I began this project with a desire to focus on poverty and power differentials within society, and then found myself confronting the topic of unsheltered homelessness. 

 I recently spent 5 days in Asheville, NC, learning about unsheltered homelessness. I hadn’t quite realized before that homeless shelters aren’t always an option. Sometimes there are restrictions- for instance, some require an ID, which my friend Jacob could not provide. Jacob has been in and out of homelessness since his parents split at 13 years old. Over the past year he transitioned from living in his car in Asheville, to living on the streets. 

And it has gotten cold.

I met Jacob in eighth grade at fourteen years old, and then again at seventeen. We spent the next eight years learning a lot from each other, but over the past couple years were disconnected. Seeing him again and spending time listening, following, and learning from him about what it is like to be in his shoes was a bit overwhelming… I still don’t have the words to describe my emotions; I know that at times I felt very anxious, and after leaving Asheville, it took some time for me to process everything.

 Then I started  putting the footage together and my drive to tell his story and the story of unsheltered homelessness was reignited. 

If you are interested in seeing the project, including the Virtual Reality experience, please scroll down or you may open it in a new window: www.christicompass.com/unsheltered 

Please note that the virtual reality program is known to have complications in the google chrome browser; please open with a different browser. When the wonda VR experience is launched successfully from the project page, there should be a background video and music playing, with buttons that appear after a few seconds. 

Thank you for taking the time to learn about this project; I intend on building on it in the future.