People staying at Eau Claire’s Sojourner House are thankful for the shelter, especially this winter, when residents of this region endured record-setting cold. But that doesn’t mean staying at the shelter is easy. It requires sobriety. It requires a willingness to admit to homelessness and to accept help. And it means living and eating and sleeping in close quarters with strangers, many of whom deal with mental and physical health issues.

 

“I’m grateful this place is here, but I can’t say I like it,” said one pregnant woman in her early 20s who spent a couple of weeks at the shelter this winter before finding another place to stay. “The beds are right on top of one another. There’s no privacy. I’ve seen more naked body parts here than I ever thought I’d see.”

__________

 

Laughter sounded from the TV in the Sojourner House gathering room on this February Saturday night, a stark contrast to the grim mood among the people gathered there.

 

It had been another tough January day, another extremely cold day during this extraordinarily cold winter. When they could afford it, many of these people without homes of their own spent time at hotels, a break from shelter life. But that drained their bank accounts, forcing their returns to Sojourner.

 

Earlier that day heavy snow pelted Santiago DeMars, turning his brown beard white, as he slowly made his way along the snow-covered sidewalk from Sojourner to The Community Table, one footprint in the snow after another. The acrid smell of a rubber-producing company operating in the old tire plant grew stronger as DeMars approached his destination. As DeMars, 37, neared Banbury Place he passed Dan Korn’s snow-covered van and school bus, the vehicles Korn calls home.

 

Despite the cold, snowy conditions, and despite the fact DeMars’ life has crumbled during the past decade as his aspirations of college and a profession collapsed into drug use and homelessness, he remains relatively upbeat. He thoughtfully discusses topics ranging from international affairs to national politics to issues impacting Eau Claire’s homeless population.

 

On this day, as he entered The Community Table for a noontime meal, DeMars talked about the homeless colleagues around him.

 

“This crowd fights a lot of issues,” he said. “We battle drugs and alcohol. We have mental health issues. We don’t always make wise choices with the little money we have. We don’t have the answers. But we try.”

 

Later that night, as DeMars sat amid others spending the night at Sojourner House, the wear and tear of another day wandering the cold streets, of a relentless winter, had dampened even his usually upbeat spirit. He sat dejectedly amid the somber shelter gathering, shook his head and said, “This winter is getting all of us down.”

__________

 

As winter progressed, Eau Claire’s homeless residents struggled to find places to stay warm during the day, when Sojourner House was closed to them. They stayed anywhere and everywhere that offered them a refuge from a winter that seemed ever harsher.

__________

 

Dusty Soulier lay upon the unforgiving, frozen surface of the downtown Eau Claire parking ramp, wrapped in a sweater, winter coat and stocking cap, trying in vain to sleep as wave after wave of bone-searing cold emanated through the concrete structure and into his shivering body.

 

Soulier, 27, made his way from Minneapolis to Eau Claire last summer, in large part, he said, because the city offered a refuge from the mean streets of Minneapolis, where he recounted numerous beatings he endured.

 

“When you’re 5-foot-4 and have tattoos in the inner city, that’s going to happen,” he said.

 

Since arriving in Eau Claire, Soulier hasn’t faced brutal physical confrontations. He has sought and sometimes found work through a temporary employment service, stacking crates of beer despite a shoulder injury.

 

Despite having spent much of his life surrounded by dysfunction, alcohol, drugs and crime, Soulier has goals and dreams. He hopes to attend college one day, to obtain an education allowing him to open a shelter of his own that provides homeless people and others down on their luck with the help they need to get on their feet.

 

But Soulier knows he has a steep climb ahead to get to that point. He’s trying to put his difficult past behind him, determined to earn enough money to one day afford a home of his own. He said he doesn’t have any form of medical insurance or other benefits. He said he doesn’t want them.

 

“You do what you’ve got to do,” Soulier said matter-of-factly of life as a homeless person. “It can be damn hard, but it’s what my life is right now.”

 

Soulier sometimes spent nights at Sojourner House. But on other occasions, according to shelter policy, because he had been there for more than three months, Soulier was shown the door on nights when the shelter was full. On this night, shortly after 10 p.m., he slung his backpack over his shoulders and headed out onto the cold streets.

 

Now, four hours later, Soulier was just plain tired, unable to sleep as the bitter temperature dropped ever lower amid his harsh stone surroundings. He pondered his difficult past and the events that had led him to this dark, desolate night. The full force of his desperate situation, the depths of his loneliness, enveloped him like his frozen surroundings. He hoped his determined spirit would see him through to another morning.