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STORIES OF THE ANN ARBOR HOMELESS

Welcome to the Front Porch

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4 MONTHS

3 STORIES

1 HOUSE

© Elana Ho

On a given night, 550,000 Americans are homeless.

In Washtenaw County, 354 people are homeless every night. 

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Behind each of these numbers is a person who has a story, and yet our hearts gasp to catch up with this.

 

Too often, when we hear the word homeless, all we see is the label. How often do we see the person? Homelessness defines people by what they lack, not all that they are.

 

The Front Porch Project is an attempt to rectify that - to give people who have experienced homelessness the chance to tell their stories, to be seen for all that they are, rather than what they aren't.  Made up of a collection of interviews from Ann Arbor residents who have experienced homelessness, many of these interviews took place on or near Mercy House’s front porch. Just as a front porch is a place of entering, of conversing, of dwelling, my hope is that you would not just hear these stories, but dwell in them and allow them to enter your heart.

 

These stories are a snapshot of what it means to be homeless in Ann Arbor, but more than that, what it means to be human and all the grief, glory, and wonder in-between.

The Stories

The Stories

JUSTINA
"I was completely and utterly broken in half by the time I was 21."
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KRISTIAN
""You know, you take that for granted - how hard it is to breathe? I had to start all the way back over."
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GRACIE
"That completely changed the dynamic. I realized: I'm going to get through this by showing people compassion."

© Elana Ho

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About Mercy House

The interviews for all 3 stories took place at Mercy House. Mercy House is a house of hospitality in Ann Arbor that offers shelter, warm meals, laundry, and shower facilities to the homeless. But it's so much more than that. 

Read more to learn more about the story behind Mercy House and special moments witnessed in the house.

© Elana Ho

The Context

The stories Justina, Kristian, and Gracie shared are uniquely their own. At the same time, they exist in the broader story of homelessness in America. Putting their stories into context helps us gain a deeper understanding of their lived experience of homelessness in Ann Arbor in light of the overall state of homelessness in America.

Take Action

Homelessness is a solvable issue.  Justina, Kristian, and Gracie teach us from their stories that whatever our circumstance, we can still make an impact and move forward. Learn more about ways you can personally take action on homelessness in Washtenaw County: from reading about the causes/effects of homelessness to volunteering to getting engaged in advocacy.

Conclusion

Conclusion

If there’s anything you’re taking away from this project, I hope it’s this: we all need grace for our stories. 

The stories Justina, Kristian, and Gracie shared are messy and gritty and beautiful. They are full of personal mistakes and failures. That doesn’t make them any less worthy - that just makes them human.

Everyone deserves housing, not because of anything they’ve done, but because housing is simply a human right. 

In creating this project, I talked with Bryce Allmacher, management assistant at Ann Arbor Housing Commission. One quote from our conversation really stuck out to me: 
“As I’ve grown in my role here, I’ve abandoned the notion that I’m working for a population without fault because it’s not true and I wouldn’t try to cast that on any other population in the world because then they wouldn’t be human. Relationships in life are just to give people the grace that no matter what expectation you may have for them, they’re human beings just like you and me. Despite their circumstances, we’re the same people.” 

The stories Justina, Kristian, and Gracie shared teach me more of what it means to be human: To taste the bitterness and brokenness of life and turn it into beauty. To not be afraid to ask for help because we all need it and we are nothing without grace. To believe in the power of new beginnings, even if it means starting over - over and over again. 

Most of all, they teach me what it means to be worthy. That we are worthy - regardless of what people think of us, what happens to us, or what we do. 

They teach me that being human is about being broken and yet oh so beloved. And no matter how many times we forget, that truth is always ours, ready for us to return to.

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