Therapist writes about 2 days homeless in ‘48’
The memory of seeing a homeless person for the first time when he was 5 years old never left Sheldon Jacobs, who was with his grandmother when she stopped her car in Logan Heights to offer the man money.
Decades later, Jacobs has another memory he can’t shake. As a licensed marriage and family therapist in Las Vegas, he spent two days living on the street to experience homelessness.
“The undesirable pain I experienced long after I completed the 48-hour journey is still with me to this very day,” Jacobs wrote in his recently released book “48,” which chronicles his experience in the summer of 2018.
Jacobs, a graduate of Alliant International University in San Diego, acknowledges that some people will criticize him for such a short experiment, but he said those 48 hours were profound and eye-opening.
He said he was sleep-deprived while on the street because he was afraid he may be harmed if he dozed off.
On the first night out, he quickly learned how homeless people are seen and treated. He attempted to go into his gym to use the restroom, and was told he could not enter. The person who said he could not come in apologized after learning he had a membership, and then explained that they “get a lot of homeless folks down here.”
On his second night, Las Vegas police threatened to arrest him after he was told he could stand, but could not sit, at the Fremont Street Experience. Later that night, he was run off by a security guard, who also told him he couldn’t sit at another location.
Jacobs took no money with him, but he experienced the generosity many people have for those in need with offers of food and cash. He also came away with an understanding of how difficult it can be for people on the street, and he said service providers and outreach workers also should have that understanding to be effective in helping the homeless.