Grace And Peace Winter Shelter Offers A Home（英文）

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Original printed byline: Phyllis H.Wheeler

Historical February 1997 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Cold darkness creeps into the city.

A group of seven women shiver at the Delmar entrance of Grace and Peace Fellowship Church, pushing the doorbell. At precisely 6:30 p.m., Linda Molinari opens the door and welcomes them in to a warm, cozy place to stay with lots of hot food.

With relief. the women crowd through the door.

For some, the meal will be the first they have eaten since they left the shelter at 6:30 that morning.

During the next hour, more come, swelling their numbers to 19.

The Winter Shelter at Grace and Peace, 5574 Delmar, offers its guests a haven for the night, or for a season of nights.

It also offers its evening and overnight volunteers an opportunity to lend a helping hand to someone who really needs it.

The church basement shelters up to 20 women on an overnight basis, from mid-November to midMarch.

It operates on a financial shoestring, paying a stipend to the overnight staff person and depending on volunteers to supply meals and to act as evening and overnight helping hands.

For example, during the 1995-96 season, the shelter spent only $3.35 per bed per night, or a total of $8,500, all from private donations. Guests are screened by a citywide central clearinghouse. which sends those with serious mental problems to other shelters.

On this Friday night, I am the evening volunteer.

I bring along my nine-year-old daughter, Hannah, as my assistant.

We get there at 6:15.

The overnight volunteer, Gail Havens, is already there, as is Linda Molinari, the staff person. “Do you want to do the kitchen or watch the laundry?” asks Linda.

We choose the kitchen, and begin making coffee, setting out ice water, and looking for dinner. It’s on the counter, delivered earlier. Hannah and I set to work warming it up. Gail starts in on the pile of dirty sheets and towels: Friday is the day to do shelter laundry.

On other nights, the guests sign up to do their own laundry, and the volunteer watches over the situation. Soon the guests crowd into the warm basement with relief, shedding coats and hats. Hannah goes to talk to them in the “living room” area.

She gets a lot of attention from women who miss their kids.

This shelter is for women only. Other parts of the citywide shelter network provide shelter to families. Many of the Grace and Peace shelter guests are mothers but for some reason aren’t in charge of their children. Others have children that are grown. B. has children who are not with her.

Her eyes light up when she sees Hannah. “I got four kids,” she tells me.

The youngest is four.

She asks Hannah about her brothers. D. has four kids too. she says, aged 26 to 42. Hannah and Gail set the table, and at 7:20 we serve dinner.

The women say they like the spaghetti sauce.

They gobble up the garlic bread.

Some of us sit around the dinner table for an hour talking. C., who came in late because she just got off work, works on her plate of food. (It’s not uncommon to be homeless and still have a job; minimum-wage jobs often don’t pay enough to support someone living alone.) I ask B. what she did today. “I went to Shalom House,” she says, naming another shelter that has room for them during the day. It’s a couple of miles away. How did she get there?

I ask. “I took the bus.

But sometimes I walk,” she says. B. is young and fit. L. says she has grown kids.

She gently talks of her son who killed himself two years ago.

He was a police officer.

She had had high hopes for him. “You just never can tell what’s going on in someone’s head,” she says sadly.

I clear the table. Ten minutes later.

I find Hannah in the seating area. B. is lying languidly on the sofa, a plate empty of chocolate cake on the floor next to her.

She is gently teasing Hannah. “You going to stay all night. right?” she asks. T. fusses over a skirt she just bought, which split at the seams.

The shelter’s sewing kit is laid out on the table as she searches for the right color of thread.

We do the dishes, and at 9:30 it’s time to go, our evening shift over. Gail is finishing up the shelter laundry.

As an overnight volunteer, she will sleep in a bed near the guests, available in case of need.

But it was a quiet night, she reported later, and she got a full night’s sleep. Grace and Peace’s shelter is in its 11th year of shoestring operation.

It depends for volunteers and meals not only on members of the church, but on anyone who is interested in helping someone. Many volunteer shifts and meals are supplied by area residents, churches or colleges. Joan Cobb and her husband Roy moved to the area in the summer of 1988, and joined St. Roch’s, the local Catholic church. At their previous home they had used their garage for storing furniture to be used by homeless folks moving into apartments.

She was interested in “fitting in here to do something.” Her eye fell on a notice about the Grace and Peace shelter in the St. Roch bulletin.

Her involvement with the shelter started with providing meals that winter. “Then I stayed a night, and it progressed,” she said. “I’ve been staying the night once a week for the past three years.” She also serves on the shelter’s board of directors.

The shelter gets high marks from the city.

The city’s homeless services division was pleased with the shelter after a Nov. 20 visit. “We found the staff was very warm, very friendly.” said Anath T. Boone. program specialist in the Homeless Services Division.

In her letter to the director about her visit, she wrote, “We found the facility to be warm, secure, and most accommodating: staff members were very cordial and the shelter’s clients were well-behaved. Thank you for your invitation to visit Grace and Peace.

It was a very pleasant experience.” Anyone who wants information about helping out should call Melody Burke at the Grace and Peace number. 367-8959.

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1997.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Original source: SD_Times1997_02.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.