Phil Cook

A young woman slowly entered the front door of Sunrise Mission in Alpena. Lowered eyes and quiet pleas were followed by several young children. The seven-year-old wet herself in the lobby, deeply frightened. All the kids were dirty and some shoeless, shaking and crying having quickly fled a traumatic situation.

Homeless shelters across Michigan and nationally are running full, but most are not equipped to house families or children.

I recently asked Michelle Bailey, the Executive Director of Sunrise Mission, if she’s seen an increase in needs in our community.

“We are facing a homelessness crisis that is only the beginning of an avalanche,” she said. Alpena agencies are reporting that there are currently 130 unsheltered individuals in the area: families, children, and individuals living in tents, abandoned buildings, vehicles, sheds and garages with the average age of seven for our homeless children.

“Sunrise Mission,” she said, “is running at max capacity with families, often upwards of 15 children. We are sheltering as many youths as we are able, and we are in desperate need of a much larger facility as we are forced to turn many away. We are busting at the seams.”

Even though Sunrise Mission has been serving Northeast Michigan for close to forty years, there are still many misunderstandings about their services.

All the guests are US Citizens, primarily native to Northeast Michigan; over 90% of our families and individual guests including domestic violence survivors are located within the city of Alpena prior to intake. Sunrise Mission does not bus guests into Alpena.

“We have sheltered pregnant mothers, new mothers with brand new babies, and we have witnessed several toddlers take their first steps at the mission. Most of our children are elementary school aged, but we’ve sheltered youth from teens through high school and those transitioning into adulthood.”

Sunrise Mission is open 24/7 and 365 days per year, even every holiday. It’s an 80-day customizable program providing guests with an opportunity to build new and sustainable lives for themselves, their families, and our community. These individual programs include participation in a developing educational center which requires life-skills classes and workshops that provide tools to build new lives and a path towards independent living. Other services include case management, connection to peer recovery coaches, medical services, mental health services and support, and extracurricular opportunities for children. Support groups, Bible studies, and tailored life plans are designed to cheer on the guests as they work hard in these opportunities. It’s a hand up not a hand out approach to end the cycle of homelessness in our city.

“Because we are not federally funded and are donor funded,” said Bailey, “we can choose to put our potential guests through a rigorous screening process. Able adults are required to maintain sobriety and gain employment. Children are enrolled in school and attend the Boys and Girls Club among other extracurricular opportunities.”

Unlike all other shelters in the area, Sunrise Mission does not provide “amnesty lockers” which are storage units for items that are not allowed in the building such as illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, alcohol, or weapons. Organizations using these boxes return the items to their owners as they re-enter the city each day. Sunrise Mission does not participate in this type of program.

I asked Michelle about the family I mentioned above. She said that “over the course of a month or so, the mom and all her children started making eye contact, smiling with us, cracking a few jokes occasionally and then the best of all started playing again and laughing with our other children. The singing and laughing of our children are the music of our shelter! Within our 80 day program, Mom gained and maintained full time employment, kids enrolled in extracurricular activities and they were able to stay in their respective schools, the children made new friends and gained support and confidence, and they went from having nothing, to gaining a car and a home of their own with sustainable income becoming positive neighbor contributors in our community.”

November is National Homelessness Awareness Month. Sunrise Mission has placed small donation boxes (constructed last year by the Alpena High School CTE classes) in locations around Northeast Michigan and hopes that the community will give generously to help meet this crisis.

Bailey said, “We are pleading for the support of our City, County, and community to help us increase our size to ensure we do not have homeless families, children, or individuals sleeping on our streets, in our parks, and in our communities which negatively impacts property values, businesses, overall city safety, and the beautiful perception that locals and tourists alike experience while spending time in our community.”

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines “community” as “joint ownership or participation.” We need to tackle this growing problem together.