Paige Hassen: JRN

The Process of Warming Shelters for the Homeless Population

The Isabella County Restoration House is an organization in Mount Pleasant, Mich. and the surrounding area that provides temporary shelter and helps both individuals and families in homeless scenarios. The ICRH just passed their 10-year anniversary as an organization and is only moving forward.

Working closely with the homeless population in Isabella County, warming shelters are part of a partnership between the ICRH and thirty-two churches in the area. Every week starting on Sunday, the ICRH team delivers overnight materials to one church for the week, with items like cots, mattresses, pillows, and sheets.

The partnered churches can house or choose to help supply meals for the residents for a whole week, Sunday evening to Sunday morning. Warming shelters take place overnight, from about 7pm to 8am, when the residents are then transported from the church back to the ICRH day shelter, due to the churches being needed during the day.

After 10 years as an organization, Dee Obrecht, Executive Director of the ICRH, and the ICRH team were able to secure their own building. Not fully ready to announce it to the public yet, Dee would first like to talk to their ‘new neighbors’ at the location of the building they just bought.

“We would like to have a sit down with our new neighbors and introduce ourselves and what we do, talk about how we will be good neighbors, and answer any questions that they have,” said Dee Obrecht.

Dee and the ICRH team would still like to have a partnership connection to the churches that host as warming shelters, since the overnight will no longer be needed through an outside source.

“We would like to ask them if they would like to still provide meals for a week or contribute to any donations,” said Dee. “We know that partnership is important, and we would like to keep it going,”

Renovations are projected to be ready by fall of 2024, when Dee and the team are planning to fully open to residents.

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My experience:

This topic was probably my favorite to pursue given it being a more serious subject that is not covered very often, from what I have seen at least. I reached out to Dee, and she met with me for a meeting right away. I took photos about five or six separate times, really focusing on something different each time I went.

The first was for the meeting, where I got some quick detail shots of the day shelter. Second came the set up for the first warming shelter I visited. Third was Thanksgiving morning, where I got to capture the prep of a meal for the residents and the meal itself. Fourth I was able to get photos of the second warming shelter, but this time was after it had already been set up and the cots had been slept in, which was an entirely new perspective again. Lastly, I wanted to get her portrait.

Dee was an amazing subject to work with. Although I could not get enough permission to work with a direct resident, I learned a lot about how to capture the topic sensitively while still getting the point across.

I not only was able to push myself creatively with this topic, but also that I learned a lot about the homeless population and warming shelters and was able to change some ways of thinking. So, I feel as though I grew in multiple areas, not just through my photography.