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Editor's Note: The following is the seventh in a series of articles investigating the homelessness issue in Randolph County.
ELKINS -- For local people who face the issue of homelessness, it can seem as though not many care about their situation or want to help them in any way. However, there are still those willing to step forward and lend a helping hand.
Mary English, also known as the "Street Shepard," is a chaplain and a ministry leader in Celebrate Recovery in Elkins, a 12-step Christian-centered recovery organization.
English said she has been working to help those in dire need for around eight years now.
English said her journey toward helping others began when she was invited to Celebrate Recovery in Philippi, a place that deals with "hurts, habits and hangups." She explained that, through the organization, she was able to get through the "hurts" in her life, and then felt the need to "share the good news."
One day, English received a call from a friend, informing her of a young woman who had been kicked out of her home and was now homeless. When asked to help the young woman, English did not hesitate.
"So I met with (the young woman) and started sharing with her, and just talking to her and she started sharing things with me," English told The Inter-Mountain. "I gave her a Celebrate Recovery Bible and I was able to get her into rehab, long story short, and ever since then I've just had a passion to help people out on the streets, people of addiction, homeless..."
After becoming a ministry leader in Celebrate Recovery in Elkins, English said she would notice people walking through town with backpacks and their heads down with their hoodies pulled up, even in the summer. She said she began to pray for those people and then began walking the streets to pray for them in person.
English, alongside Roberta Grey, who English met through Celebrate Recovery, have both been involved in Prayer Walks, ministering those on the streets. Grey said they use the walks to help learn more about peoples' situations.
"Just so we can meet them," Grey told The Inter-Mountain. "Find out, are they really homeless, do they really have a place to live? Do they need food? Why don't they have a job? Why don't they have a home?"
Grey said one of the main issues is that many people on the streets do not have proper identification, making it impossible for them to apply for a job or even go to the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
English and Grey both agree that the issue of homelessness in the area has grown more serious over the years.
"A friend of ours says, 'Well the church has failed the community,'" Grey said. "No. The community, the officials... and the church have all failed. Because we all think it's the other one's problem and it's all of our problem. We all need to come together as a community and resolve this issue."
Grey explained that when she and English met, they would fill up backpacks full of food, socks, personal hygiene products and more on Celebrate Recovery nights and leave them at the back door of the congregation for those who needed the bags, but were not willing to come inside.
"Some of them did stay eventually," Grey said. "Some of them did come in. Some of them we did get to help and introduce them to other people, other resources to get them help."
When Grey was deployed by the U.S. Army in 2017, she received blankets almost every week from the Red Cross, and socks from companies that she was not allowed to wear as they were not military standard. Not needing the blankets in "120 degree" weather and not wanting to see the socks be thrown away, Grey said she bought trunks and began sending them back to Elkins.
When Grey returned from her service, she and English would pass them out to people in need in the middle of the night. They also handed out toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, body wash, sleeping bags, tents, Bibles and more.
They have also devised a book of resources to help those in need find places to get certifications for free, go to school for free, find places to live, to buy a car and more.
"We just got into spending as much time as we could trying to figure out how to make life better for these people," Grey said.
She explained that while many people believe you can turn "a blind eye and a deaf ear" to the issue of homelessness and make it go away, the problem only grows.
"We have to, as a community, not City Hall and all them and not the churches, but as a community, we need to come together and resolve this problem before it gets any worse than it does," Grey said. "Because it could be your brother or my child or whoever it could be. Sometimes it just takes losing a job and boom, in a month you're out (of a home),"
English relayed the story of an elderly woman she helped who had become homeless after her husband died. She explained that the woman had no issue with addiction or anything else, but was simply unable to pay rent after her husband passed and because of that, she lost her place of residence. Eventually, English said the family of the woman were able to come and get her.
"Don't turn a blind eye to them and don't look down on them like they're the scum of the Earth," English said. "I had a church lady one day ask me, 'What do I say to a homeless person?' and I was like, 'They're human. They're just like you and me. You don't know what their story is, and just because they might smell bad or look bad, they're human.'"
For more information or to contact English, call 304-940-4549 or email sterwolf30499@yahoo.com.