A few months ago, in the woods of Biloxi, Miss., William Scott Graves set up his tent, unrolled his sleeping bag and strung up a clothing line. With the little money he had, he bought toothpaste, soap and a bucket. Graves cleaned, shaved and washed himself out of that bucket until state police forced him and others into leaving.
Graves considered his options and decided to find a city with a larger homeless population. He came to Memphis and tried a few homeless centers and churches until he met Vickie Moore.
Since 1991, Moore has been putting her time, money and heart into helping youth and elderly with the Youth United With Senior Citizens Center at 1010 Faxon St. near the Jackson Avenue exit off Interstate 40.
"I started looking at the downfall of the inner city as a whole, and I started questioning God," she said. "I wanted to know what my part was."
Her youth programs and community outreach has united young and elderly people with cleaning projects, a neighborhood choir and neighborhood fairs.
"It's not a hand out - it's a hand up," Moore said.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there were 1,377 homeless people in Mississippi and 11,210 in Tennessee in 2007.
Graves said he never expected to be among them.
When he was a working man, Graves said he never noticed how the Mississippi police treated the homeless.
"It's been an experience seeing another side of life," he said.
Men like Graves are the reason Moore chose to open the center in the first place, she said.
Timberly Moore, senior journalism major at The University of Memphis, was 3 years old when her mother started the center. Her earliest childhood memory is waking up on Saturday mornings with her mom to clean, she said.
"As you can imagine, waking up early to clean when you want to watch cartoons wasn't fun," she said. "But, I understand the relevance now."
Most of the residents staying at the center said Moore approached them.
She found 44-year-old Tounga Bell, who has been homeless for five years, at Court Square Park on Second Street in downtown Memphis.
It was 6 degrees outside, the day Moore showed up asking if she had anywhere to stay. She met Moore and her white van at a bus terminal soon after. Bell's been at the center ever since.
Wandering around Memphis, Bell often found herself in hospital waiting rooms seeking shelter by pretending to wait on non-existent family members.
Living in the shelter, she said, is temporary.
"It's just until I get on my feet," she said.
Moore found Brandon Williams at Union Mission where the two struck up a conversation about his mother who died and left five children later placed in foster care.
At 19, Williams looks like the average college student in tennis shoes and faded jeans. Standing more than 6-foot with a soft laugh and modest smile, he looked down when he said he left suicide open as an option.
"There's not a day I don't wake up and go to bed with (cutting myself) on my mind," he said.
A few months ago, Moore bought cots for her "guests" to sleep on. At night, the cots line the main room of the center, giving the light in the place a green tint.
Recently, she even moved in with her guests to make sure the residents of the building are not left alone.
During the day, the homeless staying at the shelter go out and look for jobs, try to find housing assistance, seek counseling and search for food to bring back to the center.
Moore said she expects the men and women staying under her roof to help themselves first.
"We give them skills to make sure they're never homeless again," she said.
Graves said if Moore did not let people get out on their own and try to help themselves, they would just sit around.
Moore's daughter said she's learned the value in that.
"I learned to look at it as meeting new people," she said. "I never thought I was going to learn from other children what it's like to not have a mom because she's on drugs. My ministry is this (cause). This is the best way I know to help people."
