WARM Director speaks on his unsheltered winter night outside

WAYNESBORO — Brian Edwards, acting director for the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry (WARM), shivered, pulled his mismatched gloves further up his wrists, and smiled through the redness on his face as he greeted The News Leader's reporter.

Edwards was about two hours away from finishing a heater-less night on the street in front of the Waynesboro Family YMCA on South Wayne Avenue.

The overnight stay, Edwards previously told The News Leader, was to focus attention on the lived experiences of unsheltered people living in the Waynesboro community. Edwards often referred to them as “our homeless neighbors,” an in-your-face reminder that they are members of the community.

Across from him sat Abbie Edwards, his mother. Before the night began, Abbie was nervous. She explained she "was worried about his safety, being out here by himself at night. Of course, the [street] lights do help.”

Despite this, the WARM director pressed on.

What follows is an edited transcript of Edward’s conversation with The News Leader on Dec. 22, as he approached the end of his 24 hours outside.

“I know some of our [homeless neighbors] have their routine. We get them up out of the shelter, bring them back to Waynesboro, and they're going to find their spot here in town. They're going to go back to sleep on a picnic table, on a on a ledge, going into a building.

“I came out. In about two three hours, it was dark. [The air] was so still.

“I had a lot of friends, strangers, and supporters [of WARM] come out, and … just kind of spend some time with me. I was really trying to replicate the day-to-day life, or at least the 24-hour life of a homeless individual. They would bring donations. I’ve gotten socks, coats, monetary donations, which truly wasn’t the idea.

“After my last visitor left, probably about 11 [p.m.], the street was getting quiet. Cars going up and down. I was like, I gotta settle in right now. I wasn't tired because I had been up [and moving]. Those are the hours that ticked by very slowly.

“I did a little bit of reading. … My hands would be shivering. I'd be trying to turn the pages, and I was shivering.

“I knew it was going to be that way and I tried to prepare myself.

“I thought I had brought enough hand warmers.  I thought if I had one hand warmer, I could put in [between both hands], but as it started getting colder and colder, I felt that one wasn't enough. It’s almost like [people who donated things] knew to bring hand warmers. Maybe that’s something that we all feel — when your hands get cold, your body gets colder.

“The human body is just not meant to be in a homeless kind of environment.

“I had three separate interactions overnight with three different homeless men.

“One came in about 11:30 [p.m.], looking for a place to stay. I recommended [he] go into the cold weather shelter, and sent him up the streets to where the police could give him a ride. I have not seen him since.

“About three o'clock in the morning, I decided to lie down in the tent. I was awakened just a couple of moments later by another homeless individual in the alleyway here, going through the garbage cans. I tried to reach out to that individual, see if he could needed some WARM services, but I think I spooked him. I last saw him crossing the street, pushing a shopping cart, probably going to a homeless site around by the river.

“I would find myself dozing, and then I hear something, I'd catch myself awake.

“Of course, it was getting colder. I was watching to see when it was going to finally hit that the coldest moment and boom, I hit it. I had four hours to go before sunup.

“I had a third individual come by about five o'clock this morning. [I] asked him to sit with me for a little bit. He was going to go down to the heating vent, but he became very agitated when he had lost his cell phone. He emptied out all of his stuff, left this rope for me, and said, ‘I'm gonna try to find my cell phone.’

“We’ve had some of our shelter guests who have had to be taken in by law enforcement for emergency custody orders because of very acute mental health crises. … People who are hungry, people who are cold, people who are thirsty, people who are tired, they're going to have a difficult time interacting with other folks in society.

“[Mental illness] is probably the most common precursor to homelessness. With mental illness, [like] other kinds of trauma can come substance abuse, domestic violence, which can result in not being able to hold down a job.

"We have a lot of folks who carry one or two jobs but it's not enough to make a living or to get a place.

“For me, I'm always busy, always social, always on the go [kind of] person. It was very strange to have [this feeling], ‘oh my gosh, I have like time on my hands.’ … I can imagine someone who's homeless, who feels that all the time, they [might] feel kind of alone.

"I probably got about three hours of sleep last night with interspersed, 20-minute cat naps that kept me going.

“When you live in a house or an apartment, [you’re insulated from] the noise of the street. The slightest little noise kind of woke me up. That's why many of our homeless guests that come into the shelter are under the influence of alcohol. For many of them, that helps them battle the mental demons going on, but it also helps them sleep at night.

“[I feel] cold, but the sun is slowly creeping my way, which is good. … It's gonna feel good. It's getting here.

“[When I go back inside after noon], I'm going to go back to that normal life. I'm going to enjoy the hot shower that I take for granted. [The shower], every morning, that I'm rushing through. I'm going to enjoy that bed.  I'm going to enjoy time with my family.

“I will have newfound feelings for those things that appreciation that 24 hours ago, I wouldn't have felt.

“[If I had stayed outside for a week], I don't think I'd be able to sleep. Physically, I would be exhausted. I would not be getting a whole lot of exercise. I would not be eating well. I [would] probably catch cold or something pretty bad. … When someone comes into our warm shelter and they have the flu or they have COVID, it can sweep through it pretty quickly.

“I'm pretty sure depression would set in [after a week]. I would feel that … the lack of self-worth that a lot that many of our homeless neighbors feel.

“I know that there were 33 of our guests that were up at the cold weather shelter last night. I [felt] pretty comfortable that a lot of the folks that I knew were going to be housed last night, or at least had shelter. Then here are three individuals I'd never seen before in my 10 years of working with WARM. They needed services. Obviously, I don't know what the homeless situation is here.

“I thought I kind of knew what it was like, and obviously I didn't. … I had been sympathetic to the cause for years, but then, last night, I was able to develop really empathy. … What I took away from this last night was a way that I can appreciate what they go through on a daily basis. What I did for 24 hours they do for months at a time. It was a very humbling experience.”

WARM was founded in 2011. Donations can be mailed to 1035 Fairfax Avenue, Waynesboro, Virginia, 22980, or online at www.warmwaynesboro.org.

For a list of WARM shelters, click here.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: WARM Director speaks on his unsheltered winter night outside