Homeless woman’s life on the streets
A Waikato woman who dressed as a homeless person, as part of a social experiment, was verbally abused and harassed by the public.
Georgina Rewha, a former high school teacher and mother-of-four, said she had a cousin who was homeless and wanted to experience first-hand what life was like for him.
‘‘It was a real eye-opener and probably not something I’d be too much in a hurry to do again.’’
Dressed in a hooded jersey, beanie, black dress, old socks and white sneakers, Rewha sat in the Te Awamutu town centre, equipped with a cap, a notebook and pen.
Rewha conducted her experiment during a weekday and during normal business hours.
Within the space of two hours, she was verbally abused by more than a dozen people.
A local shop assistant told her to ‘‘stop bludging and go do something with your life’’.
A local businessman told her to go home, that she would be more productive there.
Rewha also made notes of a conversation between two women who were working for a local tertiary institution.
‘‘Should we go get her a pizza, she looks so hard up!’’. ‘‘Mate! She’s hard up ‘cause she ain’t got a J-O-B!’’
Rewha said she was well disguised and even received comments from family and friends who didn’t recognise her.
‘‘I’d give you some of my pizza but I’m really hungry, sorry,’’ said a family friend.
There were many offensive comments that Waikato Times could not publish.
‘‘Being a local person, it was interesting to hear comments from people, including whanau and friends who were none the wiser to who I was, but to be able to see the responses from them,’’ Rewha said.
‘‘At one point I did want to blow my cover but I thought if I do that, I’d be undermining the whole purpose of what I was doing.
‘‘People in society, we live our lives and we do our dues but sometimes we fail to take the time to get to know people for who they are instead of what they can do and what purpose they can serve for others.’’
Hamilton’s Night Shelter manager Peter Humphreys said most people do care about people on the street, but there was a minority that would judge.
‘‘The majority of people really care about people on the street, I get a number of calls from members of the public [who are concerned],’’ he said.
‘‘I get old ladies coming in with clothes and definitely have shopkeepers or members of the public calling me if they’re worried about someone, they want to help.’’
Humphreys said being homeless was not a choice.
‘‘People are homeless not because they want to be and it’s not an experiment, it’s not something you would choose to do, so it’s not a choice to be homeless,’’ he said.
‘‘If you’re doing an experiment, you’re choosing to be homeless.
‘‘It is certainly not something I would encourage, I would be very cautious if you’re going to experiment in this way.’’
Rewha said the experiment was a chance to remind people that this type of discrimination doesn’t just happen ‘‘elsewhere’’.
‘‘It’s an opportunity for people to really think about it for themselves,’’ she said.
‘‘When you see people who are wanting a kai, the least you can do is stop.
‘‘It’s about making a conscious decision to simply stop, in the business of your life, and make that time.’’