Office

Our most frequented service is that of our office. It is the most visited because it is the one place where our guests can get a large number of services.

The big service that we provide to people is the use of a telephone. We offer local, long distance, and international phone calls to anyone who walks in the door. There is usually a waiting list for this, so a lot of the guests just have a seat in the semi air conditioned office and hang out. We use phone cards for the long distance and international phone calls. I’m always amazed at the variety of places that people are from and have family in, and the number of long distance and international phone calls follows suit. We do get a fair amount of international calls, mostly people calling their families in Mexico.

There are a bunch of other things we provide for the guests out of the office. We have cabinets full of toiletry items- shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, tampons, etc. We offer over the counter medications- Tylenol, ibuprofen, Tums, aspirin, multivitamins. We have first aid supplies available to the guests for minor injuries. We give out blankets in the office- a person get a blanket from us every two weeks if they choose. We also give out sleeping bags.

Another popular program lately has been our work boot program. Many times a person cannot get a job without work boots, the employers require them for the work they do. This is where we step in. If a guest can bring us either a pay stub from employment or a letter from an employer stating that they have a job pending the requisition of boots, we will give them a voucher to Payless shoes for work boots.

As you might have guessed, this can be a crazy experience. Sometimes there are seven or eight guests crammed into this small office room, and they all want something different, and they all want it first. Plus, whenever you give one thing to one person, everyone else within earshot wants the same thing (cough drops are the most popular in this realm). It can be an exercise in diplomacy and patience. You might be thinking that I am good at neither of those things. This is true and a hence a good thing that I am not scheduled to be in the office at all. I do it occasionally for other people, but not on a regular basis.