Julie Hall

Julie Hall

I’m the program manager at GraceFull Foundation, which is a small nonprofit that coexists with GraceFull Café in Littleton. Guests can pay what they can afford for a meal, even if that’s nothing.

This isn’t a soup kitchen. We’re a restaurant where anyone is welcome. We have clientele from all backgrounds. We’re trying to build healthy community. I feel passionately that fixing social ills isn’t only going to be solved by programs, but by human relationships.

I was living near downtown Littleton, and as I’d go running, I’d meet people living along the South Platte River. I met two young guys and invited them home to eat. Talking to them, I was so struck by how they had no plan of where to go or what to do, because their daily lives were consumed with survival.

I connected them with GraceFull Café, and once my youngest child started school, I asked for a job here.

It’s easy for some people to put those who are homeless in a category like they’re not quite human. But when you sit across a table from someone and eat breakfast together, you see their dignity and humanity and you hear what they go through.

I don’t think someone has less value because they’re living on the streets. We put so much value on having a house and a car and a good job, but how many people with all of those are miserable?

It’s so encouraging to see people climbing back up, and we celebrate that, but I’m also just glad to know people where they are right now.

There’s sorrow, too. You carry hard stories with you all the time. You can’t solve everything. Working with substance abuse, mental illness and homelessness, you can feel like you’re drowning. One very common theme in the people we serve is broken relationships. Divorce. Death. Dysfunctional families.

What does it take to get off the streets? A lot of people need to conquer addiction, but that’s hard without a home or a support system. It can mean saying goodbye to relationships they’ve come to rely on for companionship. How many people with homes had a New Year’s resolution to eat healthier or exercise, and end up blowing it off? We’re asking people to do something far more difficult than that.

To get an apartment without a housing program, most of which are backed up for years, you need to make three times the rent. And have a clean background. And have money for security deposits and lots more. It can be a very heavy lift.

If I had a magic wand, I’d create empathy at all layers of our society. I’d make everyone feel a level of responsibility for their fellow human beings.

We need more rehab programs and more housing, but those issues are so polarizing that we’ve lost sight of the dignity of a human life. We can all make changes where we are.

I invite everyone to come have a meal at GraceFull. Sit across from someone and talk to them. Everyone, even those of us who have homes, we’ve all been through a lot. We’re all navigating our own mental health.

We’re all recovering from something. Look out for one another.