Tales From A Homeless Shelter

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ryan J. Dowd - Executive Director of Hesed House, a Comprehensive Homeless Resource Center.

Hesed House: Homeless Baby Crying

Being the Executive Director of Illinois’ second largest homeless shelter can feel quite “ordinary” and “business-like” some days. I spend a good part of every day at my desk talking on the phone and typing at my computer. I go to meetings, look at budgets and address staff questions. It can all feel very “normal.”

But then I hear a baby crying…

You see, my office is next to one of the dorm rooms in Hesed House’s Transitional Living Community and that dorm room is currently home to a family with a newborn baby. The walls are thin and from time to time, I hear their baby crying.

And the normalcy is shattered…

I am reminded that newborn babies live in homeless shelters. I am reminded that this year over 100 children will call Hesed House home. I am reminded that children go to school every day fearful that their classmates will find out where they live. I am reminded that America is already seeing a wave of homeless adults who were homeless as children, and that if we all don’t do a better job today we are setting the stage for a more homeless tomorrow. I am reminded that homelessness of the magnitude and type that we see in America today simply did not exist when I was born—we have created it in my lifetime. Literally.

And the task ahead seems so daunting…

The walls at Hesed House are not thin enough for me to hear the young mother in the dorm room next to my office comfort her baby, but I know she does it. The baby’s cries grow quieter—to a whimper—like someone is holding him and patting his back.

And I try to return to my work, but…

My thoughts turn to the community that has created Hesed House. And the thousands of volunteers and donors who give up their time and resources to care for their neighbors in need. And the dozens of staff at Hesed House who work long hours for low pay helping families to get back into their own homes. And the hundreds of nonprofits around the country experimenting with new and innovative ways to end homelessness one person—one family—at a time.

And soon the baby stops crying…

I can see a future without homelessness. I am not being a naïve idealist. It is only in the last three decades that we have witnessed homelessness of the type and magnitude that exists today. If we can create the modern phenomenon of homelessness, can we not uncreate it? You—and your counterparts across the country—are already beginning the difficult process of creating a different world. You are voting differently and hiring differently and giving differently. You won’t settle for a world where homeless babies live in the local shelter.


And I return to my work knowing that I will have the opportunity to be a part of the day that the baby next door and his family move out of Hesed House into their own home… his first.

Peace,
Ryan
Ryan J. Dowd, Atty., MPA
Executive Director

Hesed House is a movement of those concerned for the dignity, survival and reclamation of homeless, hungry and hopeless people. For more information on this organization, please visit their website: http://www.hesedhouse.org/index.html