Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2007 / Homelessness: A 'global pandemic'
Homelessness: A 'global pandemic'
Local parishes reach out to those living on the streets
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published December 7, 2007
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Gregg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Caitlin, one of the homeless who spends her nights on Hart Plaza, has found a corner of the semi-enclosed space where police allow the homeless to sleep. |
Detroit In metro Detroit this time of year, homeless persons can be found in both the city and suburbs, walking the streets or in warming centers during the daylight hours, filling the available shelters or sleeping wherever they can at night.
Catholic parishes are involved in the effort to feed, clothe and shelter the homeless, along with other Christians and secular social service agencies.
Some parishes operate programs of their own, while others take turns hosting homeless people for one week a year as part of a multi-congregation ecumenical program. A great many parishes participate in the effort by organizing members to help from time to time at the various soup kitchens and warming centers operated by others.
At the St. Aloysius Outreach Center, across Washington Boulevard from St. Aloysius Church in downtown Detroit, 300 or more homeless men and women overwhelmingly men show up Monday through Saturday for oatmeal, coffee and a sandwich to take with them, says Camilla Lunsford, volunteer coordinator. They can also get clothing there twice a week, she adds.
Those numbers represent an increase this year. "I'm assuming it's because of the economy more and more people out of work, and more and more people out on the street because of that," Lunsford says.
And she adds, "I'd say it's been 98 percent men in the past, but we're seeing more women this year maybe 25, up from just five before."
The warming center is open 5:30-11 a.m., Monday through Friday, and 9-11 a.m. on Saturday. That is a lot of time to be open and a lot of work to do, but Lunsford explains that volunteers from many parishes and non-Catholic congregations make it possible to keep those hours.
In another part of downtown Detroit, SS. Peter & Paul (Jesuit) Parish also operates a warming center, from 7-11 a.m.
Homeless people can get free medical care at the Cabrini Clinic, operated by Most Holy Trinity Parish in the Corktown district just west of downtown. The parish is planning to enlarge the clinic, moving it from some space in the school to the parish's former convent.
Fr. Russ Kohler, pastor of Most Holy Trinity, knows his neighborhood well, and can point out various places homeless people "bivouac" at night. One homeless man has carried some old chairs and rugs and other items to build a nest for himself behind the former St. Vincent Middle School on 14th Street.
Another has used an old tarpaulin to pitch a tent in Roosevelt Park, while yet others sleep in the old U.S. Post Office facility across from the school or the old Michigan Central train station.
"There's an old boat covered with a tarp a couple of blocks from here, and there are people living in that boat," he adds.
Fr. Kohler says many of the area's homeless stop by the church on Sundays, when they hand out coupons they can use to get food at the nearby Burger King.
Not just downtown
St. Leo Parish, northwest of the downtown area, on Grand River Avenue near West Warren, operates a daily soup kitchen, and also helps homeless and other people living in poverty with medical care and clothing.
Further out, near the city's western boundary, the St. Christine Soup Kitchen continues to be operated by St. Catherine of Siena Parish.
And on the east side, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen ministry continues to feed hungry people, as it has since 1930. Besides a facility just around the corner from St. Bonaventure Monastery, not far from its original site, the ministry's principal soup kitchen is now farther out, on Conner near East Warren Avenue.
Like the St. Aloysius Outreach Center, volunteers at St. Leo's and the Capuchin Soup Kitchen come from city and suburb alike. Members of suburban parishes also volunteer at ministries run by non-Catholic institutions, such as the soup kitchen at Crossroads, a ministry of the Episcopal Church.
One suburban parish even runs its own ministry to benefit the city's homeless. Members of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth serve hundreds of homeless men and women every Saturday morning through its PB&J ministry. Volunteers prepare sandwiches, fruits, pastries and beverages at the parish, then travel to the inner city to set up its mobile soup kitchen in a parking lot and distribute the items.
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Gregg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Mary Ann Savoy, who spends her nights at Hart Plaza, says Detroit Police sometimes bring coffee and doughnuts for the homeless who sleep there. | Finding shelter
Making it through the bitter cold nights is a challenge for area homeless persons. Some homeless people spend their nights in shelters, but shelter space is limited, and shelters have rules when it comes to sobriety and behavior that not all homeless people are willing or able to comply with.
