My favorite Peanuts cartoon strip showed up in The Oregonian last week. As Charlie Brown is lying in bed looking at the ceiling, he says, “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, ‘Why am I here?’ Then a voice answers, ‘Why? Where do you want to be?’”
We all want to be somewhere. Somewhere that is safe, welcoming, and warm. The Julia West House is like that. A refuge from the street. A place to be. As Larry, one of the guests I talked with last week, said, “I come here to see friends, it's friendly here. It's a place for the homeless to go. The staff is friendly, they have classes. A nice place to be.”
A guest playing cards at the next table said, “I come to socialize, drink coffee.”
The Julia West House at the corner of SW 13th and Alder is a bright and cheerful place. We welcome adults looking for a safe place to be, a place to meet other people. Guests who appear to be under the influence of any substance, or guests who are abusive – either physical or verbal–are invited to return when their behavior is not an issue.
We have two hospitality programs. The first is Daywatch, soon to have expanded hours from 8 am to 4 p.m. most days of the week. The second is Operation Nightwatch, open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., with a variety of activities on other weeknights. We also have a workshop program during the day with a wide range of classes.
We renovated Julia West House two years ago. What was once a dark, dingy, and crowded place turned into a bright, cheerful, but still crowded place. We couldn’t expand the building but we did add a courtyard. We replaced rows of chairs along the walls with groups of chairs clustered around small tables. As Sarah, one of our guests, wrote in a letter soon after we re-opened, “This place is just like Starbucks except people talk to each other.”
Guests can now be outside without being on the sidewalk. They can smoke and drink coffee out-of-doors without being hassled. Summer evenings are especially delightful in the courtyard. And the decrease of litter and congestion on the sidewalk makes us a much better neighbor in our area.
“My favorite part is getting to know the people and joke with them,” said Deb, one of the Daywatch volunteers. “I enjoy celebrating successes of guests. It is humbling and rewarding to be part of what goes on. I find it very satisfying giving support and encouragement to friends here. Genuine joy in sharing the good news when someone finds a job or an apartment.”
All the programs at Julia West depend on volunteers. Many volunteers find their work at Julia West to be some of the best times of their week. Nick, a neighborhood resident who comes often to Julia West, says, “I feel compassion for people on the street. I like the people and the staff here. I'm not high income, but I donate money every month.”
Our guests are a blend of homeless and low-income residents from downtown Portland. Many of them live in residential hotels or small apartments in the neighborhood. They come to Julia West to talk, drink coffee, play games, or just to be around other people.
Who is Julia West? Julia West Lindsley was the wife of the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church from 1868 to 1886. During that time Dr. and Mrs. Lindsley established many churches and schools across the Pacific Northwest frontier. When the church bought the property at SW 13th and Alder in 1989, they named it after Mrs. Lindsley. The Julia West House is a ministry of First Presbyterian Church, which operates the Daywatch and workshop programs. The church provides the space for the evening program run by Operation Nightwatch, which is a separate non-profit organization that is celebrating its 26th year in 2007. We strive to make Julia West House a “living room for the neighborhood.”
I know how important it is to have a familiar place to go, a place that is an anchor point. When I was growing up we moved frequently. Starting over in a new place every few months was difficult. I longed for a place that was stable, familiar, and friendly. We want our guests to feel Julia West House is that kind of place: A place where you can get a warm welcome and a cup of coffee. A safe refuge where you are accepted for who you are. A place to be.
