Is Volunteering Overnight at a Homeless Shelter Scary?

When I first volunteered to monitor the overnight warming centers last year, friends and family thought I was nuts (nothing new there).  Not, as one might imagine, because I was up most of the night (I prefer the 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. shift), but because they thought it was “dangerous”.  And they asked me if I wasn’t scared.

Frankly, I didn’t quite know what to expect my first night, but what I encountered was so far removed from “scary” that I had to laugh.  Chaperoning a group of teenagers or hosting a child’s slumber party – now that’s scary!  But the biggest challenge in volunteering in a warming shelter was staying awake.  The sometimes cacophonous sound of snoring and the hourly fire checks helped keep the other volunteers and me from falling asleep.

Getting back to the chaperoning comparison, unlike some teenagers, those living on the streets do not come to shelters to party.  They come to avoid hypothermia and to sleep.  There are strictly enforced rules for behavior and the homeless community themselves enforce the rules.  Disruption is not tolerated.  There was only one time last year that there was a verbal altercation while I was volunteering, and other members of the “outside” community immediately nipped it in the bud.  The last thing they want is to jeopardize the shelters.  And unlike a children’s slumber party, the folks who use the shelter are not talking and giggling all night.  They are tired.  They have been on their feet all day.  They want to sleep.

And if your spouse is nervous about you volunteering, suggest that you do it together.  We love having couples.  Really, you will probably find it the easiest volunteering you have ever done.  All you have to lose is a little sleep on occasion, and you will be rewarded by knowing that because of your presence you may have saved fingers, toes or even a life.

-Sami Oeser for KEY Conversation on Poverty