Before I went to the Poverty Simulation at the Sanctuary, I was unsure of what to expect. I had never participated in a simulation before, but I knew people that had done similar ones before who told me it was an interesting experience.
Upon arrival, we were all instructed to pick a seat wherever we wanted. Where we sat determined our characters for simulations. There were many different families to roleplay as; they all had different traits that worsened their situation. For example, there were some families with members that had conditions they needed medication for.
I roleplayed as a 40-year-old man named Quentin. I had a daughter in college, and she had an infant. I had a full-time job I had to attend throughout the simulation. When we began, we were given a sheet with all of our responsibilities. I had to work full time in order to ensure that we could pay for the mortgage payment, groceries every week, childcare for my daughter’s infant, and also to pay utilities and extra costs. The cost of these items really began to add up even with the food stamps card that I had and the hours that I was clocking in.
I found that during the simulation there was barely any time after I finished work to do the necessary things for my household. I would try to go to the bank to cash my check and I wouldn’t have time. This impeded my ability to be able to feed my household, as the grocery store wasn’t open late enough after my work either. My daughter was also busy going to college part-time and working part-time along with trying to watch her baby when she could.
The simulation really opened my eyes as I have never had to worry about these conditions before. I felt stressed out during the simulation just trying to pay all my bills and make sure my family stayed alive. Overall, it was just a disaster. In real life, we would have gone without food for about two weeks and we probably would have gotten evicted if I hadn’t been able to pay my mortgage just barely on time. We even had to let another family stay with us as they got evicted.
While it was a frustrating experience at times, I believe that it was beneficial and caused me to be more aware of my surroundings. It made me realize that I am very fortunate to never have had to worry about these problems before.
