Angelique's Afterthoughts: Wednesday 3/17

Wednesday night was the night Erin and I got to staff the night shelter at Luther Place. I have to admit that, going into it, I was nervous. I was really nervous. The question is, what was I nervous about? Why should the prospect of sleeping in a women's shelter been so intimidating? There's obviously the fear of the unknown, which I'm sure played a part in my anxiety. I guess the knowledge that many of the homeless suffer from mental illness was also a thought that concerned me (I've never worked in mental health, nor do I have any desire to do so at this point of my career). But anxiety aside, it was our turn to staff the shelter. So at about 9:43pm (we had to be there by 9:45 for orientation), we left our cozy hostel (yes, before it had been somewhat cramped and uncomfortable, but it had suddenly become "cozy"), and slowly went up the stairs to the 4th floor where the night shelter is located.

What did we find upon opening the door to the 4th floor? We arrived on the floor and must have looked lost, trying to determine where the office was. One of the homeless women pointed and told us where we were supposed to go. "So far so good," I thought to myself. The lone woman working in the shelter that evening was young, petite, and bubbly; hardly someone intimidating and authoritative. "If she can do it, we can do it," was my reassuring conclusion. We got a brief orientation to the floor and the routine, read through the binder that is the bible of staffing the night shelter, and before we knew it we were on our own. "OK, this doesn't seem so bad," I thought as the few women remaining up were getting ready for bed or trying to catch up on a little TV watching. And you know what? It really wasn't so bad.

At 11pm it was time to turn off the lights and for everyone to go to bed. As we let the ladies know it was time for bed, they willingly got their things together and went to bed...and they slept. There were no calls to 911, no fights to break up, no issues whatsoever overnight. They just slept. In the morning, they were up and getting ready for work as we were still trying to wake up after the few hours of sleep we managed to get. They stopped in the office for toiletries and their medications, but otherwise just went about their business. Several of the women looked so put together, in heels and dress pants, that you had to do a double-take, reminding yourself that you were still in a homeless shelter. Suddenly, it was 7:30am; the women were gone, and it was quiet. The stillness that followed the flurry of people getting ready was almost eerie. We did a quick check through the floor; no one in the TV room, no one in the bedrooms, no one in the bathrooms. Lights out, doors locked, and we were gone.

So what is my takeaway message from this experience? I guess it just added to my increasing awareness that people who are homeless are not that different from those of us who are lucky enough to have homes. These women were not scary or out of control; they were just women who wanted to get a good night's sleep and then get on with their day. They're people just like the rest of us.