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Georgetown University students Ryan Fan and Zohaib Khalid wanted to learn more about the homeless living in Georgetown, so for their Leadership class, they set out to create a video capturing some of their stories, feelings, and thoughts.

Here is what they learned.

Miss what, you ask? Our winter newsletter, of course!

It is packed to the brim with some amazing stories detailing the welcoming environment we create in the center, how it helped us house two individuals this fall, and an editorial piece by Dr. Ron Koshes, our psychiatrist. They all tie together, and we hope it will paint a picture detailing what we do, the challenges we face, and how we overcome them.

Hard copies of our newsletter are at the printer’s right now, but we could not wait to share it with you electronically. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to hear more about all of the amazing things that have been happening in our center!

On Monday, The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown celebrated Thanksgiving by catering a delicious meal for our homeless guests at Georgetown Ministry Center. As guests helped clean up the center at the end of the day, Ritz-Carlton employees were wheeling trays full of turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes, soup, and pie from the hotel on South Street to the Parish Hall in Grace Church right above our center. At 5:00pm, we opened the doors and our guests came flooding in.

Like last year, everyone’s favorite part of the meal was the butternut squash soup. Even Roy, our Outreach Director who was initially skeptical, tried it and loved it. Seriously, if you are in the neighborhood, go try it out!

We cannot think of a better way to spend Thanksgiving than with our neighbors from the Ritz-Carlton. Thank you so much to Judy Kim, the Assistant Director of Human Resources, for doing all of the planning and coordinating this year! Happy Thanksgiving!

David Raether, a former comedy writer for the sitcom Roseanne, became homeless. He later recounted his experience falling into and escaping homelessness in a memoir, from which this essay is adapted. Though his situation is different from that of many of our guests at Georgetown Ministry Center, the feelings are the same.

It’s a lengthy article worth the read, but here are some very poignant excerpts that I believe are how our guests feel every day:

When you become homeless, you face a number of practical issues. In fact, when you are homeless, all you face are practical issues.

Where am I going to sleep tonight?

What supermarket has the best samples today with the most protein in them?

How am I going to deal with rainstorms dumping water into my usual sleeping spot?

I have a job interview; I have clean clothes, but how can I make sure I don’t smell?

These are the issues you deal with on a daily basis. Dreary, boring, painful issues that relate directly to your body. And that’s because homelessness is a dreary, boring, and often painful condition.

Your days are very long. The rhythm of work followed by home is gone. It’s replaced by long stretches of empty time. No company, no conversation, no deadlines, nothing.

His daily habits also depict many of the habits of our guests:

A Saturday during my homelessness went like this.

I would wake up around 4 a.m., brush myself off, and wander around the streets for awhile until Starbucks opened. I’d spend what little money I had on coffee and hope someone left a copy of the Los Angeles Times so I could work the crossword puzzle. I’d wait. And wait. At 10 a.m., the Pasadena Central Library opens. I would walk up there and surf job websites and send off some resumes and read articles online during my allotted time until noon, or, if I was lucky, early afternoon.

That was the hard part of the day. I’d be hungry. Really hungry. A week since I had a real meal hungry. I’d walk over to Whole Foods on the Arroyo Parkway, which has good food samples on Saturdays, grab a cart, and pretend to shop. (It always helps to put some items in the cart to look the part.) The fruits are by the door – I’d grab a bunch of orange slices and watermelon chunks. Next I go upstairs to where the muffin bits and cheese chunks are and gorge as subtly as possible. I’d return the unpurchased items to their places in the store and exit.

By then it would be mid-afternoon. I’d dream of lying on a couch in a warm living room, watching college football. Instead I would walk to another public library to access the Internet. As the sun sets, I’d head to a coffeehouse in South Pasadena called Kaldi where I could find someone to talk with. It wasn’t the company of loved ones, but they were decent people who didn’t ask too many questions about my circumstances.

Night. At 8 p.m. I’d return to the Starbucks. I would find discarded copies of the New York Times and start working the crossword puzzle. And that was Saturday.

Sundays were the same, and so were Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. On public holidays, the libraries closed and I needed to find someplace else to spend my days.

We try to give the homeless individuals who find their way to Georgetown Ministry Center some of the answers to the practical questions: A pb&j or turkey and cheese sandwich will have protein. GMC has shower and laundry facilities, computers, phones, and doctors.

Even more than these basic services, we try to be a place for the homeless to belong, to feel connected to others, and to feel respected and safe. We rely on everyone — staff, guests, and volunteers — to create a welcoming atmosphere. Almost every day we have programming that ranges from movies to yoga classes to a knitting group to a counseling group that everyone is welcome and invited to be a part of.

All of these services and programs together help us create positive change in the lives of the individuals we meet, like S. and J., who moved into housing within the past month. You can create a supportive and nourishing environment by volunteering in our center or winter shelter. Contact us for more information.

If you were at this year’s Spirit of Georgetown, you know that there are lots of cameras flashing. We posted some of the pictures soon after, but where, you might be wondering, are the rest?

Check out the photos by Alfredo Flores Photography in Capitol File. You might be in one of them!