John Lodise, director of emergency services at Shepherd’s House Ministries, showed in September the area that will become the kitchen after remodeling is complete at the Lighthouse Navigation Center in Bend.

I am a volunteer providing disaster relief. I help deliver food, clothing, fuel, and human contact to people who are suffering from disasters. Every week I visit disaster areas, dozens of disasters every year. I don’t travel to exotic locations where there are earthquakes, hurricanes, or fires. All these disasters are right here in Deschutes County.

I volunteer for Shepherd’s House Ministries in Bend and work with homeless people. Every homeless person is trying to recover from their own personal disaster. They are all in situations very similar to those who have lost their homes and livelihoods from storm or fire. They have no house, they have few possessions and resources, they are unsheltered or are living in temporary shelters provided by the community.

Every homeless person’s disaster is different. Many people’s disaster starts with an illness that prevents them from working and results in medical bills that leave them unable to pay rent. Some people’s disaster begins with fleeing from abusive living situations. Sometimes the disaster is the result of losing a job or being evicted and not being able to find housing they can afford. And sometimes the homeless person has contributed to the disaster themselves, through poor decisions or irresponsible actions. That does not make their situation any better or easier to recover from; it often makes it worse. All homeless people are shunned and disrespected; if they are a drug abuser or have a criminal record it is worse: harder to get a job, harder to get an apartment, harder to get treated like a human being.

Shepherd’s House provides the same kinds of services that the Red Cross provides, food and clothing and much more: help registering for Social Security, help applying for housing, rental assistance, heating assistance, renewing IDs, low-cost phone service, mental and physical health services, drug and alcohol recovery services and more.

Some people’s disaster is a temporary setback. They get into a temporary residence until they are ready to move on to working, finding housing they can afford, most likely with rental assistance or lots of roommates, or both. But recovery isn’t that easy for most.

I go along with Shepherd’s House employees in the SHARE van to visit people living in the woods. We once met a woman who was in her car, about to leave for work. She had moved out of her house a couple of months before because her husband was abusing her, and she was living in a tent in the woods. She declined help finding housing because she was afraid if she had a permanent address her husband would be able to find her. That is a disaster that lasts a long time.

We met one young woman who was standing beside the road. It wasn’t clear when her disaster had begun. It was winter, and she didn’t have a coat, her shoes didn’t match, she was holding a laundry basket that contained all her possessions. She didn’t know where she was going to spend the night, or where she had spent the previous night. We gave her a ride to the shelter in town. The Shepherd’s House case manager tried to talk to her, but she wasn’t very coherent. This woman’s disaster started a long time ago and had no end in sight.

I have met more than one person whose disaster began with alcohol. Alcohol is the most common drug that people in America abuse; we all know someone who has struggled with it. It can cause a person to lose their job, their family, their house. Once they have lost everything, quitting drinking is only the first step of the long road to disaster recovery.

Disaster has many forms; everyone I meet who is living in the woods has a different story. Disaster can be just around the corner. Be kind to the neighbor who is around that corner.

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