Recently one of the guests at the Family Promise HCR Day Center asked if she could have some paper for the printer to print her resume.  It got me thinking about how hard everyday tasks, ones that most of us take for granted, are so much more difficult for those who are living in a hotel or are totally unhoused. 

Cooking, a daily chore that most of us consider a “chore,” is a challenge in a hotel room.  Folks either eat out (expensive but easy) or cook, (cheaper but messy). The most practical implements in a hotel situation include crock pots and electric skillets.  And the cold sandwich is always an option. The bath tub is available for cleaning up.

 For the unhoused cooking presents a real difficulty so room temp, uncooked canned items; fast food they’ve manage to get money for; long lines for a soup kitchen in all kinds of weather, or meals provided by volunteers would make up their sustenance.   Rodents are an ever-present issue, so one must protect their food from these pirates.

Folks who are doubled up in theory would have access to all the amenities, but everyone isn’t happy about having house guests.  They don’t put out the welcome mat.  People bunked with others don’t always have the run of the house, or the kitchen, or the refrigerator. 

At Family Promise HCR we have a closet with food for those who first enter the program, until they can get their SNAP benefits, can go shopping, or get to a food pantry.  At our host sites, congregations provided a hot homecooked meal each night, mostly recently chicken pot pie (square noodles, no rivels).  Often there’s leftovers so that guests can pack it up for lunch the following day.  We can provide a Bandaid, Advil, hand lotion and, yes, even printer paper so that things are just a little less challenging.