (6,500) in Charlotte are homeless," said Kelly Chopus, director of community relations at Goodrich Corp. and CCAP's chair. "But when you walk on the train tracks and you see those camps and you see how people are actually living - probably through no choice of their own - it's really upsetting that we in this community allow that to happen.

"We need to make different choices to make that go away."

Chopus, like the others, was wet after the walk without umbrellas. She held out her hand, cold to the touch: "I've just had to deal with this for five hours. These people deal with this every day, all day."

George Baldwin, managing director of legislative and community affairs at Piedmont Natural Gas, messed up his bus connection and arrived late to Crisis Assistance. As he approached, he was startled to see so many people in line for help.

He listened to their stories, and thought: "These are people a step away from being very successful. But for making a bad choice, they would be.

"We saw our donations at work - it was a rewarding morning seeing these people benefit from the contributions we all make," said Baldwin, next year's CCAP chair. "There was a lot of humanity on those faces. They were saying 'good morning' to me, when I should have been reaching out to them. People need to understand that these are just normal people.

"These are our neighbors. They deserve being treated with dignity."

Chopus and Baldwin planned to go back to their companies and blog or e-mail about their experience.

"We will encourage our employees to get engaged," Chopus said. "We are blessed. We have the potential to do something about this in this community."