By Gretchen Keiser

St. Anthony’s Church in Atlanta’s West End has become the first Catholic Church to open its doors as a night shelter for the city’s homeless.

Beginning Monday night the church at Gordon and Ashby Streets in southwest Atlanta, began providing a shelter in its basement hall for 30 men a night, giving refuge to those who had to be turned away from the downtown shelter at Central Presbyterian Church. During January, Central Presbyterian, in the shadow of the capitol’s gold dome, has had to turn away up to 40 people a night because its gymnasium had reached the maximum of 150 men. Starting this week, up to 30 men will be brought to St. Anthony’s by bus each night as the need for more space arises. The shelter will be open through March.

The men will be provided a place to sleep on the floor of the hall, which is used during the daytime for St. Anthony’s community lunch program. Volunteers who serve as shelter hosts for the night will sleep in a chapel. A simple meal of soup and sandwiches will be served at night and coffee and a roll will be given in the morning before the men are returned downtown by bus.

Opening the hall at St. Anthony’s is parish “recognition of a continually worsening situation in the city” as more and more people seem in need of shelter, said pastor Father John Adamski. “It’s part of the ministry of this church to try to do some small part” to help meet the need, he said.

More than a dozen churches in Atlanta and Decatur have already begun shelter programs ranging from the largest at Central Presbyterian to small scale shelters for families, women and men. The number of homeless in the city is unknown, but the need for more shelter space has been apparent since Christmas, according to Betti Knott, the executive secretary of the St. Vincent de Paul Society who has coordinated volunteers for the Central Presbyterian shelter for several years.

Last year, while no one knew for certain, the amount of space provided by churches “seemed” to be enough, Mrs. Knott said. Because of the experience of recent weeks, during which up to 40 people have been turned away, “we know this year that there just flat out aren’t enough” shelters, she said.

St. Anthony’s facility and location away from downtown creates some hurdles for the new shelter program, but “at least we can provide a building that will be warm,” Father Adamski said. “Maybe after we’ve been doing it for awhile we’ll find ways to improve what we can provide here” in the way of facilities.

For the parish the shelter program will mean the relocation of some evening activities to the rectory or the church itself since the hall will be occupied, but the program has received strong support from the parish council, Father Adamski said.

As with the other shelter programs, volunteers and donations will provide the heart of the service. Four volunteers a night will be needed to serve as overnight hosts for the shelter, staying from 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Those who will be guests at the shelter are expected to arrive between 7 and 8 p.m. each evening from Central Presbyterian and will leave at 6 a.m. the next morning.

In addition to those who want to serve as shelter hosts, the St. Anthony’s program will provide others an opportunity to prepare and serve supper to those who are guests. The smaller size of the program has prompted coordinators to invite families or small groups, such as prayer and study groups, to volunteer to fix and serve supper at the shelter on a particular night. The meal will consist of soup and sandwiches and will be served to the men as soon as they arrive at the shelter. Overnight volunteers will serve a simple breakfast the next morning.

“What we would like to do is to have people who cook the meal come down at around 6:30, and serve it,” said Billie Nye, a parishioner of St. John Neumann parish in Lilburn who is a coordinator. However, if people would like to provide food, but are unable to serve it, those coordinating will try to arrange for the food to be picked up. Donations of paper goods, cleaning supplies, kitchen staples and other items are also needed. The program also needs the use of two vans for transportation between Central Presbyterian and St. Anthony’s. Initially, a bus from the Open Door Community on Ponce de Leon Avenue will be used.

While the St. Anthony’s program is taking its first steps, those involved were buoyed by the response to their initial requests for help. “I’m really happy with just this first 24 house,” Mrs. Nye said of her first phone calls seeking food for the shelter. “I think there are a lot of people who want to help and are willing to help.”

The St. Anthony’s program also provides a new dimension to involvement by Catholics and parishes in the city’s shelter program. Since Clifton Presbyterian Church opened the first shelter four winters ago, people from Catholic parishes and schools have been increasingly involved in providing food and donations and, particularly, serving as volunteers at different churches. But until now no church had provided space to the shelter program.

“I think that’s it’s wonderful that it’s St. Anthony’s” Mrs. Knott said, since the parish has supported community service in its child care and lunch programs and has provided space for the central St. Vincent de Paul office.

Like the traditional definition of a sacrament, the opening of a Catholic church to the homeless is a witness to what prompted so many to work as volunteers, Mrs. Knott observed. It is “the outward and visible sign” of grace at work within.