Metanoia Project helps the Homeless

By Artie Price

The Metanoia Project at St Malachi School is open Friday through Monday nights from 7pm – 7am, and any night between Mid-November and Mid-April when the weather gets extreme.

When they are open, homeless people can come in and eat, and sleep on cots and mats on the floor. Many nights they have meals. They offer showers in the evenings and coffee in the morning. Other services they provide are helping people get Social Security cards and birth certificates. They help with finding housing for individuals. Sometimes there are doctors and nurses there. The doctors and nurses give flu shots and give people physicals. 

People who need to sleep at Metanoia come in at all hours of the night. They get something to eat and then go to bed. There are many reasons people come to Metanoia to sleep. One is that people lose their houses. Some have had problems with drugs or alcohol.

Everyone gets up at 5:30 am. They are served breakfast at 6:00 and they are ready to leave at 6:50 am. They usually have around 80 guests every night and people are very happy to be able to sleep inside. It is a very nice place to stay if you are homeless and have nowhere else to go.

Carl Cook is trying to make things better for people experiencing homelessness. Carl has been doing it for a long time and he was homeless himself at one time.

Father Tony lets me come down to volunteer to help out the homeless twice a month. I usually go on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I love helping at Metanoia, because God told me to and I love to help people out and it makes me feel good. I know when I get down, someone will help me because I helped others. I volunteer and hand out blankets. We give them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before bed. We also give them coffee. On Saturday mornings we serve them a hot breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausages and toast.

All of the staff are good people. There are around eight people who come in and volunteer every night. They help clean, they help cook, they help set up and they help get the tables back up and the room back together in the morning.

Metanoia is a great service for the community. Many people work together to provide services for those that are homeless.  Different churches come in and bring food and provide the evening meals. They have prayer circles are for whoever wants to join. 

They are trying to get funding to keep Metanoia open all year for individuals who don’t have a place to sleep at night