With a brand new mattress and brown leather-based sofa supplied by Grateful Gatherings, Harrison Coleman now feels at dwelling after spending years residing out of his automotive and in a storage unit in Oakland.
His journey thus far wasn’t straightforward.
The Missouri native, Air Drive veteran and clergyman by no means thought he’d turn into homeless. He’d all the time labored to assist himself, discovering odd jobs whereas learning theology at San Francisco State College and incomes his grasp’s diploma from American Baptist Seminary of the West.
He had neighborhood and mates, and was working to construct his personal congregation in Sacramento.
However he struggled to construct a following there and regardless of his finest efforts, Coleman ended up spending greater than two years of his life on the streets of Oakland from Might 2021 to August 2023.
“God gives us trials and tribulations. We have to have the strength to come out. God will not give you anything you can’t bear,” Coleman stated.
A coronary heart assault put him within the hospital and from there he was taken to a short lived shelter. Being positioned in an condo constructing for seniors was a key step towards Coleman’s restoration. However after weeks of sleeping on the ground, getting a mattress was his subsequent precedence.
That’s when Grateful Gatherings stepped in and supplied Coleman with a sofa, mattress body and model new mattress and bedding, a far cry from the ironing board Coleman used to put his head on whereas residing in a U-Haul shed.
“There is such power in the safety of a home,” stated Grateful Gatherings co-founder and government director Donna Wright Somerville. “We all have a deep desire to have a home that feels like a refuge and feels like a safe place from the world.”
For greater than a decade, the nonprofit has helped furnish residences for the previously unhoused, making a shelter into a house to look after and be happy with, Somerville stated.
Grateful Gatherings was began by Somerville and Applications Director Christine Flitter in 2013 after Somerville realized of slightly woman, Ayisha, speaking about being homeless throughout the holidays on the native information.
Somerville, with assist from household, ensured Ayisha and her family members had Christmas dinner and presents. Somerville tapped into that assist system once more simply months later to assist furnish Ayisha’s new dwelling.
Since then, Grateful Gatherings has supplied desks, couches, pans, beds, rugs, framed photographs and an assortment of different family requirements to over 500 households in want.
“Our hope is that they will go forward always expecting this for themselves, a beautiful home equipped with what you need and that’s comfortable and makes you feel worthy,” Somerville stated.
The group has developed over time. The preliminary purpose was to furnish as many homes as attainable in a day so households could be requested what they wanted and people objects could be dropped off for the purchasers to unpack.
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Somerville and Flitter realized households, who had been typically nonetheless within the throes of chaos, had been in want of extra care and assist. The purpose then grew to become to totally furnish and unpack houses — placing dishes into cupboards, garments into new dressers and hanging image frames — with an enormous divulge to cap off the expertise.
“What we learned from families was that the more love and care we gave them, the more set up and completely ready to go their home was, the better they did. It was more about the boost they needed at the time,” Somerville stated.
The shift meant fewer houses had been being embellished by a higher variety of volunteers. With that change and households changing into a precedence over people, the group’s waitlist started to quickly develop.
One other shift was needed, Somerville stated, and that’s when mini gatherings had been developed. In contrast to a full gathering, mini gatherings had been meant to supply a couple of wanted objects to folks equivalent to veterans, foster youth getting into maturity and smaller households.
The second possibility benefited Coleman, who already owned a eating room desk, espresso desk, lounge chairs and loads of artwork to embellish the partitions, a lot of that are his personal creation.
Coleman remains to be targeted on making a full restoration however he’s additionally dreaming of how to present again to others, particularly the unhoused who he watched endure each day.
“Homelessness is tragic. It stupefies so many people. They can’t believe the state they are in and without any lifelines, they’re stuck,” stated Coleman from his Alameda condo. “This program helped me come out of that. These people gathered around me and helped me move on. … Homelessness is not insurmountable. I could have died homeless, but I’m not homeless anymore.”
THE SHARE THE SPIRIT SERIES
Share the Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group operated by the East Bay Instances, The Mercury Information and Bay Space Information Group that gives aid, hope and alternatives for East Bay residents by serving to elevate cash for nonprofit applications in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.
WISH
Donations will permit Grateful Gatherings to supply full and mini gatherings for 10 households, giving assist with shifting and transportation bills and offering households preventing to remain housed with objects like new beds, dwelling necessities and furnishings. Purpose: $10,000
HOW TO GIVE
Go to sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate or print and mail on this type.
LEARN MORE
Discover extra tales at sharethespiriteastbay.org.
Initially Revealed:
