On the Streets
IN MAY 2017, DAWN MICHALSKI AND HER family — two teenage children and her elderly mother, a stroke patient who was using a wheelchair — spent 11 dreadful days sleeping in parks. First evicted from an apartment, then thrown out by a friend, they were waiting until June 1 to move into a rental house. All the shelters were either full or would not take someone using a wheelchair.
“Even though it was May, it was cold,” says Michalski, 52, who receives SSI disability due to lung and heart problems. “We piled a million blankets on Mom. Then it rained.”
At times like these, Street Angels is a godsend. Three nights a week, the all-volunteer outreach organization delivers hot meals, clothing and supplies to people living outside – in tents, under bridges, on the street. Their van makes 22 to 25 stops, serving over 100 “friends” a night.
“These people have been burned,” says Eva Welch, president and co-founder, with Shelly Sarasin. “There are many reasons they’re homeless. They’ve been in foster care. Or they’re LGBT and have been kicked out of their families. Or social services failed them. It takes a lot to get them to trust us.”
Last month Street Angels delivered hot Thanksgiving dinners on its route, and it puts on a Christmas Party at the warehouse of Just One More Ministry in Wauwatosa, busing people to and from the party.
“When you’re out on the street for any length of time, it gets to you, emotionally, mentally, physically,” says Michalski. “The Christmas party is a fun break from all of that.”
Michalski and her family are now settled in their home, which was furnished and stocked almost entirely through donations to Street Angels. The organization works to end homelessness by helping people find emergency housing, then secure permanent housing. It assists with small but crucial things, such as getting an ID card or a birth certificate, documents needed to take the next step.
“We are using the tool of a hot meal, toiletries and clothing as a device to connect, start a relationship, gain trust,” says volunteer Jenni Mastrogiovanni. “We show them we really care about them.”