‘Being homeless is Photos by William Wright B
rick spires on the buildings at the University of Washington in Seattle stretch to the sky, sig-
naling shiny, boundless futures for the thousands of students traipsing to class. But among the students on this
campus and in the surrounding University District is another popu- lation: the homeless, whose futures are far more uncertain. Women who are homeless head
to long rows of old recliners in a basement hallway at University Lutheran Church, located on the fringes of the university in north- east Seattle. Tis is the Elizabeth Gregory Home, which has operated a day center since 2007 and was named for a former parishioner who was active in social service. Here the women fall into much-needed sleep. Tey will also find other help, such as meeting spaces, washing machines, food, a kitchen and mail delivery. “Being homeless is the toughest
job there is,” said Michele Martin, the center’s operations manager who was once homeless herself. Meghan Gibson volunteers at the
front desk of the day center, which last year served 612 women making 8,400 visits. She had been a client,
Lance Lobuzzetta, staff member at the Sanc- tuary Art Center, and Sydney (last names of homeless withheld for privacy) make T-shirts to sell to support the center.
36
www.thelutheran.org
the toughest job’ Seattle congregation always finds a way to serve homeless Text by Rachel Pritchett
too, homeless and looking for a place to wash her clothes. Gibson found what she needed to become stable and now attends a community college. She hopes to transfer to the University of Washington to earn a degree in public policy and says her education is the most important thing to her. Younger homeless women and
men are upstairs in several large art rooms at the church. Tey paint, make pottery and stencil designs to T-shirts at the Sanctuary Art Center, established about 2002. It’s safe and peaceful here. For a brief while, homeless youth can find refuge, away from the dangers of the street. “It isn’t so much the art as it is the
feel of the space,” Ron Moe-Lobeda, pastor of University, said of why the youth come. Te Elizabeth Gregory Home
and the Sanctuary Art Center are only two of the ways University and its partners serve homeless people. Every corner of the church has something going on. In one is the Women’s Shelter
that the congregation hosts for SHARE/WHEEL, which is a part- nership between the Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and the Wom- en’s Housing, Equality and Enhance- ment League. In another corner of the church,
homeless young people estranged from their families or kicked out of the foster-care system are fed through a Seattle-area program called Teen Feed. And then there is the second
arm of the Elizabeth Gregory Home—transitional housing for women that began in 2006. Its current location, in a house a mile
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52