The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON — Reality Check was held all Friday night and gave Anderson residents who participated an idea of what it’s like to be homeless.
The Herald Bulletin’s reporter Brandi Watters joined about 150 others to sleep in a tent or cardboard box on a night when temperatures were headed down to the 40-degree range.
Homeless people who are living at the Christian Center served soup and other food.
One of them, Ronald Sorrel, 47, said he became homeless because of alcohol addiction. He said he’d held a series of jobs but only worked so he could get money for alcohol. Of course, the alcohol led to job dismissals and though he was from Rushville, Sorrel found himself at the Christian Center where he’s been sober for four months, he said.
Teresa and Jeff Carter were participants in the outing, which was held in the field across from the former General Motors Plant 18 on Scatterfield Road. The field used to be the site of Plant 11.
“You see it in movies, but can’t imagine people living like that year round,” said Teresa Carter. She added that she didn’t know there was a homeless problem in Anderson until she saw news stories of the tent city last summer.
Anderson firefighter Skip Ockomon was the event’s master of ceremonies and said on any given night there are 220 people in Anderson who are either homeless or in a shelter.
