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A New Hope Much to my amazement, this visit was

By: Stephanie Oliver completely opposite. The majority of
the residents were with us and the
New Hope Housing is a non-
profit agency in Northern Virginia fellowship was amazing. It was nice
committed to finding creative and to see these men come together with

lasting solutions to end the cycle of each other and with our group. They

homelessness by offering services to ate dinner with us and everyone
help change lives. One such solution seemed to have something to share.

is Gartlan House which provides I went with the intention of
permanent supportive housing for providing a blessing to these men and

eight chronically homeless adult men. left feeling that I was the one who had
The program serves residents able to received the blessing.

function well with no more than eight
hours of on-site support per day.

Through St. Stephen’s, I was

provided with the opportunity to visit
Gartlan House twice, so far. A group

of St. Stephen’s folks went to visit
with these men in December, 2016

and again in August, 2017. When we
visited the first time, we brought

dinner and a holiday gift for everyone.
The idea was that we would spend a

couple of hours engaging with the

residents and have dinner together.
Everyone we met was pleasant and
appreciative, but only one resident

actually joined us to enjoy his meal

and conversation.
When the opportunity arose

again in August, I was happy to join
again, but had been internally

wondering if we should just provide
them a meal and let it go at that.

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