BELLOWS FALLS — Over a lunchtime conversation at Our Place Drop-In center, chef Matt and volunteer Kenny both acknowledge their homelessness at one point in their lives, saying that is at least part of why they work and volunteer at Our Place - they know and understand the need people have for such a place.
Our Place Drop-In Center is on 4 Island St., and provides two meals four days a week. It also has a food shelf, a shower and a telephone. Their annual benefit, Empty Bowls, a soup supper and auction of ceramic bowls by local artisans, as well as other items and serviced donated by local businesses and citizens, will be held at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole N.H., on Nov. 7, starting at 5 p.m.
“If you haven't been there yourself, you probably shouldn't be working in a place like this,” said Kenny, who lost both his son and fiancee when his alcoholism and drug problem became more important, and he found himself sleeping beneath bridges, in doorways, and under cardboard more times than he cares to count.
“I've been clean and sober for 19 years next month,” he said. “I come here for the fellowship.” Kenny lives just outside of Bellows Falls now, and has a menagerie of birds, snakes and dogs that he “just loves to take care of” and that take up to four hours to feed.
Sara was sitting alone at the next table but volunteered her story as well.
“This place was very important for me and my husband a few years ago,” she said.
“My husband couldn't find work and when we had to sell our vehicle to pay our rent - that was it. He couldn't get anymore work, and I was laid off too,” Sara, describing the downward spiral to homelessness.
“Susan Shea [former Our Place Director] really helped us out. She put us in touch with all the right people,” Sara said, her eyes serious having seen too much.
Sara didn't think it could happen to her, but a series of circumstances out of her control, put her and her husband on the street with no place to stay. They eventually found a trailer to stay in that was “OK through the middle of November,” but too cold after that.
“There was some funding for a few weeks at a sleazy motel that was just awful, so depressing; then we were able to stay in another motel while we tried to get things together.”
Sara described one situation that happened to her during this time she feels is typical of people who are homeless. “I went to a job interview and had the job, but when they found out I would have to rely on the public transportation system here because I didn't have a car, they told me they couldn't hire me.” The local bus system is limited in its service.
Sara said it is nearly impossible for someone who is homeless to land a job for a lot of reasons.
“You're usually tired from all the stress you're under, and can't afford clothes needed for most jobs, let alone keeping them clean. Plus your person is probably not as clean as you'd like to be,” Sara said flicking her fingers at the table, remembering the humiliation.
“I told [the employer] that if she would just hire me for a couple of weeks, I could afford a vehicle and then would work anytime, any hours she wanted me too.” But the employer did not hire her because, Sara said, she didn't have a car.
“There's a stigma that is very difficult to get past,” she said.
The phone and shower as well as food Our Place provides is an attempt to make it easier to find work and be presentable, just to take those first steps to get back on one's feet.
Sara said that with the help of Springfield Housing Authority and their experimental goal-setting program, she and her husband have found a place, and her husband is working part-time. She, however, has had health issues so they are still surviving only on her husband's income.
Both Sara and Kenny said that one should not look at person and make judgments about whether they are a good or bad person based on their circumstances.
“There's good and bad in everybody,” Kenny said, “I don't care who you are.”
Sara said that judgment of another person can mean the difference between having a roof over one's head, and finding oneself out on the street without one, or finding work.
Sara said her life changed because of people like Susan Shea who genuinely cared. Sara said she knows how important the overnight shelter can be in some people's lives.
“I'm so glad they did it. Nobody should be outside freezing. It's a great thing putting people in that basement.”
Our Place Drop-In Center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday for two meals a day, with a food shelf available.
Tickets for the Empty Bowl fundraiser are $30 and will be available at Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls, Real to Reel Video in Walpole or by calling Our Place at 802-463-2217.