“WHEN YOU’RE IN IT”
DREAMING OF HOME-MAKING FOR THOSE WITHOUT HOMES
Donnie is a guest of our overnight shelter, and a leader in that community of men. As he
looks forward to moving into his new apartment, he shares his perspective on giving back.
Q
you give back and you see that
someone took what you gave him
How did you end up in the
seriously. That’s why I don’t judge
shelter system?
anybody. I don’t judge anybody.
Because you could wake up and
I had my apartment for more be in that same boat the next
than 30 years and one day my day.
landlord died and his daughter
sold the building. I’m 62 now.
I’ve been in the shelter syste m How did you first get involved
for about eight months. But even
in helping the homeless?
before that, I used to deal with
the shelters as a volunteer. I
used to go around at night and There were a lot of homeless
give out food and blankets, hot people in my neighborhood and
chocolate, stuff like that. We I got to know them after a while.
took people off the streets and When you stop and say, “How
to the shelters when it was real you doing today?” You get to
cold or when we had a bad snow know their names. I didn’t have
storm. It’s a beautiful thing when a lot of money to give away, but
A
Q
A
I’ve always been into church so
I wanted to start a group at the
church I was going to. I’m also
a veteran and the army has
taken very good care of me, but
some vets just don’t know how
to go about getting services.
So I thought to start helping
other veterans so they can earn
some money. Now, I want to
start a three-quarter house and
help young homeless kids and
veterans get into housing. I have
my voucher now, so I’ll be getting
an apartment soon. But that’s
my dream
—
to start a three-
quarter house. We shouldn’t
have a homeless rate like we do.
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