Sisters Of The Road was founded on a few key beliefs: that everyone deserves dignity; that homelessness is everyone’s problem; and that everyone is responsible for their actions.

Those beliefs didn’t just fall out of the ether; they were distilled from a series of interviews that co-founders Genny Nelson and Sandy Gooch had with people on the streets.

“When we started Sisters, we were two women without resources,” she recalls. “We interviewed customers, and. … they let us know what they needed was a place to eat where meals were affordable, the environment was safe, and they could be participants in the program.”

Genny Nelson co-founded Sisters of the Road Café after a series of interviews revealed that homeless people were looking for affordable meals served with dignity. A second series of interviews is reproduced in Voices from the Street: Truths About Homelessness from Sisters of the Road (Gray Sunshine, 2007). Photo courtesy of author

Almost 30 years later, those beliefs are alive and well at the non-profit café where homeless people can eat well and find a place to belong. On a recent visit to Portland to see Sisters, I got a sense for the community effort and mutual respect that makes the place unique. As development associate Orion Gray stated, hospitality at Sisters means “Every person is the face of God. Everyone is sacred and special.”

Gray gave me and my colleague a tour, shared lunch with us, and spent a great deal of time filling us in on the history, philosophy, and mission of Sisters Of The Road. She also told me about the origins of the book the organization has spawned, Voices from the Street — a compilation of another, second round of interviews with Sisters’ customers to understand homelessness three decades after the organization’s beginnings.

Tell me how Sisters works.

The customers work by bussing tables or serving food, running the steam table, or other duties. They are paid at the rate of $6 per hour, which is credited to their meal account. A meal and a drink costs $1.50. We made a commitment that we wouldn’t raise the price of the meal until the food stamp benefit went up.

Why write a book based on interviews with homeless/previously homeless people?

The book started as a research project towards the efforts of ending homelessness. You can’t end homelessness without understanding the problem and asking the experts. The people who have experienced homelessness are the experts.

Over what time period did the interviews for the book take place?

From 2001 to 2004. Over that period of years, we started with staff, lost funding, and eventually volunteers finished up the interviews. During the years the interviews were going on, several cuts in Oregon and U.S. social services funding took place. People have suffered immensely. Every cut means a body count — there are bodies [deaths] associated with health care cuts and welfare cuts and every other funding cut. Things have gotten much grimmer. The situation for women is pathetic.

Why do you think it is that the general public doesn’t want to take on homeless issues?

The thing about a ‘paycheck away’ is true. Some of the people I interviewed hypothesized that’s why mainstream society won’t deal with the problem. It’s too close to home. Too close to their own existence. We interviewed many people who had been among the working poor and fell into homelessness.

Have things changed since you completed the interviews? Have you used the data to make changes at Sisters?

We use the data to make organizational decisions. When our Civic Action Group, or Community Organizer, or Systemic Change Manager are making a decision about what issues to tackle and how to organize around them, I often pull data from the interviews to use in the decision-making process.

You can meet Orion Gray at The Elliott Bay Book Co. on Sat., May 26 at 2 p.m. Orion will be talking about Sisters as well as Voices from the Street.

Writer Stephanie Knight runs Hospitality House, a nine-bed shelter for women in Burien, the only one of its kind in south King County.