Miriams Kitchen helps the transition from a prison cell to a home
On the September day in 2018 that Andrew Anderson was released from federal prison in Atlanta, he was handed $220 and a one-way Greyhound bus ticket to Baltimore. He’d been behind bars for 24 years and it was time for him to start over.
After a month in a Baltimore halfway house, Anderson came to Washington, the city of his birth. He slept downtown in McPherson Square and at the Center for Creative Nonviolence shelter on Second Street NW.
“I didn’t have no place to go,” Anderson, 58, told me. “At that point, I was officially homeless.”
One morning, someone at the CCNV shelter invited Anderson to tag along for breakfast at a place in Foggy Bottom called Miriam’s Kitchen. Hungry people could get a meal there, he said. Anderson got a lot more than that.
Miriam’s Kitchen, a partner in The Washington Post Helping Hand campaign, serves breakfast and dinner every weekday in its dining room in the basement of Western Presbyterian Church at 24th Street and Virginia Avenue NW. A meal is all that some of its guests want. But if they’re ready for more, Miriam’s is ready to help. Clients can charge their phones, pick up their mail, get help procuring identification or getting medication.
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The goal of all these things is to move people toward their greatest need: getting off the streets and finding a place to live.
“Ever since that day, I kept coming back,” Anderson said. “I plugged into a lot of different programs.”
Anderson was teamed with a Miriam’s Kitchen case manager who explained that his situation — a citizen returning from incarceration without a home or a job and with medical issues — might make him eligible for housing benefits. For months, she worked through the process of filling out the necessary forms and tracking them through the system. Anderson continued to live on the streets, spending his days in the library and his nights in the outdoor seating area of a restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
A half-dozen men would bed down there every evening, appreciative of how the restaurant staff would run the outdoor heater for a few extra hours, warming a spot.
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“We were very protective of one another,” Anderson said. “I have to say I kind of miss those days. I don’t miss being homeless, but I miss those guys.”
They had each others’ backs. And Miriam’s Kitchen had Anderson’s back. The nonprofit hired him for a stint as an advocacy fellow. These are Miriam’s Kitchen clients who learn the ways of the District government, testifying before council committees and advocating for policies that help ease homelessness.
“That showed me that Miriam’s Kitchen was showing faith in me,” he said. “They wanted me to have the opportunity to be independent. I did that for six months, all during the waiting period for a [housing] voucher.”
Two months later, Anderson received a call from his case manager.
“She was crying on the phone,” he said. “She told me I’d been matched for housing.”
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Anderson had qualified for a housing voucher through the D.C. Housing Authority. In May 2021, he moved into an apartment near Nationals Park. He pays a third of his monthly supplemental security income benefit in rent, $265.
He volunteers with the People for Fairness Coalition, a group founded at Miriam’s Kitchen to advocate for affordable housing.
“When they visit encampments, I’m there asking if there are any returning citizens,” Anderson said.
He also contributes photos to Street Sense, the newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness.
Anderson said he doesn’t try to hide the reason he was away from Washington for so long. He’d pleaded guilty to assault, attempted murder and weapons possession.
“I don’t want to give anyone a false impression of who I am,” he said. “If people ask about my criminal background, I want to be honest. It’s in the past for me. I’ve done my time. I’m a free man now and I want to help other returning citizens reintegrate into society.”
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Hanging on a lanyard around Anderson’s neck is something he keeps as a reminder of his past and a warning to himself: his prison ID.
“I don't want to go back to prison,” he said. “I don’t want to wear any more handcuffs.”
Helping Hand
Your donation to Miriam’s Kitchen will help it help others. To give online, visit posthelpinghand.com and click where it says “Donate.” To give by check, write Miriam’s Kitchen, Attn: Development, 2401 Virginia Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037.
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