Homelessness – Part 8: Ways in which we are supporting the homeless

Sunday Morning Shared Breakfast at the First Methodist Church

The line forms at 6:45am and the doors open at 7:30am

I don’t recall exactly how we became involved with the Sunday morning shared breakfast at the First Methodist Church (also called First Church as it was literally the first church in Seattle), but my wife learned about it online in late 2017 and we volunteered several times. In 2021 we became involved again, and it has since become a regular thing that we do. The church has been serving breakfast since 1997.

I think I became involved just to learn more about the homeless community, but now I really enjoy interacting with them. I’d classify the shared breakfast as an important supplemental benefit to the community, but not a vital service since nobody can survive eating just one meal a week. It may not change the community much, but it has allowed me to change.

We are not Methodist, but that isn’t important – many of the volunteers do not attend that church. Some of the homeless volunteer as well. I’m in charge of running the shared breakfast one Sunday a month. I may not be a member, but I do have keys to the church and know the alarm code.

Our shared breakfast guests are often street people who sleep downtown. It is a rougher crowd (with plenty of mental illness on display), but the guests are usually very friendly and respectful (some are very withdrawn, but still grateful and respectful).

One volunteer is a very elderly lady who has been volunteering for over 10 years. She works every Sunday and the guests love her. If anybody were to ever offend her, I’m guessing that person would have a very hard time among the Seattle homeless population.

Camp United We Stand (in the Shoreline area)

Camp United We Stand when located at St. Dunstan’s Church in Shoreline

Camp United We Stand rotates every three months between church parking lots in the general Shoreline area (although sometimes they visit Kenmore). It is county sanctioned and they have strict rules. Every member must pass a background check. The camp also must pass various county inspections each time they rotate. The host church supplies a water line to the camp and some electricity. The camp itself is generally tucked in the back, and currently they only have 32 residents.

Many of the camp residents are a little older and many have some type of disability.

We learned about the camp when they moved to Kenmore in the Spring of 2023 and have been volunteering with the camp for around 18 months.

Many homeless people cannot integrate well with society due to their smell – you’d smell too if you didn’t have access to a shower or laundry services! My wife volunteers as a “laundry angel” – once a week she goes to the camp, picks up some laundry baskets, and then returns them the next day washed and folded. The camp residents are extremely grateful.

Shortly after learning of the camp, I learned that the camp needed a portable shower. That was when I first connected with camp resident Christopher Carter – the camp handyman and all-around great guy. I was originally thinking something very simple (like a portable shower that was inside of a tent), but Christopher wanted something:

Fully enclosed that could one day potentially house a toilet as well.
Constructed such that it could be power washed on the inside using a pressure washer.
Very lightweight for easy moving.
Easy to disassemble for easy moving.
With solar panels that run the lights and fan.

I volunteered my garage to build the shower and I financed the majority of the effort (they had a few materials already). Our design was entirely our own, and I can now write the definitive book on how to NOT build a homeless shower (it turned out great, but it could have been done much cheaper and faster had I known then what I know now). The entire shower was built using foam, resin, and FRP (but I used far more resin than I needed to).