Homelessness affects young adults

When the Immanuel Shelter opened its doors to the homeless in 2010, when it was housed at Epworth United Methodist Church in Rehoboth, I volunteered for an evening shift. My job was to check in the residents, provide a bag of toiletries and show them to their cots.

I was surprised at the number of people who appeared to be in their 20s. There was even a mother and her young adult son. I had the mistaken notion that a homeless person was an old man, unshaven and unclean, who had just emerged from under a bridge or off a park bench. The reality couldn't have been further from the truth. One soft-spoken young man I checked in went directly to his cot and opened up a novel and began to read.

An article titled "Homes eluding more youths" (Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2018) confirms what I witnessed. Moriah Balingit writes, "Researchers at Chapin Hall, a youth policy center at the University of Chicago, surveyed in 2016 and 2017 more than 26,000 young people and their families across the country to gauge how many of them had been homeless during some period of the previous year. Their results were alarming: One in 10 people ages 18 to 25 had experienced homelessness."

Their research concluded that nearly 3.5 million young adults and 660,000 adolescents had been homeless within the previous year.

Mathew Morton, a Chapin Hall research fellow, says, "Homelessness is young...Many young people are getting hammered in this economy...and far too many have experienced trauma and lack stable family situations. We have a major affordable housing crisis."

In November 2016, about eight interested Senators residents came together to hear Dee Raynes explain the Code Purple program for the homeless shelter. What began as one meal served in December 2016 grew to another five meals that winter. Residents Jean and Tony Navitskis took the lead in developing a spreadsheet, signing up residents and getting the entire community involved.

Jean writes, "One year later, we have 39 Senators families (over 60 residents) participating in preparing meals for the Code Purple program. We have signed up to prepare two meals per month for 2017-18. Once the meals have been delivered, several residents stay to serve as well. Some people participate by signing in the guests who come in each night, while others make donations of various supplies such as paper towels, toilet paper, and peanut butter."

Volunteer Jim Reiter sent out a report to the many teams across the county this past week: "The Shelter opened Dec. 8 with approximately 10 residents, and at the end of December, we had housed and fed approximately 24 residents per night. In December 2017, approximately 85 volunteers participated with check-in and kitchen elf duties. We had 28 daily food prep groups with servers and approximately 80 cooking and serving volunteers who served 720 meals. Thank you all! We could not do this with you."

Immanuel Shelter Board President Janet Edema says, "Immanuel feels very blessed to have churches, HOAs, local restaurants and committed individuals who help us to provide food and support for the daily operation of the Immanuel Shelter."

For more information, visit the website: www.immanuelshelter.org. If you wish to become a volunteer in 2018, call Jim Reiter at 888-634-9992.

Happy New Year!