Jim Hale, a genial, middle-aged man with an eagerness to help and to share, got stuck in Burlington by accident, but he’s making the best of it.

Along with more than 700,000 people nationwide and about 129 people in Alamance County, he is homeless.

About a month and a half ago Hale, a Wisconsin native, was “driving semi” with his brother from North Carolina to California when he got left behind at a truck stop.

“[My brother] thought I was sleeping in the sleeper of the truck, but I was taking a shower at the Flying J,” he said. “He was in Charlotte when he figured it out, and he had to deliver the load to California in two days.”

Hale talked to some friends and the Red Cross and discovered Allied Churches, a non-profit agency in downtown Burlington with an emergency night shelter, free lunches and a Christian Assistance Network that sometimes helps people pay for lights, gas and prescriptions.

The one-story building is on North Fisher Street, a one-way street between W. Webb Avenue and W. Holt Street. The cement front steps lead inside to the check-in window, where Cynthia Griffin, the night manager, sits every night between 7 and 7:30 p.m. to sign in guests.

Bobby Clark, the tall, well-dressed and soft-spoken director, gives a “50 cent tour” to reporters.

The modest dining room feeds 70 to 80 homeless and low-income people per day at lunchtime­—more during the summer when kids are out of school, he said.

Volunteers, two professional chefs and a work crew of residents, of which Hale is sometimes a part, run the kitchen daily. The residents’ board, which is $2 per night after the first 14 nights, is deferred for their work.

The shelter has a men’s dormitory with 44 bunked beds, and one for women with 22 beds.

“We have extra mattresses for overflow,” Clark said. “We’ve put them in the dining room and day room some nights.”

Though most guests have to be out by 7 a.m., some are allowed to stay during the day under special circumstances.

“Parents and children and people with medical conditions or second or third shift jobs are on a stay-in list,” Clark said.

An employee of Allied Churches, who requested not to be named, noted the lack of support for the homeless in Burlington.

“County and city governments in this area are not really supportive of homeless people financially,” he said. “Our support comes from the community, individual donors, church donations, some Federal support and the United Way.”

He noted that there are two other shelters in Burlington—one serving only women and one that is “completely religious-based.” Allied Churches has a small chapel room where churches held Bible studies until the room was needed for the storage of an overflow of donated items. Bible studies, Clark said, are now held in the lobby of the shelter.

As Griffin checked in a short line of guests Thursday night, one of the men in line, a short mild-mannered Asian-American man who spoke halted English, said he’d just gotten a job unloading trucks. He was to start that night. He received booming congratulations and handshakes from several other men waiting to be checked in who pulled him out of line to hear all of the details.

“Don’t be scared of these people,” Griffin said. She echoed the sentiments of Clark and other agency directors who, in their efforts at spreading awareness, remind the public that “homeless people are just like everyone else.”

“Some people are here just because we’re here,” Clark said. “The ones with real problems look and find work and a place to live. Some people are devastated to be here, some are terrified from what they’ve heard and seen on TV.”

Some people, he said, just try to make the best of it.

“Soon as I get the money raised I can go back home,” Hale said. “My friends in Wisconsin are trying to raise money for me.”

Meanwhile, he helps out Griffin at the night shelter and spends his days either at the drop-in day shelter in Graham or working in the Allied Churches kitchen.

News Editor: Kaitlin Ugolik - 12/05/07