David Pirtle always thought the homeless were people to fear. He learned the hard way that the only thing that sets homeless people apart from others is simply a home.

Pirtle was one of three members on The Faces of Homelessness Panel, a panel of

people who were previously or are currently homeless. He shared his story with the Elon community Nov. 13 night in Whitley Auditorium. The panel came as part of a series of events hosted by Campus Kitchen and Elon Volunteers in honor of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

The panel members shared their stories, which reflected dark glimpses of humanity, as well as reasons they still believe individuals can make a difference.

“I think they may have said some things that Elon students might not have wanted to hear but needed to hear,” said sophomore Rachel Lewis, Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week co-coordinator. “It’s not just enough to think and write papers. You have to go do something.”

Pirtle became homeless at the age of 29, when schizophrenia caused him to lose his job. He spent time homeless in Phoenix, where the heat was so intense he could bake cookies from the dashboard of a car. He experienced the criminalization of homelessness firsthand while in Phoenix, a city that outlawed “urban camping,” or sleeping in public places such as sidewalks or parks.

“Instead of trying to solve (homelessness), they try to legislate it out of existence by making it very difficult to be a homeless person,” he said. “They said it was to help people get help in shelters, but they were shutting down shelters at the same time. They wanted the homeless to go away.”

Another issue discussed was assaults on the homeless. Such attacks are most commonly committed by people 13-21 years of age, according to panel member Andre Colter, who said he had his blanket set on fire by a group of teenagers, who walked away laughing.

Pirtle referred to the practice as “bum hunting.”

“Kids go out and beat up a homeless person for fun,” he said. “I’ve been attacked on several occasions. I’ve been hit with a baseball bat, had stones thrown at me, had people kicking me in the head as they walked by. I’ve been spray painted and urinated on.”

One in four of these attacks are fatal, according to Pirtle.

“I don’t think that if that were happening to any other group, that it would be allowed to happen,” he said. “But because it’s homeless people, it just gets pushed under the rug.”

For Colter, the hardest thing about being homeless is talking to as many as 75 people a day without one of them acknowledging his existence.

“I’ve become privy to how I’ve become invisible,” he said. “People will spot me from three feet away and cross the street."

But Colter has also experienced the good of humanity. While he was a student living on the streets in Washington, D.C., a woman who talked to him regularly when she passed by once gave him the keys to her house, told him to fix himself something to eat, take a shower and study while she was at work that day.

“The only thing we had exchanged was conversation,” Colter said. “She saw something in me that I had neglected to see: I had worth.”

Hearing the panelists’ stories of goodwill impacted and inspired senior Deirdre Loftus, she said.

“It made me want to be the best memory that a homeless person might have,” she said.

The third panelist, T.S. Sanders, encouraged audience members to find their voice and to do something with it.

“What are you guys going to do? Why are you here?” she asked. “Our job is to help you guys get informed and out of the cushion you came from. The bottom line isn’t whoever is in the White House, it’s what are you going to do"