Sometimes I carry my clients’ home with me in my heart and on
my mind. Today is one of those days. The afternoon started with a rush of
people through our doors, as Fridays often do. It was standing room only, but
one young woman stood hesitantly in front of me at the front desk with one
toddler on her hip and one standing holding her hand. When I asked her what we
could do for her, she said she wasn’t sure, but she needed a place to stay for
her and her children, perhaps a hotel voucher. I explained that our limited
resources did not allow for this kind of expenditure and started explaining
where else she could try. As she tried to keep them back, tears started forming
in her eyes and I could tell she was losing control in a crowded room full of
strangers. We quickly took her and her children back to a quiet area to discuss
her options and make some calls for her while she took some breaths and got her
emotions back under control.
The problem is that the Agape House was full and another
women’s shelter was not answering their phone; no agency had the wherewithal to
buy her a hotel stay, and her family was not willing to take her in. As we sent
her off to Agape to see if they could fit her in anyway, I felt so useless and
helpless.
An hour later, a young man with his 3 year old daughter
waited patiently in the waiting room for their turn. We were unsettled to learn
he also needed a place for himself and his daughter. His situation was even
worse, as there is no place in town that takes men and children.
I really dislike this continuing problem, and I regularly speak
up about it at community group meetings when the problem of shelters comes up—we
need more family shelter
space! We need a place for emergency shelter for men, women and children to be
together. Why is it that we have a men’s shelter, a women and children’s
shelter and a battered women’s shelter, but no family shelter? While we are on
the subject, what women’s shelter could turn away a woman and two toddlers? Surely
you could find a corner or a couch for them to sleep on.
I usually don’t like to rant about public policy or community
resources, but I cannot tell you how awful it is to look a young mother or
father in the eye and tell them you have no idea where to send them for a place
to get their children off the streets. They continue to live in your heart for
quite awhile. What does it say about our society and our community when we have
so little regard for families who need a little bit of help to make it through?
This kind of day brings home to me in a very personal way how
blessed I am in this life, and makes me wish I had all the money in the world,
because I would make sure families had a place to live!
