Shelter volunteers: Homestead migrant kids treated with care

Now that all of the migrant children at the Homestead shelter have either been safely placed with sponsors or transferred to other shelters, it is important that both the community and the national decision makers have an accurate, unbiased impression of the shelter, the people who worked there and the care they provided.

As volunteers who worked at the shelter, over the last several months, we grew concerned about the relentless misinformation and attacks against the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children. What was said in the press and by a constant flow of politicians about this shelter goes completely against what we observed and experienced in the four years we volunteered at the shelter.

Since the shelter first opened in 2015, we had the privilege to direct voluntary, religious services for the children. It was always a pleasure to spend time with the children and to work alongside the shelter’s staff; however, recently we were shocked by the mischaracterization and misrepresentation of the care provided by the shelter.

Although we have no desire to get involved in the politics surrounding this issue, we can say that when the shelter first opened under the Obama Administration, we never heard anything against the shelter, four years later, the level of care didn’t change, only a new administration in the White House. Much of the staff and management of the shelter remained the same throughout this change.

And then all of sudden, there were some suggesting the shelter was not providing proper care — which just wasn’t true.

Most of the people spreading these distorted facts, had never even been inside the shelter. They never spent time with the children, never been in the classrooms, never seen the medical clinic, the recreation fields or the dining halls — yet, they still felt comfortable expressing their uninformed opinions.

That was unfortunate! It created a completely incorrect picture of the shelter and dishonored those who worked there professionally every day.

Having spent considerable time in the shelter, in direct contact with the children, we can assure the public of two things:

1. The children were well cared for and were placed in homes as quickly as possible. The length of their stay depended on their individual case, location of their family member and if a safe and healthy family were available to take custody of them.

2. Anyone standing on a ladder outside the shelter fence who said they knew what is happening inside, didn’t.

If people want to know what it was like inside the Homestead shelter, then they need to listen to those who actually spent time with the children as we did.

As volunteers, we were given extensive background checks and training just like the paid staff. This is required because the safety and care for the children was always of the utmost importance. Nobody from the outside could pretend to know how the shelter worked.

Our current volunteer group that served on rotation every Saturday would not have continued to work with the shelter if any of us had seen any harm or mistreatment of the children.

All of the negative statements and unfounded accusations created unnecessary and counterproductive pressures on this shelter, making it more challenging for the professionals at the shelter to provide the services the children deserved. These children were used as pawns in someone’s game for political purposes. They deserved better!

They were just children. They wanted to feel safe and secure. They wanted to go to school and play with friends. They wanted to have a home. We are confident in saying that everyone we ever worked alongside at the shelter worked to provide this for them as quickly as possible.

No one wanted to see any child in a shelter, but until each and every child can be safely placed in a home, they were provided safety and security until those homes could be found.

Having spent time in the shelter, we can unreservedly say that the Homestead shelter was not part of the problem — the Homestead shelter was part of the answer — and if it is called on again to provide care for children — the care will continue to be of the highest quality.

Russell Black is Director of Latin Impact Ministries and leader of the volunteers at Homestead shelter. Elkin Espinal is Pastor of Caris Church of God Kendall and leader of Pastores Unidos Homestead and Board member of Association of Hispanic Pastors in Miami. Giselle Delgado is former Local Missions Director, Christ Fellowship. She is the principal organizer for religious services volunteers at the Homestead Shelter.