The Garden City Telegram

 Email this story | Add Your Comment  | Read (1) Comments

Stretching each dollar: Emmaus House struggles

Published 7/9/2009 in Local News

By RACHAEL GRAY

rgray@gctelegram.com

Eight people with different backgrounds, stories and circumstances came together for dinner Tuesday night at Emmaus House, 802 N. Fifth St. The house was closed over the Fourth of July weekend and reopened Tuesday morning.

Lack of volunteers caused the closing, Robin Marsh, director, said.

Marsh said whenever the house is short-staffed over holidays, it has got to close.

A letter to The Telegram from Pat Allsbury, executive director of Stepping Stone Shelter in Liberal, asked the community to re-evaluate the Emmaus House as a shelter.

"People don't choose when they get to be homeless, so shelters shouldn't choose when they're open," Allsbury said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Marsh said if it had the resources, Emmaus House would stay open 24 hours, seven days a week.

"I have three full-time employees and only a few overnight volunteers," she said. "They do a wonderful job, but like everyone else, they need a break."

"Every place is run differently, and we're doing the best with what we've got," she said.

The full-time staff works from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. A couple volunteer on weekends and take the night shifts. Two other volunteers split the weeknights.

Emmaus House closes on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Marsh said.

The time lets the workers and volunteers spend time with their families and lets the Emmaus House guests get to know people and places in the community, Marsh said.

"Garden City is a wonderful community," Marsh said. When the shelter closes for part of the day the guests can get involved at a church, spend time with friends, visit the public library or take part in some recreational activities around town, she said.

Marsh said some Emmaus House guests stay with friends or at churches when Emmaus House closes over holidays. She said one guest was taken to Liberal by a Garden City community member.

Marsh said Emmaus House has struggled this year.

"I've worked here for 11 years, and I've never seen donations so bare and volunteers so few," Marsh said.

Marsh said donations are down 48 percent. Every donation, no matter the size, helps, she said. Emmaus House gets most of its food from the Kansas Food Bank in Wichita at low costs.

Emmaus House staff and volunteers prepare food boxes every Wednesday and Friday for families who need food assistance.

"I can feed a family on $10.64 per week," Marsh said. "I can make that dollar stretch."

Marsh hopes more volunteers will help the house in its mission to provide shelter and assistance for those in need. She said some people may be nervous about volunteering because of the unfamiliarity with the house guests.

"Even if we have some troubled individuals, when they hit our sidewalk it's a different story," she said. "They're happy, they're hungry, they're humble."

The House

Emmaus House opened Nov. 1, 1979, and was founded by church groups whose mission was to provide temporary shelter for people after the influx of workers migrating to the community. The purpose of Emmaus House is to provide access to food, housing and encouragement for everyone in southwest Kansas.

Marsh said the house serves as a food pantry, soup kitchen, emergency shelter and homeless shelter. The house can hold 32 overnight guests at a time. It offers a single men's dorm, family rooms, a women's dorm, showers and hot meals. Eight guests were staying at Emmaus House as of Tuesday. Marsh said the number can change daily. Most of the guests are men who have moved to the area for work, she said. Some harvest hands stayed at Emmaus House but have since moved on after the completion of harvest.

The staff open the doors to everyone, and the guests can stay as long as they follow the rules. Each guest must sign in and have a police referral done before their admittance to ensure they have no outstanding warrants or are not registered sex offenders. If a guest seeks shelter at Emmaus House and is unemployed, he or she has about 10 days to find a job, Marsh said.

"If they have trouble or are unmotivated, we help identify their problems and assist them accordingly," she said.

If guests don't find a job within 10 days, aren't actively searching and don't have any circumstantial obstacles, they are not readmitted to Emmaus House the next time a check-in is required. All guests must be readmitted over the weekend after the partial-day closing. All guests eat and stay for free.

The help

Lorina Hewson, house manager, has seen Emmaus House at its best times and worst times. She has worked there for 29 years. The only time she took off from the shelter was during recovery from cancer 11 years ago and a stomach operation earlier this summer.

Hewson originally planned to work at the shelter only three months, after a chance to teach in Israel fell through.

"Three months turned into three years and so on, and now here I am," Hewson said. "I decided it was the right place to be."

She remembers rough times when the kitchen staff served only ham and beans and the guests would buy their own bread to eat with their meals. Other times, donations were generous, she said. One year, after Beef Empire Days, the BED committee brought leftover steaks to Emmaus House.

"We ate like kings," Hewson said.

Hewson prepares and organizes most of the food in the house for the daily meals. Marsh said if a volunteer doesn't show up to serve an evening meal, Hewson will stay to help.

Mollie Parham attends the same church as Hewson, Pierceville Federated Church. She has volunteered at Emmaus House for a year and a half. Emmaus House caught her attention after she read a news article about the facility.

Parham prepares dinner and eats with the guests. Tuesday night, she served eight house guests. It was the most she'd seen for dinner in a year and a half.

"I honestly think it's a sign of the times," she said.

The humble

Paul Lloyd arrived in the area by train. Hewson said the house hadn't seen a train-hopper in quite some time. Lloyd took shelter from the hot, dry weather Tuesday and joined the guests for lunch and supper.

Lloyd said he appreciated Emmaus House because he received two meals and enjoyed the shade of the house's wrap-around porch while he read a book. Lloyd is used to sleeping outside and said he usually eats a hamburger off McDonald's Dollar Menu every once in a while when he's hungry and has a dollar.

Vernon Northington, originally from Los Angeles, said he is using Emmaus House to better his life and situation. Northington had a job at Tyson Fresh Meats for a few months and is now between jobs.

"I'm not a shelter kind of guy," he said. "But I am thankful this is here to help get me through." Northington has a job offer in Liberal but is reluctant to leave Garden City.

"I like it here. This is a nice place," he said.

Darlene Taplet, Chicago, has lived in Garden City for nine months after securing a job with Tyson. She got hurt on the job and had to scale back her hours at the plant. She feared she couldn't afford rent and asked her landlord to let her out of the lease agreement.

"I'm not a shelter person either," Taplet said. "But this place isn't even like a shelter. It's a home. ..."

Taplet, a mother of three, came to Emmaus House two-and-a-half months ago to get back on her feet. She tries to send money to her two youngest children who stay with their father in Chicago.

Emmaus House has enabled Taplet to start a new life in Garden City, she said. She likes the calm, welcoming community here so much she has decided to stay. Taplet found a house to rent that is being fixed up. She said she hopes her children can visit for Christmas.

Welcome!    

Today's events •  Weekly Events

Submit An Event

Telegram Featured Video