Why Does a Community Need an Emergency Shelter?
For more than a century, The Rescue Mission of Trenton’s Shelter has been providing a safe haven for those with nowhere else to turn. Historically, it has been a place where anyone can come in off the streets, get cleaned up, have a hot meal, and find a warm bed to sleep for the night.
Whenever someone knocks at The Shelter’s door, all we have ever asked are just two questions: “What’s your name?” and “Are you hungry?”
Our relationship begins with respect, honor, dignity, safety and compassion. Then, over a shared meal, we offer opportunities for each individual to find his or her way again.
While The Shelter will always be needed as an immediate response to emergencies, it is no longer just a temporary stopgap measure.
The Shelter has also become a gateway to a more comprehensive, long-term solution to end homelessness.
For those who are ready, The Shelter is now a singlepoint of entry for obtaining permanent supportive housing – and for connecting them with health care, substance abuse treatment, counseling, and vocational development.
That is why, more than ever, I believe a community needs an Emergency Shelter.
In essence, there are two fundamental reasons: First is because it is the right thing to do. And second is because it is far less expensive – in terms of dollars wasted and lives ruined.
Allow me to share a quick story about Robert, which brings this alive for me.
Robert (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) knocked at our door nine months ago. It was the fourth time we had seen him over the years. As he shared, “I’ve been back and forth since 2012. Before that I had a great job. I was driving a truck, delivering furniture for a manufacturer. I’d sent my daughter through college. Everything was going well. Then the company I’d worked for went out of business. I lost my job. Then I lost my way. I started using drugs. And I lost everything.” He shook his head, then added, “When I showed up at The Shelter the last time, I was broken down and done. It took all the courage I could find for me to come back here again. I realized that I was beating myself up out on the streets. I couldn’t keep my head on straight. I was worried about what everybody else would think about me. But nobody at The Shelter judged me. They knew me. They knew where I had been. Still, they believed in me. And with counseling, I am finally coming to believe in myself.” Robert started off washing dishes in our kitchen. Now he is helping with food services. He is in counseling for his addiction, has applied for subsidized housing, and is applying for jobs again.
Do we believe in someone like Robert?
Even when he doesn’t know how to believe in himself? I chose to believe so.
It is also why I believe we need an Emergency Shelter.
The Shelter speaks to a deep-seeded conviction that whenever someone among us is facing a time of need, we are here, ready to help.
Throughout the course of history, what distinguishes us, at our best, is our compassion for one another.
And through our compassion, we have come to realize that when we reach out to help others, we are also lifted to a nobler purpose.
It is about seeing ourselves in others and recognizing that we have much in common – often far more than we realize.
It is what we have in common – that sense of community – that connects us.
And when we understand the strength of our connection, we are able to see a world of new possibilities within ourselves and within those around us.
In addition to doing what’s right, from a purely economic perspective, The Shelter offers a far less expensive place for our community to provide the various types of care needed for those who are facing a wide range of adverse conditions, which, unfortunately, leave them in dire straits.
Those conditions – which in the current vernacular have become known as “Social Determinants of Health” – are brutal, including: homelessness, joblessness, substance use disorder, co-occurring disorders, poverty, lack of educational opportunities, unequal access to medical and mental healthcare, economic poverty and regrettable choices for which they are, without a doubt, responsible.
Consider Claire (again, whose name has been changed to protect her identity). She has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which, for her, means her moods can sway from being engaged and upbeat to completely depressed and unable to communicate. “As a child,” she said, “I was abused. So, there was nothing safe about being home.” She paused, then added,” I took to the street when I was very young. And it is easy to form some really bad habits on the street. It can be rough. So, I’d get high to feel something else. Then when I’d come down from that high, it was way, way down. I mean really down.” Claire, who has spent more than half of the past ten years hospitalized, came to The Mission six months ago. She has been receiving medication and counseling to help even out her mood swings. “I still get depressed,” she said. “It’s like a bad melody starts playing in my head. But it isn’t happening as often.” Her counselor said to her, “What I see occur during those times, Claire, is that you start to have trouble sleeping. Then your speech patterns begin to change. It is as if you are singing, almost like a rap.” Fortunately, for Claire, that bad melody and the singing have become less frequent. And less intense. She is now in the process of being approved for subsidized housing, where she will continue to have the support of a counselor. She said, “It is about feeling that I am a good person. I know I’m getting better because my life feels better when I am awake than when I am sleeping.”
The cost for Claire to receive two warm meals and be able to sleep in a warm bed is just $26 a day. Beyond that, through the generous donations we receive, we are able to provide case management to help her secure housing, gain access to healthcare, receive counseling services, and take advantage of vocational training in a safe environment, which we operate around-the-clock, 365 days-ayear.
Compare that to the cost of Claire staying one day in a hospital – let alone half of the past ten years that she has been hospitalized. Anyone who has had to face a hospital bill can easily calculate what an enormous financial savings the Emergency Shelter is yielding.
And in the past year, we provided Claire and another 1,281 individuals with 44,835 overnight stays in The Shelter.
At the end of the day, for some people, The Shelter is the only place they can find a warm meal, a safe place to sleep, and a haven where they are treated with dignity and compassion.
For others, the counseling and assistance they receive at The Shelter has helped to put an end to their personal cycle of homelessness.
While we are early in this process of ending homelessness, we are seeing progress. And we are encouraged. Through Mercer County’s commitment to “Housing First,” we are collaborating with other like-minded charitable organizations and government partners. Recently, we have developed six affordable houses along with an apartment in Trenton – which 45 individuals can now call “home”.
We are at the beginning of our goal to help eliminate homelessness.
Ultimately, The Shelter teaches us that help and hope can come in many ways.
Some of those ways are immediate.
Others will take longer. What each of those ways has in common is the ability to look into someone else’s eyes.
And to see their pain; while also recognizing a glimmer of hope.
It takes knowing where someone has been; and understanding where they want to be.
It takes seeing those possibilities in someone else.
It takes a community that is committed to ending homelessness.
And it takes believing.