For 41 years, one of the first women’s homeless shelters in Atlanta has continued to empower women in need to get back on their feet, accomplish their goals in becoming employed and ensure they have a secure home.
Rabbi Mark Wilson (1943-2023) founded Rebecca’s Tent in 1983. His goal was to help end homelessness, and with Holocaust survivor Helen Speigel (1923-2017), they founded one of the first women’s shelters in Atlanta.
Nina Foster*, one of the residents at the shelter, said she wants to give back to the community and start a nonprofit.
“My hope for the future is to help reduce homelessness and prevent future homelessness by helping youth and families with learning lessons and to empower and encourage everyone to help them thrive,” Foster said.
Foster said she also wants to start a nonprofit that will help homeless youth, or work with the ministry for men.
“My goal is to start a nonprofit and zoom in on my strengths,” Foster said. “I have many ideas for my nonprofit, but a few of them I have been focusing on are working with aged out youth from foster care, or working with the Ministry for Men and helping them regain their life position in the family.”
Gillian Gansler, Co-chair at Rebecca’s Tent, said it takes a lot of work to keep the shelter running, but it is critical that the shelter stays open so that the homeless population is reduced.
“We work to ensure the women find a job and get an apartment,” Gansler said. “Our goal is to get people on their feet. We tend to be more of a temporary shelter, since very few of the women come back, and we aren’t open year-round.”
Another way that Rebecca’s Tent is unique is how small it is. Robin Rosen, who is the other co-chair at the shelter, said the small space allows staff to be more genuine and support the residents with their specific needs. When the shelter first opened, there were volunteers who would stay overnight.
“I think we are very different from the shelters that serve the rest of the community that are larger,” Rosen said. “They are more institution-driven than we are. We really show our roots in terms of when we were all volunteers and how we want to serve the community in a compassionate way.”
Even though the shelter can only hold 10 women right now, they still ensure that no woman is left out in the cold. Christina Fisher, the executive director of Rebecca’s Tent said that Rebecca’s Tent is not very public, but one of her goals is to make sure that people know about it, so it can continue helping women reach their goals.
“Awareness is a word of mouth, long-term relationship and it’s important that we continue to put ourselves out there and outside and not just rely on the congregation to support us, but to put ourselves out there,” Fisher said. “That’s a part of what I want to do with Rebecca’s Tent. It’s to make sure that we are partnering with folks outside of the agency that don’t know we exist.”
Lena Brooks*, who is one of the residents at the shelter, said she has many goals that she wants to accomplish such as starting a podcast and buying a house.
“I have a lot of goals,” Brooks said. “One of them is getting a podcast, and I think I would talk about Atlanta and the injustice of the government. I can add funds to my income so I get a decent place to live. Hopefully, I will get a nice home after I leave the shelter.”
*Nina Foster and Lena Brooks are anonymous names to protect the identity and safety of two residents at Rebecca’s Tent.
