I have been giving my time to DLE Cafe every Tuesday for over a month. I have to admit that the experience has done my soul some good and even produced some new friends. Daily Living Essential Cafe is a service of Love Overwhelming. They have made the front part of TRIHoP available to the homeless Sunday through Tuesday mornings. People can come in and get warm, have access to clean, safe bathrooms, a bite to eat and drink and daily living essential items.
I think the most important thing that is available to the people that benefit from DLE Cafe is the opportunity to be heard and to speak to another person in a healthy environment. I have learned a few things while getting to know the people that come to DLE Cafe: each person is different from the next, they are not worthless or incapable and each has their own story as to why they are on the street right now, some homeless people are homeless by choice and for many reasons, and it is REALLY hard to be homeless.
For each person the difficulties are different. But for most the reality that society doesn’t like them is the same. These people know they are dirty and they don’t smell good sometimes, in fact they would like to have a shower every day and a place to wash their clothes. They would like to have a safe place to sleep. Many of the people on the street have emotional issues that make them hard to employ and from my experience with these people, these problems are exacerbated by a lack of stability that having a home or regular sleep would solve.
Before I began getting to know the people that come to DLE Cafe, I didn’t even realize that we don’t have a shelter in the Kelso-Longview area. In order to get any help you have to fit the criteria of the number of transitional housing facilities and are subject to the limitations of that facility. This means that if you are a addict or a sex offender there is little help for you. Most of the rehab programs have lost their funding and very few people want to hire, house or even know a S.O. This act may even perpetuate their problem since if you don’t have a home, no one can make sure you are making healthy choices and if there is no hope for a better future, why would you even try?
But the good part of DLE Cafe is that I have also got to see, first hand, the love that one human can give to another. One gentleman that frequents the Cafe has had a foot infection for a while that landed him in the hospital. Unfortunately when he was released he had nowhere to get and stay clean and dry. His shoes were worn out so his feet were staying wet and making the infection worse, not better. But the love of several people brought them together to provide a basin and soap, just for him, new socks and shoes and a place to get his feet cleaned. He has established a payee and should be off the street soon. A week later, he was still thanking those people and telling all of them that his feet were beginning to heal. This not only helped this gentleman but saved the hospital from the expense of treating him again and again.
We need to really consider a homeless shelter that would answer the needs of the masses until they are able to get into transitional housing. If you have any ideas we would love to hear from you. People make a difference. You can make a difference. Contact us today with your ideas.
