Volunteering at a Homeless Shelter -- I Find Warmth Not Despair

by Nancy Mehegan

I've been a volunteer in a recently opened Homeless Shelter.  It is a warm, loving place.

It's a large room in  a church filled with green Red Cross cots.  3 volunteers attend each evening.

Who The Homeless Are

We have many interesting people who have come to find shelter there.  A group of people who were living in their cars in a Wendy's Restaurant parking lot, a young Iraqi war veteran, a few with addiction issues, a man with cancer.  Newly homeless and others who live on the streets almost permanently.

Housewife

One woman who I'll call Lillith, is an example of a woman who perhaps did not acquire job skills.  Divorced and now living in a car, she often talks longingly and angrily about her ex-husband and how he abandoned her.  Her designer royal blue luggage speaks of another properous life.  Lillith is anxious and chats incessantly.  She wonders if the fast food workers put "something weird" in her coffee in the morning.

Military Veteran

The Iraqi veteran is young and handsome.  Anyone's son.  He regrets his drug usage.  I tell him "Heck if I was in Iraq, I might use drugs too!"  I want to comfort him.

Another man was sleeping out in the snow the past few days.  He's grateful for a warm place.

Hearth & Heart 

We play Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.  I learn to play the card game "Hearts".  We eat pizza and sip on coffee.

Where I expected to find grim despair, I found human warmth and connection.  What a surprise.

Comments

[Adao]

and done?Once IFC and the town finally reevlaed the project, neighbors told IFC that they needed to avoid putting all their eggs in one basket because there were issues with this site. But IFC has known all along that it can build up the sense of urgency and overwhelm the town council by going church to church and giving just the positive aspects of this project. Neighbors have no way to reach the same audience as the IFC and IFC refuses to invite us to their speaker events to provide balance we asked last year and Chris Moran said that they would not. IFC is probably the most powerful organization in Orange County given its reach and ability to control its message. They aren't arguing the facts, they are going for a social media campaign to overwhelm. The denial and eventual admission about White Flag Nights is a perfect example of this. The way that IFC's message misleads people (including the Chapel Hill News reporter who had to issue a correction) into thinking that drunk and high men are not allowed on white flag nights is another example.Your last post implies that people who oppose *this* *site* do it because they oppose people in need, people with cancer, people battling medical conditions. We do not.My family has volunteered and donated to a variety of homeless and impoverished causes since we were in college. This includes IFC, the Durham Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Appalachian Service Project, C.R.O.S.S., and many other organizations, including support for families through social workers at our schools. We have also been right there spending nights in hospitals and being patient advocates for family members battling cancer. And we volunteer in a number of other areas, such as education.But the fact is that people shouldn't have to give a resume of volunteering as entry into the debate. IFC should not assume that people who oppose their project are against their mission. And worse, they should not actively preach this wrong assumption to others when it has no basis in fact. This assumption is why the UNC students' survey backfired on them.For example, Chris Moran and Tom Whisnant have been actively disparaging neighbors, saying things like We [IFC] repulse them [the neighbors] (Chris Moran) and Not in My Backyard (describing neighbors) (Tom) to the UNC Board of Trustees. And the disparaging comments made at IFC's annual meeting. Is this how a faith based organization should treat its neighbors, disparaging neighbors instead of discussing the issues? Is IFC going church to church, synagogue to synagogue, etc. disparaging neighbors and painting us in a negative light?Do you really think that the neighbors will get a fair hearing? I have not talked to a single person on either side of the issue who thinks so. They all know this is a done deal. We are simply documenting the issues in hopes that other neighborhoods will know what fate awaits them now that UNC and the town have perfected their backroom playbook for Carolina North and other projects.Will the town council live up to their promise in the comprehensive plan to protect neighborhoods by requiring fair share of at risk overnight social services? Only time will tell.