With a new bed and brown leather couch provided by Grateful Gatherings, Harrison Coleman now feels at home after spending years living out of his car and in a storage unit in Oakland.
His journey to this point wasn’t easy.
The Missouri native, Air Force veteran and clergyman never thought he’d become homeless. He’d always worked to support himself, finding odd jobs while studying theology at San Francisco State University and earning his master’s degree from American Baptist Seminary of the West.
He had community and friends, and was working to build his own congregation in Sacramento.
But he struggled to build a following there and despite his best efforts, Coleman ended up spending more than two years of his life on the streets of Oakland from May 2021 to August 2023.
“God gives us trials and tribulations. We have to have the strength to come out. God will not give you anything you can’t bear,” Coleman said.
A heart attack put him in the hospital and from there he was taken to a temporary shelter. Being placed in an apartment building for seniors was a key step toward Coleman’s recovery. But after weeks of sleeping on the floor, getting a bed was his next priority.
That’s when Grateful Gatherings stepped in and provided Coleman with a couch, bed frame and brand new mattress and bedding, a far cry from the ironing board Coleman used to lay his head on while living in a U-Haul shed.
“There is such power in the safety of a home,” said Grateful Gatherings co-founder and executive director Donna Wright Somerville. “We all have a deep desire to have a home that feels like a refuge and feels like a safe place from the world.”
For more than a decade, the nonprofit has helped furnish apartments for the formerly unhoused, making a shelter into a home to care for and be proud of, Somerville said.
Grateful Gatherings was started by Somerville and Programs Director Christine Flitter in 2013 after Somerville learned of a little girl, Ayisha, talking about being homeless during the holidays on the local news.
Air Force veteran Harrison Coleman shows his master’s graduation portrait from American Baptist Seminary of the West at his new apartment in Alameda, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Coleman was unhoused for over two years, and Grateful Gatherings, a non-profit organization, provided him with some furniture. Grateful Gatherings offers new and used furniture to families and individuals transitioning from homelessness or crisis into a new home in the Bay Area. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Somerville, with support from family, ensured Ayisha and her loved ones had Christmas dinner and presents. Somerville tapped into that support system again just months later to help furnish Ayisha’s new home.
Since then, Grateful Gatherings has provided desks, couches, pans, beds, rugs, framed photos and an assortment of other household necessities to over 500 families in need.
“Our hope is that they will go forward always expecting this for themselves, a beautiful home equipped with what you need and that’s comfortable and makes you feel worthy,” Somerville said.
The organization has evolved over the years. The initial goal was to furnish as many houses as possible in a day so families would be asked what they needed and those items would be dropped off for the clients to unpack.
It wasn’t long before Somerville and Flitter realized families, who were often still in the throes of chaos, were in need of more care and support. The goal then became to fully furnish and unpack homes — putting dishes into cabinets, clothes into new dressers and hanging picture frames — with a big reveal to cap off the experience.
Air Force veteran Harrison Coleman, who was unhoused for over two years, talks about his life and Grateful Gatherings, the non-profit organization that provided him with some furniture, including the couch, where he is seated at his new apartment in Alameda, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Grateful Gatherings provides new and used furniture to families and individuals transitioning from homelessness or crisis into a new home in the Bay Area. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
“What we learned from families was that the more love and care we gave them, the more set up and completely ready to go their home was, the better they did. It was more about the boost they needed at the time,” Somerville said.
The shift meant fewer homes were being decorated by a greater number of volunteers. With that change and families becoming a priority over individuals, the organization’s waitlist began to rapidly grow.
Another shift was necessary, Somerville said, and that’s when mini gatherings were developed. Unlike a full gathering, mini gatherings were meant to provide a few needed items to people such as veterans, foster youth entering adulthood and smaller households.
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The second option benefited Coleman, who already owned a dining room table, coffee table, lounge chairs and plenty of art to decorate the walls, much of which are his own creation.
Coleman is still focused on making a full recovery but he’s also dreaming of ways to give back to others, especially the unhoused who he watched suffer daily.
“Homelessness is tragic. It stupefies so many people. They can’t believe the state they are in and without any lifelines, they’re stuck,” said Coleman from his Alameda apartment. “This program helped me come out of that. These people gathered around me and helped me move on. … Homelessness is not insurmountable. I could have died homeless, but I’m not homeless anymore.”
THE SHARE THE SPIRIT SERIES Share the Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by the East Bay Times, The Mercury News and Bay Area News Group that provides relief, hope and opportunities for East Bay residents by helping raise money for nonprofit programs in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.
WISHDonations will allow Grateful Gatherings to offer full and mini gatherings for 10 households, giving support with moving and transportation expenses and providing families fighting to stay housed with items like new beds, home essentials and furnishings. Goal: $10,000
HOW TO GIVE Go to sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate or print and mail in this form.
LEARN MOREFind additional stories at sharethespiriteastbay.org.