Allan Appel Photo
Carlos Alvarado, who sleeps on the back seat of a Honda Civic, picks up his new bag Tuesday.
In addition to eggs, oatmeal, orange juice, yogurt, and granola bars, a special pre-Thanksgiving item appeared on the menu for homeless diners at Wooster Square’s Sunrise Cafe: sleeping bags that can keep them warm when it’s as cold as zero degrees out.
One hundred of the bags were delivered Tuesday morning to the cafe, a free breakfast center run at Chapel and Olive streets by Liberty Community Services.
Wooster Square activist and philanthropist Wendy Hamilton donated $15,000 to enable Liberty to buy 100 Marmot brand bags, with pads, and straps from Trailblazer.
The Trailblazer truck arrived Tuesday morning at the Church of St. Paul & St. James, in whose basement the cafe is located. Homeless diners, who had registered in advance to receive a bag, interrupted their breakfast when they were called alphabetically to receive a bag.
Duane Akins, who’s been homeless and sleeping out doors for the last four months, was among the first. He called the bag a big improvement over his current sleeping conditions, lying on blankets between buildings.
“I know about camping. Anybody would be a fool not to take one,” he said.
Hamilton presides as the bag-bearing truck arrives.
Homeless advocate Jesse Hardy was concerned that guys who are not outdoor sleepers might take the bags and sell them. Liberty Service’s executive director, John Bradley, had asked him to come by to help verify that the bags go to those who truly avoid the shelter system, as many homeless do, and are spending the increasingly cold nights outdoors in parks and other encampment areas across the city.
Hardy approved of what he saw. Only a handful of the bags might end up not being put to their intended use, he concluded. After surveying the crowd as they received the bags and figured out the stuffing and strapping, he praised Hamilton’s gift.
Hamilton decided to make the gift “because I couldn’t afford [to pay for] housing. My goal [ultimately] is to build housing,” she said as she and Liberty Services volunteer staffers kept the breakfasts and the bags coming.
Because his last name starts with “A,” Duane Akins was among the first to receive a Marmot.
Hardy, whose Jesse’s Homeless Outreach Project (or J‑Hop) organizes winter coat giveaways, sneaker drives and haircuts for the homeless, said he has come to a conclusion that the more important solution is to “work with people to get services to help them get out of homelsssness. The answer is services, not just housing.”
Still, he spoke to Liberty’s Bradley about obtaining 15 of the Hamilton-bought bags for groups of homeless people he knows who sleep in the woods, or at least outside.
Among those is Gordon W., who did not want to be photographed and who has worked as one of the volunteer waiters at the cafe for about a year.
Crew unloading the donated bags.
“This is a godsend right here,” he said of the bag, which he had received, unpacked, and organized for toting through the day. Gordon said he has tried staying in shelters. The bedbugs he encounters there keep him away, he said. Other times he arrives too late — after 4 p.m. — at filled-up overflow shelters. “How do you get there at that hour if you are “running around looking for a job?” he asked rhetorically.
He said he currently sleeps in a spot behind a friend’s back porch. Then he goes to another friend’s to shower and clean up. The bag will most definitely come in handy, he said.
Kenny B. fand a friend were struggling to put it in the bright orange carrying satchel. “I stay positive,” he said. “I’m really grateful” for the bag.
Kenny’s been homeless for two years. He has recently been sleeping in Edgewood Park,utilizing only the thermal blankets he was carrying in his backpack, he said.
Of the approximately 140 people who have breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe, not all are homeless, which is why the cafe’s manager Ellen Gabrielle had organized a sign-up for those receiving bags.
About 35 signed up at the cafe in the run-up to the give-away. Twenty-five others signed up at Liberty’s other sites. With 15 or so pledged to Jesse Hardy’s program, most of the 100 bags are spoken for.
Bag, pad and strap, ready to go.
Hamilton said she will provide more if required.
After the bags had been handed out, Patricia Kane, Hamilton’s lawyer, said the Wooster Square activist was intending to walk straight over to City Hall “to demand that the mayor open the Armory for the winter.”
“We agree [that sleeping bags aren’t a solution] but in the short term people should not sleep in the streets until a political solution [is found]. Wendy’s been an advocate for [what they termed] the Rhode Island model: housing above, services below.”