Pictured is Courtney Sainer and Marj Mullins (Photo by Elisa Walker)

WARSAW — With the holiday season quickly approaching, it is important to take a step back to remember those who aren’t as fortunate. Homelessness knows no season and the process of giving shouldn’t be either. Occasionally purging a closet of clothes, volunteering some time or donating canned goods can make some lives a little easier.

The contributing factors to homelessness is a much wider variety than popular belief. Some people may be unexpectedly laid off from work, some may be physically or mentally disabled, some may suffer from sickness that prevents them from working, some may have difficulty finding a job after being incarcerated and some may be escaping from an abusive household.

Others may have been turned out by family members who reject them for various reasons, leaving them with hardly anyone to turn to. While getting a job appears to be the answer to all of their problems, almost half of the recorded homeless people already hold jobs. These jobs just happen to not provide a living wage where people can afford a home, pay bills or buy groceries. While it is easy to think that opportunity knocks on everyone’s door, it’s important to remember that nobody comes from the same neighborhood, background or life.

Eric and Tammy Lane founded the Fellowship Mission six years ago. The mission is a 24/7 facility for those struggling without a home and provides multiple resources to help people get back on their feet.

“We look at the person when they first get here and see what hurdles they need to tackle first.” explained Eric Lane. “I want to educate people that it’s not just, ‘oh they need to get a job and they’ll be fine’. They may not have an I.D., a cell phone, a bank account or an address. If you don’t have those things, you don’t get a job.”

“We take a lot of things for granted.” Lane sighed. “We probably had parents or someone who taught us how to do that. They taught us we need bank accounts, we need to budget, we need all these things but there’s a lot of people who never had that. People don’t choose to live like this.”

Lane goes on to express how many single parents with children come through the facility. In the present day and age, it is nearly impossible to live off of a singular income while raising two or three children. The facility is usually at 97-98% capacity all year round, like many shelters, but the national number shown for homelessness doesn’t include the unseen people who live in cars, abandoned buildings, tents and friends’ couches.

Homelessness is a national issue that can be helped by locals taking initiative within their communities. Contrary to negative stereotypes many highly educated individuals, some with law degrees, come through Fellowship Mission. Being homeless is not a cookie-cutter situation as many people have different reasons as to why they’re going through a rough time in their lives.

“We want people to get involved in people’s lives, create friendships. We can all make a difference somewhere.” Lane shared. “Some people’s contribution can be monetary, some can be a physical resource like food and clothes and others just have the gift of time.”