More than 200 Spokane churches were asked to open their doors to homeless people during extreme cold weather ,4 agreed

[summer_in_TX]

55. My husband and I have done that before.

Not always easy.

One who was with us for several months ended up needing to move to Mexico – we deduce he murdered someone. He changed his name while he was with us from Rod to Will, then decided he'd be safer out of the country. A bright, talented man ruined by a mother who abandoned him to her father, who never forgave her. Found him hitchhiking. He stayed with us several months, then with friends who had a cabin, helping them with chores. Now and then I sensed his anger and bitterness.

Another was a bearded loner with a fundamentalist prophetic approach to life. He used a big walking stick. He visited our Sunday school class while he was with us. But he was difficult, rigid, every suggestion for a more permanent situation was turned down. My husband got along with him pretty well, but he had a gift for infuriating women. I am very even-tempered and very rarely get upset but would suddenly find myself in a rage. He stayed over the next few months with first one couple of friends then another. The men enjoyed him, and the women did at first. But he managed to enrage each of us, and I'd never seen either of the other women angry either. We found out he was harassing a single friend of ours. She'd filed a complaint with the sheriff's department and he decided it was finally time to move on. I can't think of his name now.

There was another guy too, Royce. He was sweet but a mess. Not a murderer and not a fanatic at least. He hadn't talked with anyone in his family in many, many years. Things looked for awhile like his life was looking up. He'd met a woman too. But he fell from a roof he was working on, was terribly injured. Without health insurance, the hospital saved his life but didn't really fix him. With the pain, he fell into addiction, and eventually lost everything.

Eventually I realized maybe we weren't equipped to work with folks with such mental health issues, neither the human resources nor the monetary ones, that just maybe they needed a support system that included well-trained mental health professionals. Even a welcoming and caring small church and people in a rural area couldn't make up for the knowledge and skills we lacked. Temporary help maybe, but not equipped for long-term help. My cousin and her husband, a retired Episcopal priest, lived and worked in the Community First! Village for the homeless in Austin for a year or so who worked to help formerly homeless people learn to be in community and become good neighbors. Many have developed mental health issues, some have criminal backgrounds including sexual predators. I personally don't believe churches are usually equipped and nor are regular folks, to house the homeless. But we should be involved in supporting the work and helping to provide resources, people resources and monetary.