Change Font Size:   A A A

Oct 11, 2013 | Sharon Sheridan

Family Promise Congregations Open Doors to Host Homeless

[Episcopal News Service] It all started with a sandwich.

 

Karen Olson was working for Warner Lambert and had taken one of her frequent trips into New York for a lunch meeting when she encountered a homeless woman sitting outside Grand Central Station.

 

“In the early ’80s in New York City, it was hard to walk a city block all of a sudden without seeing somebody who was homeless,” Olson recalled. “I passed by homeless people regularly, I guess like everybody else.”

 

This time, instead of walking by, she impulsively bought a sandwich for the woman and ended up talking with her. “She said she hadn’t eaten since yesterday. I learned a little bit about her life, and a barrier was sort of broken. Up until that point, I had just thought you just don’t go near homeless people.”

 

Back home, Olson told her 10- and 12-year-old sons about the homeless woman, whose name was Milly. Their response: “Let’s make sandwiches and give them to homeless people in New York City.”

 

“For a couple of years,” Olson said, “every other Sunday, we would go in armed with sandwiches and got to know [homeless] people by name.”

 

She began arming herself with knowledge as well, about homelessness and particularly the plight of homeless families. Ultimately, she turned to the religious community in her home county, Union, in New Jersey. When they couldn’t work out the logistics of opening a shelter, they created a new model: Eleven churches and one synagogue agreed to feed and house homeless families a week at a time in rotation, while the Elizabeth YMCA provided space for a day center for the families. An area car dealer discounted the cost of a van to transport families between the center and the host congregations. And the first Interfaith Hospitality Network was born, opening in October 1986.

 

“To my surprise, hundreds of volunteers came out wanting to make a difference,” Olson said.

 

Soon that one network grew into multiple networks.

 

“I never really planned to start an organization,” Olson said. But this year, that organization she didn’t plan to start, now called Family Promise, is celebrating its 25th anniversary of becoming a national program. Nationwide, it provides “shelter, meals, and housing and job placement support to more than 49,000 homeless family members annually,” according to the organization’s website.

 

Continue reading from ENS