Besides abandoned buildings, some homeless people find space above steam grates or other spots that provide some warmth or shelter from the elements.
Lunsford says some homeless persons sleep on the shelf-like area at the top of the embankments under freeway bridges.
Another place is a semi-enclosed area under Hart Plaza near the Detroit River, where a number of homeless persons are able to bed down for the night.
By the numbers
500,000 people die every day because they lack decent shelter, clean water and proper sanitation
3.5 million in the United States are homeless
1.4 million children are among the homeless
Source: Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers | Not just in the city
Homelessness is not a problem restricted to the city, let alone the downtown area. There are homeless people in the suburbs, too. Their existence might not be as apparent, but those who minister to them can attest to their presence.
St. Margaret of Scotland is one of a number of Macomb County parishes that hosts the MCREST (Macomb County Rotating Emergency Shelter Team) program for one week during each year. The parish will be doing it again from Sunday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 6.
The parish can accommodate 48 homeless people 36 men and 12 women and children. Their homeless guests begin arriving about 5 p.m., and are not only given food and a place to sleep, but a chance to have their clothes washed. In the morning, they get a hot breakfast and a bag lunch to take with them when they leave at 8 a.m.
Parish groups take turns preparing meals, or serving in other capacities. "Since we have them on Dec. 30, Chicken Shack sponsors our New Year's Eve party for them," says Paul Desjardins, who coordinates St. Margaret's involvement in MCREST.
"In all, it takes us about 250 volunteers to run the program for our week," he adds.
During the entire cold-weather season from Nov. 1 through the end of April St. Margaret of Scotland also offers a daytime warming center for the homeless, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
They call it MCWARM, which stands from Macomb County Warming and Rescue Mission, explains parishioner Carolyn Johnson, its coordinator.
The homeless can come as early as 7:15 a.m. and stay until 1 p.m. During that time, they get a hot breakfast and a hot lunch, plus a bag lunch to take with them. In addition, they can get shoes and clean clothes, and thanks to a computer donated by the IHM Sisters check on job opportunities.
This year, the center has been seeing about 110-120 people a day, which is 25-30 more than last year, Johnson says.
Although she says she knows some people come by bicycle or ride the bus to get there, just how many are from the area and how many come from other communities, or even from outside Macomb County, is a question Johnson cannot answer.
"We never turn anybody away, and we never ask where they're from," she says.
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Gregg McIntosh | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Russ Kohler, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish, Detroit, shows where a homeless person has made a makeshift home behind the closed St. Vincent Middle School building in Detroit. | Giving people hope
Deacon Ron Channell, who has long been involved in St. Margaret's ministry to the homeless, says, "For the Catholic Church, it's the core of social responsibility to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, as we learn from Matthew 25. We feel it is the responsibility of Christians everywhere to give these people hope."
St. Louis in Clinton Township and Sacred Heart Parish in Roseville are among parishes that take week-long turns in hosting another overnight shelter program, called the Macomb County Warming Shelter. Known as the "shelter of last resort," it provides shelter for persons who do not meet the criteria of the MCREST program, as long as they are not belligerent.
Rotating shelter programs similar to MCREST also exist in other areas of the archdiocese. For, example, St. Patrick Parish in Wyandotte is one of several Catholic parishes in the downriver suburbs to host a rotating shelter.
In Oakland County, St. Fabian Parish in Farmington Hills is among many parishes that host a rotating shelter, in addition to organizes teams of parishioners on a monthly basis to cook and serve meals at both the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and COTS (Coalition on Temporary Shelter) in Detroit.
Our Lady of La Salette Parish, Berkley, and National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish, Royal Oak, are both among the parishes that host the South Oakland Shelter one week of the year. Shrine also hosts the South Oakland Warming Center for a week in late winter.
Parishioners from St. Anastasia Parish, Troy, assist the Robert Matchan Soup Kitchen in the former St. Frederick School in Pontiac once a month, besides organizing donations for the purchase of blankets, socks, hats and gloves for donation to shelters, and holding a clothing drive for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen.
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