Homeless shelter guests enjoy Christmas meal

The guests and staff at House of Hope, Danville’s only homeless shelter, enjoyed a full Christmas dinner Friday, thanks to Dot Walker, of First Baptist Church, and her daughter, Tammy Freeman.

Walker, who works part-time at the church and prepares dinner for its Wednesday night service, said the Rev. Stephen Cook asked her if she was available to see that the shelter guests had a good Christmas meal, and she said yes.

“My daughter and I did this together,” Walker said, gesturing toward dishes teeming with turkey and ham, stuffing, beans, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, yams and other goodies.

The shelter is housing nine men currently Director Steve Anderson said. Five of the men enjoyed the lunch at 1 p.m., and the others will be able to grab some leftovers when they get back from spending the day with family and friends.

People are allowed to stay at tye House of Hope for 30 days, and all guests have chores to do and must look for work. Anderson said he has found a shelter in Durham, N.C., that will offer guests long-term accommodations if they are interested in the programs it offers.

“We’ll even get them there, if they want to go,” Anderson said. “It’s a bigger city and has more job opportunities.”

Willie Paul said he is staying at House of Hope for a second time, and is having trouble finding work. He recently got out of jail, where he was sentenced to six months for not paying child support.

“I found a job, and was there part-time for three weeks; then they let me go,” he said.

Paul said the combination of a record and the lack of a drivers license makes it even harder for him to find work, despite the fact that he has 18 years of experience as a plumber.

Another strike against him is lack of a high-school education.

“I dropped out of school when I was 16 to go to work at Dan River Mills,” Paul said. “I felt I had to help my family out.”

He is worried that he’ll wind up back in jail if he doesn’t get a job soon, because he is falling behind on child support payments again.

“What purpose does that (putting him in jail) serve? I’m being punished for being broke and destitute,” Paul said. “I used to make $16 to $24 an hour; now I’d be glad to make minimum wage.”

Jason Johnson is at House of Hope because his family’s construction businesses is idle — he said there are a lot of bids out on jobs, but “no one is calling back.”

Johnson said the economy’s impact on the construction business has been brutal, noting that even a metal building company they used to do installations for has gone out of business.

“It’s really rough right now,” Johnson said, adding that he will try the shelter in Durham if he hasn’t found a job when his 30 days at House of Hope are over. “I have five years of building experience, and I do have a valid drivers license; I’ll try just about anything.”