Reflections from Ed McCarron, former HOC Director

Ed McCarron served as Director at the House of Charity from 1995 to 2016.  The New York native had served in the military, attended Oklahoma State University, and came to Spokane with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps from 1983-86. In a recent conversation he spoke thoughtfully about many people he served with at HOC, and the contributions each made to the operation. 

Ed McCarron

If there’s one thing readers should know…

People matter. People are important. We can talk forever about how awful some people are, but at the same time, what has caused this? What is it that has affected this person?  People do get help. People do end up back on their feet. People get stabilized. We didn’t often see them come back to HOC. And there’s a reason why they stay away - maybe they feel vulnerable. But they got help. And so, I’m glad we provided that stepping stone until they got that more stable place.

On operations…

I think in ‘96 we got our first Case Manager. Full-time. The City helped fund that through some grants they had received. When we moved into the new building (2000), we (still) had only a single case manager. I never expected so many people to be there. On West Nine Main we were serving 100 lunches. Next thing you know, we opened this place at 32 West Pacific and we’re serving over 200 lunches!! Where do these people come from?

Safety first...

I think HOC still has the same philosophy…that safety and consideration were the underlying rules at the House of Charity. If you were safe and you were considerate of others, you were welcome. Yes, people are going to have explosions. People are going to get upset. It doesn’t mean to have to kick them out for a year. If they get violent – yes; if they’re making threats – yes … but everyone has a bad day.

People we served...

We served mostly men, older men. I was amazed how many were angry about a divorce; they would just go off. It was amazing how many people were angry and alcohol was by far the preferred choice. There were drugs downtown, back in those days too. There’s been drugs forever, but not like it is nowadays. We had a handful of women, but not very often and not many. And usually they were pretty hardy souls, that’s for sure. I’ll be honest with you, I think most of the women that were there were there because of mental illness. I mean, just because they lost the support, as so many of them did, they lost support of their family finally. You lose your family, you lose your friends, you end up in places like the Mission, or House of Charity, or Salvation Army, or the emergency room, or jail, right?

Helping out...

At the House of Charity, open 24 hours a day, we had one janitor, Jose Torres. And why? Because the homeless helped out. They got to pick one way to help. We did it on a volunteer basis. People wanted to help Jose. They got a perk…a little meal in the afternoon. But they also worked. And they’d go out in the morning and they’d clean up the neighborhood. We’d go up to Second, we’d go down to Sprague. We did that all the time. There’s a sense of community too, when there’s someone you’re working alongside of.

-Interview by Mary Joan Hahn.