MERIDIAN —     There will always be a coffee pot on and bottled water nearby at a new clinic for homeless people seeking healthcare in Meridian.

    Christie Rainer, a registered nurse for more than 28 years, is opening the clinic at 310 Russell Drive and hopes it will become a place where the homeless can find hope and help.

    "It will be a warm, relaxed area for them. Our philosophy is to embrace everybody," Rainer said. "We want them to feel welcome. We want to know who they are, where they come from. We want them to feel comfortable enough with us to be able to talk to us. We won't be able to help them unless they're able to share their stories with us."

    The People's Charity Clinic of East Mississippi will serve the homeless from the area, a number which Rainer estimates at about 300 in Meridian. They will also provide services to those living on the margins of poverty and do not have health insurance or money to see a doctor.

    There is a reception area, a counseling room, an office, two patient exam rooms and a small kitchen. Work to renovate the building began in January and has been a labor of love for her. Homeless men helped her with painting and renovations, such as dividing one room to make two clinic exam rooms.

    "When I first got started and they got wind of what I was doing here, they came down to see," Rainer said.

    They volunteered to help, but Rainer said she had no money to pay them.

    "This is for us," they told her. "Whatever we can do, we want to do for you."

    She did have to pay for a certified electrician and a certified plumber for some work, but a lot of work was done by homeless volunteers.

    Rainer said she has prayed all throughout the process of establishing the clinic and many of her prayers have been answered. For instance, she needed a Spanish interpreter and some time after mentioning this in her prayers, in walks a former Salvation Army employee from Knoxville, Tenn. who speaks Spanish.

    After hearing of her mission, Larry Grant decided to stay in Meridian and help with the center. He's her interpreter and has volunteered for security, filing and other duties as needed.

    "All our staff will be volunteer. There won't be anybody that works here that will be paid, from me on down," Rainer said. "We've been real lucky with that. People have really wanted to jump in and help because they like what we're doing."

    The clinic will also be staffed with a master's degree level counselor and Rainer plans to use recent counseling graduates who have to conduct 2,500 hours of sessions before they are licensed to help staff the center.

    The clinic will also provide case management, vocation counseling, dietary consults, and education.

    "Several of them who are retiring will be coming on board with us," Rainer said. "We have several who have volunteered to do some type of vocational rehab."

    The clinic will assess the needs of each client and develop a plan to help, starting with medication when necessary.

    "We'll look at the whole gamut of what they need," Rainer said. "We're not wanting just to hand them something but we're wanting to help put their life back together, if that's their goal. Some people like it where they're at. We all know that. Some people are there because their circumstances have put them there and they can't seem to pull themselves up."

    Rainer told the story of a woman who began a downward spiral after losing her husband.

    "Her husband had taken care of everything," she said. "She had only worked with a low-paying job, but he was the breadwinner in the family."

    He developed cancer and soon died.

    "She stayed off of work and stayed with him. After the length of time that she stayed off of work, she wound up losing her job," Rainer said.

    Immediately after her husband's death, church friends stopped by and checked on her, telling her to call if she needed anything. She didn't.

    The woman fell into depression and despair, Rainer said.

    "Months go by, she loses her truck. That puts her back further into depression. Then she loses her house. She winds up on the street. She is just going through the motions. She doesn't know what to do," Rainer said.

    For a long time she lived in a tent in the city.

    "She was taken in by some other homeless people because they take care of each other so much better than anybody else," Rainer said.

    Eventually, Rainer said, police made the homeless people dismantle their tents.

    "She lost the only other place that she had known and was in despair again," Rainer said.

    One day as she was sitting on the side of the road, a person who knew her drove by and recognized her.

    "She was brought to me and then through different organizations we got her into counseling," she said. "The last time I heard from her she had got a job."

    While some people apparently don't want to get back into a home of their own for whatever reasons, Rainer said, many just get caught in a cycle from which they can't break free.

    "You go through the motions when you get to that point," Rainer said. "I hear people tell me all the time that people are in that shape because they want to be. People are not necessarily there because they want to be. They're there because of their circumstances. Every day I meet people who are losing their homes because they have lost their jobs."

    Homelessness can take many forms, Rainer said, from people sleeping in tents or in makeshift lean-tos, to people who move from house to house among relatives or friends.

    "You've got so many who stay hidden for various reasons," she said. "You've got your populations that do stay with other people but don't have their own housing." In Lauderdale County, about 23.6 percent of the population is below poverty level.

    She has done blood tests on some homeless individuals and, as expected, has seen malnourishment indicated by some of the results. Rainer has also identified many diabetics among the homeless because high-sugar, high-carb foods are relatively cheaper than nutritional foods.

    Among issues Rainer will have to address is making sure homeless patients have their medication with them all the time and know when to take it. Some medications have to be refrigerated, so that will have to be dealt with as well.

    "We have to be able to adapt and work with them," Rainer said. "We have to help them feel better first and then by helping them with their health problems, then we can work and find out what their need is. We can't provide every service they need. We shouldn't because there are a lot of agencies out there that provide services. Transportation is a big problem. We can help them get to those agencies. We want to make sure they get to where they need to go to get the help they need."

    Currently the clinic is in need of medical equipment, supplies and medications. There are a lot of drug companies that have programs the clinic can use to provide free medications, but that's typically only after an initial prescription has been paid for, she said. She is in the process of applying for grants to help fund the clinic, which has so far been supported by spaghetti dinners and fish frys.

    The People's Charity Clinic is preparing for its first major fundraiser through a rubber duck regatta race at Bonita Lakes on Sept. 22, Rainer said.

    Teams are being sought to volunteer to help sell rubber ducks for $5 each; five for $20; or 25 for $100. Sales will be ongoing through Sept. 3, when teams will turn in their earnings to purchase the rubber ducks.

    On the day of the regatta, the ducks will be dropped from a hot-air balloon into a designated, roped-off part of the back lake where generators will provide a water current and waterfalls to push them in a race across lake. Prior to that, a sponsor race will feature divers who will be on floats with giant water guns trying to shoot each other off the floats as they race to the finish line. The rubber ducks will be removed from the lake when the event ends.

    The day will also feature a 5K Duck and Fun Run at 8 a.m. on Sept. 22 for runners of all ages.

    For more information on the run, regatta, and how to become a sponsor, call Rainer at (601) 482-8442, or visit:www.thepeoplecharityclinic.com .