Tegan Wendland/WRKF Sydni Dunn, a Junior at the Manship School of Mass Communication

WRKF's Tegan Wendland talked with LSU Journalism student Sydni Dunn, who wrote about "Harry," a chronically homeless Baton Rouge man with AIDS.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

WENDLAND: Can you start out by telling us about the story that you contributed to this project and how you got the idea for it?

DUNN: I was given a project on a resident of St. Anthony's home, which is designed to help homeless who are affected by HIV/AIDS. I was given "Harry," who was a fantastic person to talk to. He told me his story of being homeless and all of the trials and tribulations that that alone he had to deal with, and then, on top of that, he was HIV positive.

WENDLAND: What did you find so compelling about his story?

DUNN: He has been through so much. You know, he's not the typical person you think of when you think of homelessness in Baton Rouge. It all started out when he was in high school. He dropped out when he was in 10th grade and he started doing odd jobs, getting a few dollars here and there - the jobs were always temporary. He was trying to support his long-term girlfriend of 13 years and his two small children, you know, he was trying different avenues. He even tried to sell plasma, and that's when he was told that he was HIV positive because he was denied. So he went back and told his long-term girlfriend and she learned that she had also contracted the virus, though they weren't sure who had contracted it first. So that was a heavy blow. Then he turned to writing bad checks and that landed him in prison for four years and he got out sometime last year and was rejected by all of his family and his girlfriend, everyone kicked him out on the street, so he went from home to home. He said he didn't really like the schedule of the shelters because of the curfews, he felt he couldn't do all of the things he wanted to do, so he just took to the street and he paired up with a friend he met on the street named "Will" and together they mapped out a schedule of all of the things offered in Baton Rouge - where they could go to get food, clothing - and he did that for nine months, and then finally in the winter months he got really, really sick and finally had to bring himself to a hospital.

WENDLAND: What did you learn from his story and what did you learn about journalism from this experience?

DUNN: I've been writing for the university paper and a few smaller papers, but I've never done a story like this. It was so emotional and so compelling; it really gave me a different perspective on homelessness. So often you just think, "Oh, they're just asking for money so they can buy alcohol, or this or that..." but that really wasn't the case at all. He was struggling because he was trying to pay for his medication and trying to support his family. He might have made some bad choices, but he realizes that now and it was really inspiring, and it was also really interesting to work with this subject because I've been influenced by HIV/AIDs. Both of my parents passed away from it when I was younger. So it was really, really interesting that I was paired with Harry to do this project.

WENDLAND: What do you think the class's collective experience of this project was? Did you regroup after you wrote these articles and discuss some of what you learned and what your experiences were, and was everyone as moved by it as you were?

DUNN: I would say so. Everyone had a different "type" of person. There were some women who had been in shelters, they had been abused, some were pregnant, some were homeless, and some had been kicked out by their parents when they were 16. All of these different experiences we get to report on and I feel like that is really, really special. Everyone got something from it. Maybe they weren't all as personally tied to it as I was, but I feel like everyone I think gained a lot.

WENDLAND: After completing this project, what would you say a lot of people don't know about homelessness in Baton Rouge?

DUNN: It's really multifaceted. It's not just "Oh, they didn't want to get a job so now they're out on the street," or, "they didn't do this..." It's not necessarily always their fault. Some of them made bad choices, yes, but if you're looking through this book, Voices of the Homeless, some were displaced because they had cancer and were trying to afford the medications for it, or they had HIV. It's a variety of reasons and really getting to hear these stories - it really does put a whole new face on the stereotype.