Genesis Summer Shelter closes permanently, Interfaith Winter Shelter opens for season

A group of people experiencing homelessness stood in line with backpacks outside the doors of Trinity Episcopal Church at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday.

They were waiting for the church to open so they could have a warm place to sleep for the night.

Trinity Episcopal is one of four sites that comprise the Interfaith Winter Shelter, which has provided shelter and hot food for people experiencing homelessness since 2009.
It opens every year in October, when the Genesis House Summer Shelter closes, and remains open until April.

This year, the Genesis House Summer Shelter closed its doors permanently.

Though the shelter had limited resources, it had given those experiencing homelessness an option for a place to sleep since 2010.

Ultimately, the lack of volunteers and funding forced Genesis Church to shut down, Genesis House Director Alyssa Jones said.

The people waiting in line outside Trinity Episcopal expressed complaints about the cleanliness and spaciousness of the Genesis House facility. They requested to remain anonymous to avoid being labeled as “homeless people.”

A woman in a black jacket acknowledged that the Genesis House tried their best, and some murmured in agreement.

“I think we’re all just blessed to have a place to sleep at night,” a man in a blue-and-white-striped polo said.

The Genesis House offered beds and basic snacks. They used to offer meals when they opened but discontinued that practice when they realized individuals could get meals elsewhere, Jones said.

“It (was) just a picnic shelter that someone enclosed,” Jones said. “Facility-wise, we just provided a place to sleep.”

The Genesis House Summer Shelter Facebook page displays several posts asking for volunteers since the page was created in April, but there are few comments with responses.

Interfaith Winter Shelter pulls volunteers from First United Church, First United Methodist Church and First Christian Church in addition to Trinity Episcopal, which Jones said might be a reason they do not struggle as much for volunteers.

“Word gets around,” Rev. Connie Peppler of Trinity Church said.

The Genesis House faced a greater challenge, with only a set number of volunteers during a six-month period.

“It was spreading people pretty thin,” Jones said.

Since Genesis House was never open in the winter, the concern for summer shelter is not immediate.

Regardless, one woman in a beige jacket expressed strong opinions about the general treatment of people experiencing homelessness.

“We shouldn’t be getting run off church grounds,” she said. “By law, the churches should be our sanctuary. If there is something more important in a church than a human life, get rid of it.”

The Genesis House will not re-open, but members of the Genesis Church volunteer at other places, such as the Shalom Community Center.

“One of the reasons we wanted to open was to draw attention to the homelessness problems in the city,” Jones said. “We have a done a lot, and we will continue to do a lot.”

Peppler said she believes the former Genesis and current Interfaith guests appreciate Genesis’s efforts.

“I think people are thankful for what they did,” Peppler said. “They just ran out of volunteers. We hated to see it happen. The guests are survivors. They’ll find places to sleep. We all feel sad, but we understand.”