Revival of Grays Harbor opens doors to homeless

As untimely frigid weather and snow flurries rolled in Friday night, dozens of homeless people flocked to the First United Methodist Church basement in Aberdeen for a hot meal and a place to sleep. Prior to dinner, more than 20 homeless folk sit and drink hot chocolate to warm up, with classical piano music emanating from the corner where 39-year-old Michael Spirit sits and plays for listeners while wearing purple-tinted glasses and a bright yellow Pokemon hat.

It was the first evening open due to cold weather for Revival of Grays Harbor, a nonprofit run out of the church basement that provides shelter and service to any and all homeless people in the area. The church still has its regular service on Sundays, but an agreement with Revival allows them to open the basement any evening temperatures drop below 35 degrees.

This was Spirit’s first time using the service, but some, such as 37-year-old Bobbi Jo and her husband have been using it for more than a year.

“If I wasn’t here I’d probably just be cuddled up with my husband under many blankets, since our tent has been stolen three times,” said Bobbi Jo, who much preferred the shelter to a previous night sleeping on the concrete next to a storefront.

Years prior to being homeless, Bobbi came from Olympia to attend Grays Harbor College and was six months from graduating, she said, before being shot in the hand by a stranger which eventually led to her dropping out. She hopes to one day get back to owning a house so she doesn’t have to deal with people stealing her tent, but was glad to have Revival to help in the meantime.

On active nights, the basement opens up at around 6 p.m. and closes at 8 a.m. the next morning, all while providing a hot dinner and breakfast, as well as snacks and a bagged lunch the next day.

On Friday night, volunteers were in the kitchen cooking ground beef for tacos, enough to serve up to 225 people, program founder Emily Reed said.

Reed, who founded the group with her husband in September 2016, was motivated in large part because she was homeless herself from age 14 to 20 and wanted to give back after moving to Grays Harbor in 2013.

“It’s always been on my heart to go back to help homeless folk,” Reed said. “Everyone on my board and most of the volunteers have either been homeless, recently experienced it or are homeless, so they really understand what these folks are going through.”

Having been homeless herself, Reed said she was shocked at the homeless situation upon moving to Grays Harbor, and disagrees with those who say homeless in the area should move somewhere else.

“People are upset there are folks living in downtown Aberdeen but the reason they’re there is because they’re spilling in from (camps along) the river, there’s no where else to shove them.”

The Revival group started out with just five members making lunches for homeless camps along the rivers, during which they were swarmed and ran out within minutes. Now they’ve expanded to 75 volunteers, 10 board members, and just last week signed a $26,000 contract with the county that will go toward purchasing cots for the basement. Reed said the annual cost of running the service is $50,000 and that they rely heavily on donations.

Reed and her coworkers have also met with the mayor, the president of city council and other departments to discuss how the city could back their project and assist them in supporting the homeless population.

“It would basically be a way for us to step in and make it better living conditions for the folks down there,” said Reed, who is still working on the concept with the city.

Aside from prohibiting alcohol and drugs being brought in, there are almost no restrictions to spend the night, and they are not religiously affiliated, despite being in a church.

“We don’t require them to be clean or give an I.D. or anything, they can stay with us, even if they have pets,” said Reed, who couldn’t find any church other than First Methodist that would let them host their program.

“Our group is nonreligious and they have never once pressed their religion on us, yet you’ll often see our homeless friends at a Sunday service just because they know they are so loved and accepted as they are there.”

In trying to not exclude anyone, the group also looks out for those camped down by the river and shuttles them to the church, with some volunteers additionally staying by the riverfront during open hours to take care of those who stay there.

Overnight guests get a hot dinner and breakfast plus snacks and a bagged lunch for the next day. For some of these people, Reed said, the service represents a real life or death scenario for them making it through the night.

“The other day we weren’t open and lost an elder who died overnight. People have been found unconscious on the way to our shelter, so we’re quite literally saving peoples’ lives when we open.”

There’s inevitably challenges with servicing so many people who may struggle with drug or mental health issues, particularly with sleeping arrangements.

“There’s some crazy people,” said Bobbi Jo. “Last time my husband was sleeping, and next thing I know someone’s sitting by his feet talking to him, and I had to tell him to get away.”

Things could also get a bit hectic with traffic into the basement, and one volunteer had to be evacuated by an ambulance after he tripped down the stairs and cut his head open.

But volunteers go far out of their way to accommodate homeless clients in other ways as well, such as taking them to the doctor and housing appointments, treatment centers, even emergency trips to the hospital for pregnant women as Reed recalled from recent memory.

Now as they expand, Revival hopes to continue to improve its services by getting beds and building small structures along the river for camped out homeless folk to live in.

Homeless visitor Michael Spirit plays piano for guests in the basement of the church. 37 people slept over in the church Friday, a smaller turnout than usual as they can have up to 50 stay the night. (Louis Krauss)