Using their experience of working with the students as an example, the authors of this article aim to illustrate five student actions to which teachers can attend when implementing a social justice-oriented mathematical task. The example described is based on the work of 24 African American students in grades 6-8 who attended the authors' after-school mathematics program-solving program. The authors' students engaged in the Homeless Shelter task, which invited them to optimize budgets for building microshelters for the homeless. This task differs from a common lesson structure that shares similar mathematical goals (i.e., creating and staying within a budget), such as buying, selling, or creating a business. Although the latter focuses on the importance of consumerism, the Homeless Shelter task is truly service minded. This task seemed to engage students more deeply than they may have been otherwise, as evidenced by the students' discussions and actions introduced in this article.