Last Monday, I spent five hours preparing, serving, and cleaning up dinner for 15 homeless at my church in Vancouver, Washington. We alternate providing dinners, breakfasts, and overnight housing with another church. By 7:30 p.m., the guests nestled in on fold-out mattresses with thick blankets. One fellow had his dog, Itchy, and another had his 6-year-old daughter. Everyone is welcome. Out of respect, I never ask, but I always want to know: How did you end up here?
That’s the question I was also asking throughout Bess O’Brien’s documentary on homelessness. There was a blended family of four or five with a working dad, a veteran who said he’d been camping in the woods for 42 years, and a woman who was a cobbler during the day and a bartender at night. (CONTINUED)