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Real Life: At place for poor, business is booming
July 2, 2008
By Emily J. Minor
Sister Carleen Cekal [SSND]—a kind woman who views God's work as helping the homeless, every day, all day, no matter the burden—got her first inkling with the work boots.
She wasn't ordering as many pairs.
“The construction is slowing down and the housing is slowing down and people aren't working,” said Cekal, who runs St. Ann Place in West Palm Beach. “There's a real ripple effect.”
No more real estate market, to speak of.
No more jobs for people with few skills.
No more orders for work boots.
A lot of us, from top to bottom, are feeling the pinch these days. People are car-pooling, spending less on food, giving up the pool guy so they can keep the cable TV.
We can live with a green pool, right? But we have to watch Big Love.
So, how do you run a soup kitchen, when even the middle class is coming up short? You brace for the onslaught.
“I would say, in the last month, we’ve seen a major increase,” Cekal said.
At this small, busy center north of downtown West Palm, Cekal, of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, has worked her magic for nearly four years. Here, the working homeless can take a shower, get a sack lunch, and put in a request for work equipment, within reason, so they'll have the right stuff for the job.
Cekal thought hygiene and fresh clothing—they'll wash your clothes for you here—was important, especially in our South Florida heat, when she opened St. Ann on a shoestring budget in November, 2004.
And, quickly, the programs have grown right along with the needs.
The folks at St. Ann will help you get an ID. “You can't do anything these days without identification,” she says.
They’ll try to find you some permanent housing, if you have some income.
And they’ll listen. Again and again—although a lot of what people have to say isn’t all that pleasant to hear.
These days, St. Ann’s security guard sees the condition of the American economy first thing in the morning when he opens the gates at 6:30 a.m.
“This morning, there were 31 (people) waiting at the gate,” Cekal said. “That's triple what it was.”
To keep a handle on things, Cekal and her team developed a number system a while back. Each morning, they give out tickets, numbered one to 50, for showers and laundry.
Now, “by 8 o’clock, they’re gone,” she said.
In the early days, too, they would also notice a quiet period at the start of the month—“a little bit of a breather,” Cekal said. That’s when people get their government checks—a lot of Cekal’s clients receive disability income—so they have a bit of money.
These days? Cekal said they’re busy every day.
St. Ann, which is open Monday through Friday, handles mostly the individual homeless, although the occasional family does turn to them for help. Cekal says she has to pass those families along, usually to The Lord’s Place.
And while so many are struggling—and so many poor people are doing without even the basics—Cekal said she is heartened by what they still receive in way of support.
People might be cutting back.
The stock market might be a mess and the annual pay raise might stink and the backyard swimming pool might be green.
And still, the good folks who support Sister Carleen Cekal and her good cause are still there, for the most part.
“I haven't tracked it officially,” she said. “But I have to say, we’re not hurting as much as I thought we might be.”
The human heart, it seems, might know little about an economic downturn.