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
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© Elana Ho
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