Homeless people return to the street as winter shelter ends
posted: March 15, 2008 | category: faith, homelessness
tags: homeless news, housing, lyrics, music, NightWatch, photos, stories
The Salvation Army of Greensboro’s winter shelter closes until next year.
A homeless man sleeps outside Greensboro Urban Ministry.
Erik put a blanket on the man sleeping outside the shelter.
The cold weather shelter programs at both homeless shelters ended yesterday, and Greensboro Urban Ministry Executive Director Mike Aiken and Salvation Army Major Paul Egan say they won’t reopen before next winter unless the weather becomes life-threatening. Salvation Army was providing emergency shelter for about 40-50 people, and Greensboro Urban Ministry’s overnight shelter was sheltering dozens more. Those 80 or more homeless people are now back on the street. Where are they sleeping?
Our NightWatch team found that the group of homeless people who met us in the parking lot of Grace Community Church had more than doubled from last week. The efforts of Grace’s outreach staff and the Family Service of the Piedmont housing support team had decreased the numbers of folks sleeping outside at Grace from more than a dozen regulars last summer down to an average of three recently, at least one of whom will be moving into permanent housing this week, but with the closing of the winter shelters, we saw a new group of faces at Grace on this night.
When we got to one of the big bridges downtown, we found that the number there had doubled, as well. Our friend JM, who has the spot nearest the path, announced that “the bridge is full.” There were men sleeping in every available space underneath the bridge. The spaces between the bridge’s support beams are just wide enough to hold a mattress, and all of the mattresses were occupied.
But the hardest thing for me came later in the night, when we went to check the parking lot of Greensboro Urban Ministry before going home for the night, and we found at least a half dozen people sleeping there, some of them on the concrete right outside the doors of the shelter — including a woman. As I knelt down to speak to them, feeling helpless and trying to think of what in the world I could say, one of the men locked eyes with me and softly said, “It’s just inhumane.” His eyes welled up and he turned away. I put my head down and prayed, “God, please help me…” I felt sick. Words were inadequate.
I thought of Mike Aiken, the director of that shelter, who is involved in every effort that I know about to end homelessness. I thought of my earlier conversation with Jackie Lucas, the director of the Salvation Army shelter, who told me that she’d been able to move five people into transitional housing before winter shelter closed. She’s also involved in efforts to end homelessness, and she’s always looking for new ways to stretch limited resources to better serve homeless people. I know and love Mike and Jackie, and I’m thankful for their service and commitment to serve and show God’s love to homeless people. And I also realize that neither has the space, the staff or the funding to shelter everyone.
And then I looked back to the face of the man in front of me — a kind, intelligent, dignified and weary survivor, who is trying to get his life together — and I hurt for him. He told me that he’d lost his job and just recently found a new one, but he hadn’t gotten his first paycheck yet. He was struggling. “It’s like Job,” he said, and there was both resignation and determination in his voice.
He continued on, telling me that he knew that it was going to be alright, that his trust was in God. I reached for his hand, and asked if I could pray for him. When he nodded, I began, “God, I know You’re here with us,” and beside me, he said, “Yes, You are.” His voice was firm and strong and the intimacy with which he spoke to his God was unmistakable. I did not feel strong. I felt small and inadequate and humbled by the strength of the faith of this man, steadfastly trusting the Lord even as he spent the night on the hard concrete outside the closed doors of a homeless shelter.
On the drive home, I prayed out loud for the man of faith to be rewarded, for this to be the year that JM finally leaves the bridge and gets a home, for my friend who sleeps at Grace who’s moving into housing and who needs to be encouraged [prayer answered], for a homeless friend who has found his voice and is using it to advocate for others, for LV whose heart is beautiful even though he doesn’t realize it yet, for V who is a precious princess, for all my friends who need a home and hope and a new start, for my friends who work tirelessly to provide shelter and housing but can’t do it all and who need to be free from the burden of thinking that they have to, for my friends who serve on the street, for the Church and the community to have the eyes and the heart to see the needs of their homeless brothers and sisters and to respond, and for God to give me faith, wisdom, and strength to serve in love, and grace, mercy and forgiveness for my many failures and shortcomings.
I soon learned that hours before I prayed that prayer, God had already begun to answer me, by sending His word to me through a friend. When I got home from NightWatch, I saw that Jordan Green had posted this on my Facebook:
Thought of you when I read this:
2 Chronicles 4:7-10:
“Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots, in order to show that the supreme power belongs to God, not to us. We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair, there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed. At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies.”
This I know: God’s love never fails.
Lyrics below.
“By His Wounds,” Mac Powell
He was pierced for our transgressions
He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace
Was upon Him
And by His wounds
By His wounds, we are healedWe are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace, we are saved
We are savedWhat can wash away my sin
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Amen.
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8 Responses to “Homeless people return to the street as winter shelter ends”
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I relate to the part about inadequacy. I also think that what makes a difference is small acts of kindness, solidarity and dissent. At the same time, I recognize that the big programmatic stuff Urban Ministries and the Salvation Army do is important too.
Why didn’t you take the poor fellow home with you!
[quotation marks added to comment by editor]
Beau, I wish that I could take everyone home with me. But I can’t. I’m a single mom and my children and I live with my extended family. I am thankful every day for the support of my family — financial, emotional, spiritual. I am blessed far beyond what I deserve and I know it. I am grateful to be able to serve and love my friends who don’t have the kind of family support that I have.
Jordan, thanks again for that Scripture. I appreciate you.
I really appreciate you sharing those photos. When I saw the man sleeping outside of the door my jaw dropped in disbelief.
I hope that a day can come where photos of this nature no longer exists. Any chance you have the monetary number that it would take to have the overflow shelter remain open for an entire year?
Ryan Shell
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;For the rights of those who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly;defend the rights of the poor and the needy.Prov.31:8-9
Michele, I know better than anyone that if you were in a position to take a vow of poverty and live with every single one of our friends in a home you would. You work more than anyone I know for NO monetary compensation…It is true that if it were not for your parents support that you couldn’t do what you do for our friends..They are great contributors to our outreach. Praise God for them!!..I also know that you ache for those who are not heard..I know that you would trade places with any one of them…I know that if it were not for you that most of our friends wouldn’t know unconditional acceptance. You are walking in the Almighty God’s footsteps, Michele. Don’t let unfair comments into your
heart or mind - even for a fleeting second. Our friends are in a place that isn’t good right now but they are not where they WILL be…Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed..Prov.16:3..Our friends will all have shelter in the Lord if we have anything to do with it. They will also have a home and food and love and relationships with those who see them as God does…..The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love…Gal.5:6 There is a lot that needs to be done and Michele, we will somehow get it done.
Ryan: I don’t know the answer to your question, but I will find out. Thank you for asking.
Audrie: My sister, my friend — thank you so much for those words of encouragement and love. It’s hard for me to go home to warmth and comfort and leave my friends outside. I know that you feel the same way.
On Saturday, my younger son and I went to see some of our friends downtown, and by the time we left, it was pouring rain and I was thinking of them, crowded into the sunroom at the library or huddled under the tiny porch at HealthServe, while I ran into my house and took off my wet clothes and put on warm, dry ones. Before I settled in to eat the “comfort food” that I’d picked up on the way home, I went and hugged my daddy and my momma and thanked them. As you said, I have what I have and can do what I do largely because God has worked through them to support me in so many ways.
And someday, when all my children are grown and the time is right, God just may let me live my Dorothy Day dream…
[…] I saw the photos below (taken at Urban Ministry shelter) over at Chosen Fast yesterday and wanted to share them with you. […]