About 100 volunteers are expected to spend Saturday night sleeping in homemade cardboard shelters near the Alabama School of Math and Science in downtown Mobile, part of an annual push to keep the issue of homelessness visible in the Port City.
The event, known locally as Cardboard City, invites supporters to build makeshift housing out of cardboard at the corner of Dauphin and Ann streets and then spend the night in their creations. Organizers describe it as both an awareness campaign and a fundraiser, with proceeds split between the Sybil H. Smith Family Village and Family Promise of Coastal Alabama, two organizations that provide transitional housing and support services to homeless women, children and families in the Mobile area.
“We encourage everybody to come, even if they don’t want to spend the night,” said Diane McCaskey, director of the Sybil H. Smith Family Village, describing an evening built around music, food and conversation as much as the shelters themselves. “Come and enjoy the music and the soup and be part of something fun for a good cause.”
Participants pay a $100 “rent” to build and sleep in their cardboard structure, with construction and decorating beginning in the afternoon to give builders enough daylight to finish before the evening program starts. McCaskey said past events have typically attracted around 100 overnight participants and dozens of additional visitors who stop by without spending the night, though organizers are hopeful this year’s turnout could exceed previous years.
The stakes behind the awareness campaign are significant. According to the most recent point-in-time count of homelessness in the area, an estimated 600 men, women and children go without stable shelter in the Mobile area on any given night, though McCaskey and other organizers say they believe the true number is considerably higher than what such counts typically capture.
Previous years’ events have raised meaningful money for both partner organizations — last year’s Cardboard City brought in roughly $12,000 — and organizers say the need for that support is growing rather than shrinking. Both the Sybil H. Smith Family Village and Family Promise are bracing for potential funding cuts tied to federal housing assistance programs and tighter restrictions on some government grants, McCaskey said, making community fundraisers like Cardboard City increasingly important to keeping services running.
The Sybil H. Smith Family Village, operated through the Dumas Wesley Community Center, provides transitional housing specifically for women and children experiencing homelessness. Family Promise relies on a network of local congregations to provide meals, temporary shelter and other support to families working to get back on their feet. A similar Cardboard City event is held each spring in Baldwin County.
Organizers say online donations are also accepted for anyone unable to attend in person but wanting to support either organization’s work.