We began the men's emergency shelter to keep men from freezing on the cold streets of Dover, huddling behind dumpsters and camping under bridges for shelter.  What we did was give them faith in themselves and hope for the future along with hot meals and a warm cot.  We learned that most are hard-working men who had lost paychecks and the shelter they afforded, whose relationships and related housing had collapsed, or whose health or disability had led to financial disaster.  Some had been incarcerated for nonviolent crimes and found themselves out on the street again to reconstruct their lives from nothing.  Jesus tells us to forgive and to help others.  For many of us, this was an opportunity to put our faith into action.

We take the men in at an “intake center,” where we occasionally fail to permit a man access to the shelter if he is drunk, high, or uncooperative.  This protects the men as well as the volunteers waiting to serve them on a rotating basis.

Many shelter guests have told us that no one ever cared about them before: Never told them to stop drinking, to be back home at night, to be on time for supper.  They marvel at the simple human care shown them.  Some begin to change, getting jobs in chicken plants, in maintenance, security, irrigation, and construction.  The reality of minimum-wage employment hit all of us as we realized that housing options were few for someone earning $300 a week or less in a market in which rooms can cost $150 and apartments require costly deposits.  Nevertheless, we have helped several to join together and rent apartments, lending the deposits needed from donated funds.

While we knew their lives needed to be changed, we had no such expectations about our own.  More than 1500 adult volunteers–young and old, students and workers, clergy and lay people– most commonly use “humbling” to describe their experience assisting the shelter guests.  Some were fearful that we would take in men with some undesirable characteristics.  Others offered to cook but were reluctant to interact.  All who stepped out of their complacency were rewarded with friendship, appreciation, and a change of heart.  There but for the grace of God go I was a phrase often called to mind.

There are still men living on the street, sleeping in cars or under bridges at night; but I will no longer judge those with body odor or unkempt hair, and fewer others will.  There is still much to do: We have created the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing to attempt to develop a permanent shelter and more transitional housing, and welcome additional volunteers and donations.

I am proud to call many of these resourceful men on the street my friends; and I am prouder still to be part of a community in which so many volunteered and gave so much of their time and resources to help those in need who were once strangers.

Jeanine Kleimo, Chair,

Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing