Warming shelter at Wisconsin parish builds bonds of trust, community
On Tuesday mornings, Laurie Pollack leads a group of men and women in a Bible study. Together they pray through a Scripture passage, offer their personal reflections, and share where God is working in their lives.
In many ways, the Bible study may seem unremarkable – a mirror of countless similar groups across the country.
But there is one striking difference. Apart from Pollack and two other parishioners from her Oshkosh, Wisconsin parish, the attendees are homeless.
Pollack is the coordinator of pastoral outreach at Most Blessed Sacrament Parish, which has a particular connection to the local homeless population. When a group of concerned residents decided to open a seasonal warming shelter, the parish lent its retired school building to the cause.
In 2021, it was estimated that there were about 200 homeless individuals in Oshkosh, where temperatures frequently drop below freezing in the winter.
The Day by Day Shelter opened its doors at Most Blessed Sacrament on October 15, 2011, offering guests dinner and a warm place to sleep through Wisconsin’s coldest months.
The school building was supposed to be a temporary solution for the shelter, which would reopen every October through April. But Day by Day’s board of directors encountered community opposition in securing a new location.
“What was supposed to be a six-month space turned into 12 years,” Molly Yatso Butz, executive director of Day by Day since 2020 and previously a board member, told The Pillar.
And what began as lending a building turned into a long-term relationship between parishioners and guests of Day by Day.
Today, in addition to the weekly prayer group, Pollack and the Day by Day staff host a yearly memorial service for homeless guests and friends of guests who have died over the years.