In September 2022, Alabama father Eric Bump Overstreet set out to do something unthinkable: live “homeless on purpose” for 90 days.
“These people are talked down to all the time so when you show them a little love and respect it changes them, I wanted to put a face on these people and just let people see that they are normal people just like me and you,” Overstreet told Mobile-based news outlet WKRG.
Over the course of three months, Overstreet became intimately aware of the hardships that his unhoused neighbors faced.
He spent his first 40 days living under a bridge beneath a highway overpass, and the last 50 living in a small tent.
He sweated through hot days, survived freezing nights, had run-ins with police officers, and witnessed new friends go through extreme medical ordeals.
“Every story is different, every person’s situation is different so how you take care of this is you take one person at a time as a community and find out what they need and nudge them in the right direction,” Overstreet said.
“It just made me look at people differently, maybe the way God sees them.”
As he slept on the streets, Overstreet documented his experiment on TikTok and Facebook, giving viewers a direct portal into the day-to-day life of experiencing homelessness.
“I’ve had a major heart change like truly getting to know them and living with them and experiencing their ups and downs and their fears,” said Overstreet. “It has changed my heart forever like it has really softened it. It really really humbled me.”
Overstreet paired his awareness campaign with a pledge to raise money for Driftwood Housing — a local nonprofit that provides no or low-income housing for Mobile’s chronically homeless (people who have experienced homelessness for 12 months or more).
In the end, he raised over $20,000 for the organization.
“With Eric's funds, Driftwood Housing will build two micro houses (less than 120 square feet, all-electric) or a tiny house (less than 400 square feet, all-electric with plumbing),” read a 2023 update to Eric’s GoFundMe page.
“Thank you for your pledge and/or donation to our cause! This means so much to us and our displaced neighbors living outside.”
Overstreet’s generosity didn’t end in 2023. In the years since he has continued teaming up with volunteers to hand out hot meals, donate hygiene supplies, and support the same community of people he lived alongside for months.
“I hope we’ve changed Mobile’s mind somewhat about it and I feel like that has happened,” said Overstreet. “There’s now an army of people that want to help solve it. It’s like they’ve come out of nowhere.”
Header images via Eric Bump Overstreet / Facebook
