A lesson in Empathy

Homelessness has been a chronic problem in America for decades, and Birmingham’s no exception.

On a typical night, there are 1,200 homeless men and women in Birmingham but only 528 shelter beds, according to Anne Wright Rygiel, executive director of Firehouse Shelter, recently renamed Firehouse Ministries, downtown.

Rygiel, Firehouse and TEDxBirmingham recently provided three men — including myself — a chance to confront homelessness in a unique way: by spending a night at the shelter.

The overnight “experience” in June was a chance for us to learn more about Firehouse, gain a deeper insight into homelessness and even confront our own preconceptions about it.

The experience began the previous week at an orientation with Rygiel, who talked about the shelter’s mission and our overnight stay. The nonprofit Firehouse Ministries houses 200 people a night at various facilities, including 50-70 men at the shelter, and served about 5,000 homeless men, women and kids in 2016.

The organization is currently in the midst of a capital drive to build a much-needed new facility for the shelter.

“We help the people everyone else has given up on,” Rygiel said.

This includes people with drug and alcohol problems, but it’s a stereotype to think of all homeless people as addicts, according to Rygiel.

For example, rents in Birmingham continue to rise, making it tougher for the working poor to find housing, she said.

“People become homeless for a variety of different reasons,” she said.

Rygiel told us during orientation that we would “go through the process just like any person off the street would.” But she kept most of the details to herself.

“You’ll live the life of someone staying in a shelter, and part of that is not knowing what happens next,” she said.

The following week, I reported to Firehouse for the overnight.

I joined the other participants: architect Bruce Lanier and Terry McKinney, a cook and photographer.

Jeremy Howze and Alex Collins — two volunteers who live in Firehouse transitional housing — were at the shelter to serve their weekly overnight shifts as hosts for our experience. I began with an intake form and a biological, psychological and social assessment with case manager Aubrey Smith.

Many shelter guests have had drug, alcohol or legal problems, Smith said. But, like Rygiel, he noted that people come to Firehouse for many reasons. 

“Somebody’s house may burn down and they’ve no family to turn to, so they have to come here,” Smith said. “We try to make it good for them while they’re here.”

After intake, I got my bed pass and stood in the hot sun on Third Avenue North with about 50 other shelter guests while staff set up the main room for dinner. I met Lee Eady, who became homeless after a recent divorce and is working day labor and staying at shelters to save money. 

“I’m trying to get my own place in about a month,” Eady said.

At 6:30 p.m., people with bed passes were allowed back in. We emptied our pockets and were scanned with an electronic wand and patted down.

Before dinner, Smith spoke to the group and reviewed the rules for overnight guests. For example, no one is allowed to leave the building after 6:30 p.m.

And he tried to make people feel welcome. “We want you to feel at home without making this your home,” he said.

We ate dinner — salad, bread, cookies and some rice with sausage — prepared by Trinity United Methodist Church volunteers. 

There was also live music: a man and woman sang pop and gospel songs while the man played an acoustic guitar. I ate with two guests, John Stewart and Jeremy Robinson, who hang out together.

“You need a buddy to get your back,” Stewart said. “You deal with a lot of different personalities in here.”

Stewart praised the food, the shelter and its programs. “It’s a blessing,” he said.

It was lights out at 9 p.m., after guests volunteer to clear tables and chairs from the main room and make space for cots. Watching this process, it’s easy to see why the Firehouse wants to build a new shelter with permanent dining and sleeping areas.

After a fitful night’s sleep on my cot, I was almost glad when Howze woke Lanier, McKinney and I at 4 a.m. to help make breakfast. By 6 a.m., we were serving pre-made waffles and French toast slices to the guys. As we cleaned up, Lanier told me that, as an architect, he had helped design expensive homes and wanted to learn more about the homeless.

“This is the other side to that equation that I need to understand,” he said.

McKinney said he had volunteered with the homeless before. “I thought it was a cool experience to come see how they live and sleep,” he said. “I enjoyed myself. The guys are pretty awesome.”

I signed up for the experience in part because I’m a reporter and also because I wanted to learn more about shelters, though I have written about Firehouse and other missions in the past. But at the orientation, Rygiel said she didn’t want our experience to be “primarily about homelessness.” She said she wanted us to work on “self-introspection” and “empathy.”

“We have to confront a lot of internal prejudice and preconception and put ourselves in situations that may be uncomfortable,” she said.”

In my case, I don’t think that I had any particular negative feeling toward the homeless, and I enjoyed the experience overall. But my stay definitely made me feel a part of the Firehouse and its mission. After all, I had slept there, been fed and helped feed others. Without realizing, I had become a part of the place.

I feel sure that I’ll go back to help out, to be a little part of what Rygiel called “the Firehouse family.”

For more information, including the capital campaign, go to firehouseshelter.com.