Must-see video: life through the eyes of a homeless man with a GoPro

Adam Reichart is a homeless man who is helping chronicle life on the street as part of a remarkable project called Homelessgopro.com.

Details, from CNET:

The project outfits homeless volunteers with GoPro cameras, which they use to film the world from their perspective.

Reichart, who has lived on San Francisco’s streets on and off for about six years, was the first Homeless GoPro volunteer recruited, and because of the project, I now know much more about the handyman from Florida.

He’s in his mid-forties, has three adult children, and was promptly robbed of all his belongings upon landing in San Francisco to scatter the ashes of his deceased girlfriend in Golden Gate Park. After that, he struggled to get a job, used up his savings and ended up homeless. He has battled “drug use that spiraled out of control,” but now says he’s been clean for four years.

The goal of Homeless GoPro, its website says, is “to build empathy, enable the non-homeless to walk with a homeless person for a few moments, and to explore how a camera lens associated with ‘hard-core’ activities like snowboarding and surfing can showcase courage and difficulty of another sort.”

In video captured by Reichart, passersby shake their heads with disinterest when he tries to sell them a Street Sheet. Some ignore him altogether.

“I notice every day that people are losing their compassion…not just for homeless people, but for society in general,” Reichart says during an interview segment of the video, which, somewhat predictably, has generated YouTube comments ranging from “I’m trying not to cry” and “Always give away, one day you’ll need it… remember my wise words…” to “This is so stupid, give him money, and he keeps on panhandling for the rest of his life.”

Homeless GoPro was started by Kevin F. Adler, a Cambridge-educated sociologist, author and self-described “entrepreneur for people” whose Uncle Mark suffered from schizophrenia, and spent 30 years on and off the streets, before dying almost 10 years ago at age 50.

Read more.  And check out Adam’s story below.