Me: Alright, thank you David for coming in. Do you want to share a little about what brought you to The Refuge?
David: Well we (his wife and him) were living with my grandmother until the rent got messed up. They evicted us and she (his grandmother) couldn’t find a place big enough for all of us.
Me: So, you and your wife ended up homeless. Is this your first time being homeless?
David: Yes.
Me: How did you feel when you realized you were going to be homeless and stay in a shelter?
David: Well we (his wife and him) were living with my grandmother until the rent got messed up. They evicted us and she (his grandmother) couldn’t find a place big enough for all of us.
Me: So, you and your wife ended up homeless. Is this your first time being homeless?
David: Yes.
Me: How did you feel when you realized you were going to be homeless and stay in a shelter?
David: Well the two nights before we came here (The Refuge) I don’t even remember much. I drank a lot and I don’t usually do that. I was not ready. It wasn't something (going into a homeless shelter) that I had ever had to do and I was not ready.
Me: When you decided to come into The Refuge, how was that experience? Did we help you make that transition any better?
David: It was a little intimidating at first with the whole pat down thing, and the Breathalyzer, but after a while it just became routine.
Me: What would you like to say to the volunteers of The Refuge?
David: We (the guests staying in the shelter) are all there for one reason or another and we have to learn to tolerate one another and some of the volunteers need to make us feel welcome. Not all of them do. But I’m speaking about the Intake mostly. All the volunteers at the churches make you feel welcome. But overall It’s been great. It’s been appreciated.
*At this point we talked a little bit at this point about the stresses the guests are under while staying at The Refuge and how he felt that having families with children staying all together in the same place added more stress to the environment.
Me: The Refuge is getting ready to close. What are your plans?
David: I’m working on getting my CDL license.
Me: Do you have a place to stay while doing that?
David: No. I don’t know where I will go.
Me: What would you like to say to the community of Lapeer regarding what you think needs to change to help those that are homeless?
David: There’s no place to go during the day. I fall asleep easy and I don’t get enough sleep during the night in the shelter, so I fall asleep a lot while I’m at the library (which is the only place to go). I snore, and I’m sure they have got to be sick of me. I feel bad.
Me: I can understand it must be difficult to get enough sleep while staying in a shelter. Do you think that fatigue on top of everything else you may be going through can be a barrier to motivation?
David: Yes. Yes. I know one day I went to the library and fell asleep there. Then I went out to the car and slept most of the day I was so tired.
Me: My family did a One Night Without a Home, Homeless Awareness event in November. We stayed in a tent all night for one night in town. In our discussions about the experience, one thing that we commented on was how tired we were the next day and how that seemed like a tough thing to have to overcome as a homeless person trying to stay motivated.
David: Uh huh. Yes, it’s hard on top of everything else.
Me: Thank you David for coming in to talk to me today. We appreciate it and I hope things work out for you. Please call me if you need anything and I will see what I can do to help. Stay in touch.