When Chris Parker embarked on his company’s latest affordable housing project, he wanted to better understand the experience of the people who would live in his units.
For a year, he lived on minimum wage in one of his apartments. Then he spent a month in a van and his last month in a shelter or on the streets.
Parker is the first to admit that he can’t replicate true poverty — if he missed his bus, for example, he wasn’t going to lose his job.
“Anything that is chosen, that has an end date is not real.