Give them your tired, your poor

Merily Horwat tried to prepare herself for volunteering at a local homeless shelter last week, but not long into her first volunteer shift, she met a woman not much older than herself — a single mother with two young children who had no place to go on a freezing Monday night.

And although Horwat, a freshman letters and sciences major, is a member of College Park Scholars' Public Leadership program and has learned all about the prevalence of local poverty, she said at that moment, any preconceived notions she had went right out the window.

"I've known about [poverty] for so long, but I think it's so different when you go in and actually talk with the people," said Horwat, following her week of service. "If you go in with an open mind and you're not expecting anything, it's very impacting."

Horwat was one of about 20 students to volunteer at the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church shelter last week. For the fifth straight year, the university partnered with the local parish to assist the weeklong Warm Nights program — a county initiative to keep the homeless off the street during the winter months by rotating shelters to a different county church every week.

Each night last week, volunteers — many of whom were members of the religious student group Episcopal/Anglican Terps — set up about 40 beds in St. Andrew's. They served guests a hot breakfast and dinner and gave them a bagged lunch for the day. A county social worker was present overnight to help refer guests to other services — which many officials said are scarce at best.

Homelessness is on the rise across the state and nation at large, according to a report recently released by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. In this state, one of the 31 states to see an increase in the number of homeless people from 2008 to 2009, homelessness increased nearly 27 percent. Nationally, the rate increased 3 percent, or by about 20,000 people, the report said.

Rev. Peter Antoci, the university's Episcopalian chaplain, said demand for homeless services in Prince George's County far exceeds the number of permanent shelters — only three exist and have limited capacity, he said, noting the importance ofmoving shelters that can reach a large number of people across the county.

Antoci said the St. Andrew's shelter was filled to capacity every night, noting that on some nights in the past guests have been turned away, which is why it's important a social worker be present to direct the individual or family to another available shelter nearby.

He said he's noticed a large increase in the number of homeless individuals and families over the last few years, citing the economic downturn as a likely reason.

Antoci said many homeless people from the District throughout the year — especially in the winter — wander onto the campus in search of a place to stay. But, he added, rates of homelessness in College Park are also much worse than many students realize.

"These needs are not remote," he said. "It's happening right here, right across the street from Route 1. This is an open campus. It's a bubble, but it's a permeable bubble. The university provides a lot of services in the community, but I don't think we've found enough ways to interact with the humans who need us."

Maureen David, a program coordinator for university relations and a member of St. Andrew's, has been coordinating student volunteers for more than five years and said the experience is a unique volunteer opportunity: Students did more than just set up beds and serve food.

"The other part of the whole experience is to sit down with them and talk with them," she said. "One of the best things the college students do is sit and talk with those people. One student stayed until 10 o'clock at night because he was talking to a guest."

Emily Apatov, a public policy graduate student who volunteered at the shelter, said she was amazed at the guests' high spirits, especially a man named Rodney who she spoke with for much of the night.

"It was mostly just a challenge for me to understand how he can be so grateful for all that he has even though it's so little," she said. "It was hard for me to wrap my head around that."

Antoci said volunteering at the shelter gives students a brief but critical glimpse into poverty.

"It helps people experience a broader dimension of humanity than they would in the course of a normal day," he said. "It's more than just what you see and read in a book. The point is to intersect with other human lives."

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