Housing

A Seat at the Table: Group Brings Together Unhoused and Housed Folks at Railroad Park Picnic

Karl McMillian, 67, is trying to get off the streets before winter comes. (Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.)

Allison Strickland said everybody deserves to have a seat at the table.

“If you believe everyone deserves to have a seat at the table, you gotta make a table big enough for everybody,” said Strickland, director of community engagement for Urban Purpose.

On a comfortable early evening this week, Urban Purpose fulfilled that purpose, bringing unhoused persons to a table in Railroad Park to share a meal and polite conversation.

Strickland explained there were three ways to get a chair for A Seat at the Table. “The first way was to buy your meal for $15. The second was to buy your meal and other meals,” she said. “The other option was to accept a free meal that had been donated.

“The idea is that we leveled the playing field to give everybody a chance to enjoy a community event where everybody felt safe and comfortable, to engage and be a part of something.”

Jim McFarland has served as executive director of Urban Purpose since its beginnings in 2009. He said the event was supposed to be a relaxed, laid-back late afternoon to just hang out with folks.

Urban Purpose volunteer Beverly Kracke chats with a homeless man during A Seat at the Table. (Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

“Everybody’s got their traumas that occurred in life and created so much bad, I call it, juju,” McFarland said. “They need help with that, and they need counseling. We’ve got counselors that are very gentle in approaching things.”

Beverly Kracke is an Urban Purpose volunteer. Off and on, she’s worked with the program about a decade.

“I love Jesus and we’re all image bearers. We’re made in the image of God,” Kracke said. “Everyone on the streets is an image bearer. They have needs and they have names, and I care about both of them.

“It’s easier to walk by than it is to invest time,” she continued. “If you get to know people, you learn their name, you learn their stories, you learn their needs.”

Brandon Caulder, 39, of Columbus, Georgia, was among the homeless persons at the event. Not surprisingly, he said life on the street is difficult.

“It’s tough but it’s moving and that’s really the best way I can go about it,” he said. “It’s not easy but, somehow, we’re all getting through it.”

Brandon Caulder said he’s been robbed while he slept on the street. (Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.)

Sixty-seven-year-old Karl McMillian said he’s trying to get off the street.

“I’m trying to get a job,” he said. “I’m waiting on an ID and a Social Security card. That’s what I need. Somebody took me over near the hospital. They said they’d have been a job in eight days.

“That’s what I’m waiting on, to get the ID and a Social Security card,” McMillian said. “As soon as a get that, I’m coming off the street. I’m getting me a job somewhere. I’m coming off the street because I can’t handle this cold weather. And it’s gonna get cold.”

McFarland, a former contractor for HOAR Construction, said Urban Purpose serves homeless persons in a multifaceted, tiered way. That includes, among other things, transitional housing for men and a downtown day center called The Compound.

Urban Purpose Executive Director Jim McFarland. (Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.)

“It is a safe place where our friends can come and get a hot shower, take advantage of our laundry facilities, receive shelf-stable food, hygiene kits, (access) our clothing closet and anything else that they might would need,” Strickland announced during the event. “It’s a place where they can come and watch TV or play a board game and feel like a human.

“That’s what Urban Purpose does so well,” she continued. “We learn everybody’s name and everybody’s story, because we believe that everybody has intrinsic value and everybody deserves to have a seat at the table. That was what we did here tonight.”