Being a vocation director necessarily limits the kind of ministry I do, but recently I had an experience that may resonate with some of you who desire a way to follow in the footsteps of Father Damien in this country and in this particular time of economic distress. My experience began when I learned from a newspaper article in the local New Bedford newspaper, that the local Homeless Service Providers’ Network was seeking volunteers for a 24 hour mission of contacting and counting all the homeless people in the city of New Bedford, the city I see across the Acushnet river from the town of Fairhaven.

The official reason for the count was to provide a reliable, current statistical figure of homelessness demanded by the federal government from every city and locality in the USA one day a year as a means to determine funding for the homeless. But for those who volunteered in this one day mission, there was another motiviation: to contact and to help the poorest of the poor. Looking at my photograph of Damien, I knew that I had to say “yes.” I had to be a volunteer. For weren’t the homeless the ones whom Damien would be assisting, if he were present now?

Because I lived at one time in the South End of the city

I was made part of a team to reconnoiter the South End in what must have been one of the coldest days of the year. I was part of a team of three. The others, Rosemary and Jessica, were much more experienced than I, since they work with the homeless on a daily basis in one of New Bedford’s homeless shelters.

Left:Rosemarie, Right: Jessica

Our first step was to report to the hall that was being used that day as launchpad for over 70 volunteers who were contacting the homeless that day. The large room had nametags, food, maps, flashlights, pamphlets, and some articles of clothing to offer any homeless persons we encountered.

But the best gift they gave us were some coupons from McDonald’s that we could offer to those who were in need, even if they refused to be interviewed.

We began by setting out for Fort Tabor, the bathhouses, and Salisbury Street, all places where the homeless had been sighted before. We didn’t find any homeless people, but we did find a place where they had slept under the bathhouse.

And we gave to anyone who had seen and talked to homeless people our “Street Sheets,” that listed all the resources in the city for people who were homeless or were threatened with homelessness. At one point, while casing the rundown area of County Street, we heard about an older Hispanic man who had been hanging around, but we never found him. We could only hope that the bar owner who sometimes fed him would share the Street Sheet information written in Spanish that we gave him. In the previous year, three homeless people had been approached and convinced to come off the street during the street count. Jessica and Rosemarie told me that there was always a danger that one of the homeless people would otherwise freeze to death,which happened to one unfortunate homeless man last year. The problem is that many of the homeless fear being “outed” or arrested, and therefore avoid having contact with anyone with the look of the official establishment.

When we returned after three hours of a mostly futile search, we were greeted and thanked by the managers of the project, Lisa and Fred, who thanked us for our effort, despite the fruitlessness of our search.

But I was impelled to ask why a cold day in winter was selected for this yearly count, since obviously the homeless, during the coldest times, would find a way to be indoors by sleeping in someone’s basement or doubling up in a friend’s apartment. One cynic among the volunteers told me that HUD forced them to choose that day, because the low street count made the government look more effective than it was. Could this be true? Perhaps. After all, we do live in a country that gives millions to distressed millionaires and a pittance to those who are at the bottom of the barrel. Damien knew the same reality, which is why he was sometimes called a “troublemaker.” May we find more troublemakers with the same passion for the poor that Blessed Damien of Molokai had.