After years of living out of his van and in an Oakland storage unit, Harrison Coleman now feels at home with a new bed and brown leather couch from Grateful Gatherings.
It wasn’t an easy road for him to get here.
The priest, Missouri native, and veteran of the Air Force never imagined he would end himself homeless. He had always toiled to make ends meet, taking on odd jobs while attending San Francisco State University to study theology and American Baptist Seminary of the West to obtain his master’s degree.
In addition to having friends and a community, he was trying to establish his own Sacramento congregation.
However, he found it difficult to get traction there, and in spite of his best efforts, Coleman ended up living on the streets of Oakland for more than two years, from May 2021 to August 2023.
God puts us through hardships. We must be strong enough to come out. According to Coleman, God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.
He was brought to a temporary shelter after suffering a heart attack that sent him to the hospital. One of the most important steps in Coleman’s recuperation was being assigned to a senior housing complex. However, obtaining a bed was his second top goal after weeks of sleeping on the floor.
In contrast to the ironing board Coleman used to rest his head on while living in a U-Haul shed, Grateful Gatherings intervened at that point and gave Coleman a couch, bed frame, brand-new mattress, and sheets.
According to Donna Wright Somerville, executive director and co-founder of Grateful Gatherings, “the safety of a home has such power.” Everybody has a strong desire to live in a house that feels safe and secure from the outside world.
According to Somerville, the group has been helping to furnish apartments for the previously homeless for over ten years, transforming a shelter into a place to care for and be proud of.
Somerville and Programs Director Christine Flitter founded Grateful Gatherings in 2013 after Somerville saw a local news story about a young child named Ayisha discussing homelessness over the holidays.
Somerville made sure Ayisha and her loved ones received Christmas dinner and gifts with the help of family. Only a few months later, Somerville used that network of support once more to assist with furnishing Ayisha’s new house.
Since then, more than 500 families in need have received desks, couches, pans, beds, carpets, framed pictures, and a variety of other household essentials from Grateful Gatherings.
“We hope that they will continue to look forward to this for themselves, a lovely home that is comfortable, has everything you need, and makes you feel worthy,” Somerville added.
Over time, the organization has changed. Families were asked what they wanted, and the materials were dropped off for the customers to unpack. The original idea was to furnish as many residences as possible in a single day.
Somerville and Flitter quickly came to the conclusion that families, who were frequently still in the midst of mayhem, needed additional assistance and care. After that, the objective was to completely unpack and furnish homes, placing clothes in new drawers, dishes in cupboards, and picture frames hanging, with a grand reveal to wrap up the process.
Families taught us that the more love and attention we provided them, the more prepared and ready they were to go home, the better they performed. According to Somerville, it was more about the boost they required at the moment.
Because of the change, more volunteers were decorating fewer homes. The organization’s queue started to expand quickly after that shift, which prioritized families above individuals.
Somerville stated that mini-gatherings were created since another shift was required. Mini gatherings, as opposed to big ones, were designed to give a few necessities to individuals like foster children growing up, veterans, and smaller households.
Coleman, who already had a dining room table, coffee table, lounge chairs, and a ton of art—mostly his own—to adorn the walls, profited from the second choice.
Coleman is still committed to getting well, but he is also thinking about ways he might help others, particularly the homeless people he has seen suffer on a daily basis.
Homelessness is a terrible situation. A lot of individuals are stupefied by it. “They’re stuck without any lifelines and they can’t believe the state they’re in,” Coleman said from his residence in Alameda. I was able to overcome that with the aid of this program. These folks came together and supported me as I moved on. Homelessness can be overcome. I’m no longer homeless, but I could have died that way.
Run by the East Bay Times, The Mercury News, and Bay Area News Group, Share the Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps collect money for charitable programs in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, giving East Bay residents hope, opportunity, and relief.
Through donations, Grateful Gatherings will be able to provide full and mini gatherings for ten households, assist with relocating and transportation costs, and give new beds, furnishings, and other necessities to families struggling to stay in their current homes.
You can either print and mail this form or visit sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate.
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