Homeless find shelter at Easter brunch in Santa Rosa

Robert Campbell is struggling.

The 55-year-old Chicago native is struggling with addiction, despite having kicked his crack cocaine habit several years ago.

He’s struggling to find a job, and his meager unemployment benefits are about to run out.

And he’s struggling to find housing, sleeping in a different church each night through the Redwood Gospel Mission’s nomadic shelter program.

So Campbell was grateful for the chance to spend Easter Sunday morning out of the rain and in a room full of people going out of their way to make him feel good.

“Sometimes just the act of reaching out can really touch you, and remind you that people care,” Campbell said. “That’s really easy to lose sight of.”

Campbell appreciated the meal of spiral-cut ham, macaroni salad, mixed-green salad, and fresh-cut fruit that he and dozens of other needy folks enjoyed Sunday morning at the Davis Street school building where SOMA Church Community holds services.

Turnout at the annual brunch, now in its 10th year, was a little light, likely due to the rain and new location. For most of its history the event has been held in Old Courthouse Square, which is under renovation. So church volunteers boxed up meals and took them down to the nearby underpasses, where the homeless congregate.

Pastor Paul Ortlinghaus said he knows that some, including city officials, frown on handing out food and supplies to the needy in those areas out of a concern that it creates litter and reinforces the impression of the areas as sanctioned encampments.

But Ortlinghaus said members of his church are not trying to solve the homelessness problem, just to practice their faith in a tangible way.

“At the end of the day, for me and my family, we just want to love people,” Ortlinghaus said.

That sense of service to others was on display everywhere Sunday, including at other events put on by homeless services organizations.

Thanks to the morning prep work of Kristen Ortlinghaus and helpers, the kitchen of the school was overflowing with food, seemingly beyond the rainy-day demand.

Church members squeezed past a long table in the school’s central hallway capable of seating 100, offering people trays of muffins and refills of coffee. A little girl in a bright Easter dress carried a basket full of colored eggs she offered to all.

Campbell said the generosity means a great deal, he hopes for more. It is hard for him, because he is something of an introvert, to be in confined spaces with lots of other people indefinitely, even though he knows that for his recovery that’s probably the best thing for him.

What he really needs, he said, is a modest place to live while he gets himself back on his feet.

Someplace like The Palms Inn, the 104-room Santa Rosa Avenue motel that was turned into permanent housing for homeless, would be just the thing, he said.

“I think that that kind of a place would be perfect,” Campbell said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207.