Every evening during the winter, DeKalb’s emergency refuge, Public Action to Deliver Shelter, opens its doors to the homeless.

Starting at 7 p.m., people drift into the sparsely furnished parsonage at the First United Methodist Church, 311 N. Fourth St., DeKalb. Since its opening in October 1987, the parsonage has provided sanctuary to 167 people.

On a typical night at PADS, anywhere from eight to 12 people gather together for an evening meal before settling down to sleep on twin mattresses spread on the floor. PADS‘ policy is never to turn away anyone.

Guests are the homeless. Most of the people at PADS are men in their 30s, although the shelter has housed a variety of people ranging from a three-week-old baby to a 98-year-old man. They come for a free meal and a warm place to sleep. They also come because the shelter’s environment is not threatening.

As they eat goulash and creamed corn from paper plates, most joke and talk to each other. They talk about the present, swapping stories. Andrea Rusin, director of PADS, moves comfortably among them—filling plates, joking and inquiring about health.

“They come to PADS needing hospitality most—someone to talk to, a place where they know they are safe and have friends,” Rusin said. “Most are temporary, but we do have people who will need PADS the rest of their lives.”

Behind the jokes lies the haunting desperation of people scarred by poverty and homelessness. Some are temporarily unemployed or working in marginal jobs. Others, because of alcoholism, drug addiction or mental illness, are unable to hold jobs. Survival in a hostile environment is the common denominator and primary concern.

“I’ll tell you what the problem is,” said a bearded man in his 30s, who asked not to be identified because he said his friends do not know he is homeless. “We ain’t got no place to hang for 12 hours.”

Because PADS is only open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. during the winter, the homeless must find warm places to stay in the daytime.

“We don’t have anyplace to go,” said Ann Williams, an occasional guest at PADS who has been homeless since last October. “Sometimes we go to a public building or restaurants that don’t mind if you drink water for two or three hours.”

Williams said she lost her job when her employer discovered she was five months pregnant. The state took custody of her two school-aged children because she could not afford to care for them.

Up to eight people per night can sleep at the emergency shelter. If more people need a place to stay, PADS provides a motel room. Guests can stay at the shelter for as long as they need.

House rules include no violence, no alcohol, no belligerent behavior, no drugs and no smoking. Behavior problems are rare. So far, only one person has been asked to leave, after he physically threatened a handicapped individual, Rusin said. The DeKalb Police Department has offered its assistance, but its help has not been needed.

Nine area churches provide about 400 volunteers each year to supervise the guests and to prepare meals using donated food. The Newman Center provides about 150 of student volunteers per year.

Illinois has an estimated 400,000 homeless people, said Beverly Hoover, president of the Illinois Coalition for the Homeless. Only 20 percent of these people are mentally ill, Hoover said. The rest are families and single people who are unemployed or whose incomes are too low to afford renting a place to live.

“The largest percentage of homeless are those who have (lost their jobs) gone through unemployment and now are without income,” Hoover said. “They have never been on welfare and do not know how to access the system.”