Guest post by Susan O’Patka

Three nights a week, up to six homeless guests who are challenged by mental illness find refuge in two churches in Ballard. One church, Crown Hill Methodist Church, provides shelter on Wednesday nights, while Northminster Presbyterian Church has its turn on Thursday and Friday nights. Ballard Ecumenical Ministries provides this service. It is made up of volunteers from neighboring churches and beyond. One young woman drives all the way from Mill Creek to host twice a month.

At about five o’clock in the evening, two hosts warmly greet each night’s guests. Another volunteer provides a meal. Everyone sits at a table and enjoys a family style dinner. After dinner, most of the guests set up the mats with the bedding provided by the shelter and go to sleep. Some guests stay up until the overnight volunteers arrive at 9:00 and watch television, read or talk. The guests come from around the world. Some of them have come as far away as Morocco and Sweden. Each one has an interesting background, and various reasons and paths that led to their homelessness.

The shelter opened fifteen years ago when three pastors of neighboring churches met to plan an ecumenical Thanksgiving service. They longed for a bigger mission that none of them could do alone. Soon, they got their wish.

Mona Tschurwald, with the Access Program in Fremont, was looking for shelter opportunities for their clients. She contacted Josephine Archuletta from the Church Council of Greater Seattle, who then contacted one of the pastors, Dennis Hughes. The pastors met the challenge.

Dennis also knew a couple, Duane and Kay Glasscock, who were very active in Washington Advocates For the Mentally Ill. Because they’d been working as advocates for years, they were invited to take part in the planning. Kay took the job as volunteer coordinator and joined the board. She soon started to recruit volunteers. She is still on the board, and is extremely active in scheduling those who overnight at the shelter.

At first the shelter was only open two nights a week, then increased to three, and a couple of years later, they were able to stay open four nights a week. Trinity United Methodist Church hosted one night a week. Northminster Presbyterian Church hosted for the evening and then the guests were transported to Trinity to stay the night.

A steady core of 100-110 volunteers a month is required to keep the shelter going. Not only do people host and overnight, volunteers provide the meals, do the laundry, transport the guests from Community Psychiatric Clinic in Belltown, schedule the hosts and overnighters and call to remind volunteers of their duties.

One of the volunteers, David Peterson, has a unique perspective on the shelter because he was once a guest.

“I like to volunteer because I’m able to stay connected. Also, I’ve gone through it. The volunteers greet guests with open arms. They’re present and nonjudgmental. The volunteers reflect the light of God,” he explains.

One of the current guests, Trudy Goodwin, says it this way:

There are 5 Degrees of Kindness: 1st Degree -- No matter what the forecasted weather, Ballard Shelter keeps homeless men and women from the mild to harsh elements. 2nd degree -- No matter what happened that day in the personal lives of the shelter volunteer, we are always made important. 3rd degree -- We are always happy with the meal, full of healthy food. We get to take any leftovers with us the following morning, along with cups of hot coffee or mochas. 4th Degree -- Our bedding is always always clean. 5th Degree (paid forward) -- If we had more volunteers, this could happen five days a week instead of three.

Several of the guests have found housing. It’s always bittersweet when they do, because although the volunteers are happy for them, they know that they will probably never see them again.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please call (206)784-3789, or email knduane@comcast.net.

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