from the
executive director
What makes a house a home is the life that is lived inside of it.
The symbols of this life reflected on the walls and the halls
remind our visitors that people call this home. Our House is not
just a program or a place where people come for help. It is a
community, and it is a home.
It is a beautiful and unique experience to come to this home, this
place of life, each day for work. I cannot imagine anywhere else
that would feel the same.
There are often reminders that this is not just a shelter: the sign
at the gate proclaiming, “It’s a Baby Boy,” and the crowd of
residents and staff hovering to take their turn to hold our newest
and youngest resident or the hole in the wall where one of our
9-year-olds couldn’t wait to get outside to ride his scooter.
Even at a memorial — set up here at Our House in the dining
room of the Shelter — I was overwhelmed by how much life is
lived here in this home. One of our residents, Hugh King, passed
away in his sleep. We mourned the loss of one of us, who had
called Our House his home.
On this Friday night, as our residents and staff remembered Hugh,
the stories were all about life. How Hugh would give quarter
stipends to the children. How just this week Hugh had given one
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