By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Dowagiac's experimental "soup kitchen" actually served spaghetti.
"We've had 15 to 20 people," said Margaret Shultz, community resources coordinator for the state Department of Human Services Cass County office in Cassopolis. "We didn't have any clue" how many to expect, "and when it was snowing this morning on my way into work, I was afraid nobody was going to be here."
Also heartening to the homeless counters who sponsored Thursday's soup kitchen was that people who did venture out carried information back to friends who were more reluctant to appear.
"I think it went great," Shultz said mid-afternoon of the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. event at Second Baptist Church.
"We've never done this before. Every year we have to do a homeless count, which we normally do with caseworkers going through their files and counting all the people they know are homeless. We're still doing that, but the state put some money out in small $1,000 grants for counties to do these special events connected to the homeless count today."
"It's amazing how many people we've seen today who didn't know where to go or who their worker was or didn't have a way to get there," Shultz said.
"It's kind of nice because all the different agencies which have been here, we can do some linkages. The first couple I talked to this morning, CAA (Southwest Michigan Community Action Agency, which has an office in Cassopolis) helped them out with a part of it, (DHS) helped them out with a part of it, then we sent them over to St. Vincent DePaul (on W. Railroad Street) so they could get coats.
"They had a lot of needs. All together, we could sit down at the table and figure out who could do what part. It's a comfortable atmosphere. They didn't have to come in to our office (on M-60, between Cass District Library and the Law and Courts Building) and sit in the lobby. This is closer. These people were in Castle Inn motel here in Dowagiac. Their car's barely running, so getting back and forth to Cassopolis is not the easiest thing in the world."
"This has been a very good experience," Shultz said.
Walter Swann, the Police Athletic League (PAL) boxing coach, said, "It would be nice to have a soup kitchen in the winter months to help people out."
"The sense of community" helps, Shultz said. Precariously housed or homeless people tend to be somewhat isolated. "They don't have family or people who can help them out or take them in," she said. "Just being able to make some connections is a really important part of the whole process. (Outreach)is something we're going to have to be thinking about. We could be a lot more friendly sometimes at the agencies."
"When people think of homeless, they think of people living in boxes on the street over steam," Shultz said. "We don't see that in rural areas, but I'll betcha you there are barns that have people in them. We know there are people who live in tents in the summer time. And lots of people are doubled up, staying wherever they can until the landlord figures out they're there. That's more of the kind of homelessness we see."
Rural homeless "are a lot more hidden," she said, "which makes it harder because there's not so much public will to do something about it because people think it doesn't exist."
The Jan. 25 soup kitchen was funded by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) through a Project Homeless Connect Grant.