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Vision
An event which greatly moved the founders of Christ House is recalled below, from a statement written in 1983 by the founding and current Medical Director, Dr. Janelle Goetcheus. It was this event which shaped the vision for a place where Washington's homeless could find healing and hope:

“This winter, a 74-year old man came to the Health Service on a very cold day.  He was living on the street.  Never to be forgotten is the sight of his sitting on a chair humped over with his wet coat pulled up over his head trying to get warm.  He had no shirt under the wet coat – only bare cold skin.  His trousers and shoes were soaked.  He had no socks.  The entire day was spent making phone calls trying to locate a place for him to return to—other than to the men’s shelter.  An attempt was also made to locate a Medicare number for him in order that he could be admitted to the hospital.  Consideration was given to just sending him to the emergency room.  However, when similar men had been sent to emergency rooms in the past, they were just discharged—often late at night—with no place to go, and with the shelter filled by that time. 

He stayed at the Health Service all day.  He ate and was given clean clothes.  After it was not possible to locate any other place for him to stay or his Medicare number, he left to go back to the men’s shelter.  He was to return to the Health Service the next day to continue this search and the application process.  But he was found frozen to death in a phone booth, on the streets of Washington, DC.  The official cause of death was hypothermia.  No alcohol was noted in his blood.”