The guest relationships within Shalom Center is very complex. To “outsiders”—those who have never been to Shalom Center—it may just appear to be “a bunch of homeless/poor people gathering for the day”…But to those who are “insiders”—those who frequent Shalom Center either as a guest or volunteer, or staff member—the guests almost appear to be a microcosm of the society we live in. It is diverse in many ways—including economically. Some people need toiletries, bus tickets, and food, whereas others may need rent assistance, laundry services, or a place to rest. The diversity of needs is even more apparent when you talk to some of the guests.
One lady that I had a casual conversation with has been estranged from her two sons (Age 18 and 21) for about 17 years. Only recently has she reconnected with them. They live in Florida and she does not have the money to visit them yet. She is recovering from an addiction and is just starting to get back on her feet. She is homeless and stay at Shalom during the day and at an ex-boyfriend’s place during the night. She grew up in a lower class environment where nobody went to school. This is not the first time she has experienced poverty, but this is the longest period (about 10 years) that she has ever experienced.
A man that I spoke with was college educated from IU. He majored in chemistry and was on track to attend medical school. He came from a Working class family in Lowell, Indiana and had a strong desire to move up into middle class or upper-middle class status. This all changed when he started to show a decline in his mental state and developed Schizophrenia. He was an only child, with both parents passed on, and no relatives to help care for him. He has been homeless for about 20 years now living between homeless shelters, abandoned homes, good Samaritans cars, couches, public restrooms, etc.
Another man that I spoke to grew up in an upper-middle class family in Ohio. He has abused drugs since he was in middle school and supported it through money from his parents when he went away to school. He dropped out of college during his senior year and went to live with a girlfriend in Evansville. They broke up a year later and he moved to Bloomington to stay with a friend and look for a job but this proved to be very difficult; his drug abuse ruined job opportunities for him and eventually he was cut off from his parents and forced to fend for himself. He is not homeless, but he does not have any money to re-enroll in school to complete his education and his parents have refused to aid him.
These three stories represent three different people who once occupied separate socio-economic classes. These are three people who, outside of shalom, would have never communicated with each other. They admitted to this. But the one thing these people had in common was that they had a story to tell of how they came to be in the situation they were in. I was willing to listen to the story because it represented situations so foreign to me that it was truly interesting to hear first-hand accounts. Then I remembered. This community that used to be invisible to me is not visible. I would not say I have been “accepted” into their community, but I have been exposed. Millions of people have yet to be exposed to such a small yet vulnerable community. It is a community that should be so easy to come into contact with. All it takes is to walk through the door. However, it took me 20 years to do this and many others never can make the step into a different community due to class barriers that are difficult to willingly cross. I still cannot figure out what holds me back. I always knew poverty existed. But I never truly came into contact with it until now. What took so long?
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