John Schwab is a Beatles fan. John Schwab is a rummy player. John Schwab is a guest at PADS in Mattoon, where he often stays overnight.

PADS is an overnight homeless shelter and Schwab is one of three people staying this night; eleven have come to just enjoy the salad and lasagna. Guests wait outside until about 6:50 p.m., then file in and set their IDs in one of two slots that read “Overnight” or “Meal Only.”

But Schwab, 57, said he is not ashamed to come. In fact, Schwab comes voluntarily and said he has never considered himself homeless at any point in his life.

“A homeless person encompasses a variety of definitions. You can be homeless by choice, by force or by handicap,” Schwab said. “Most people that come here are a lot of transients, they stay and they go. You have to look at the individual, the definition of why they’re here.”

According to John Heldman, executive director of PADS, the actual homeless person that comes into the shelter is an average of 42 years, has graduated high school, and earns about $800 a month. Heldman said that Schwab doesn’t quite fit the mold at the shelter in that he is very aware of everything that is going on around him.

The full-time worker at a Mattoon Hardee’s who has served in the military for 14 years said he has nothing bad to say about a place like PADS.

“The staff is very friendly, and is well-qualified to deal with all different types of people, people who are in transition, such as myself,” he said.

One of the members of this staff is PADS worker Ron White, who has been at PADS for about four and a half years, or about two months after it opened. However, White has been helping the homeless before his time at PADS.

Ron and his wife, Debbie, have been feeding and letting the homeless stay at their home for a number of years, believing that if he shows them love it will be hard for people to take it out on them.

“They will try harder not to drink or take drugs when you show them your love,” said White.

Then when White was in between jobs, he decided to come to PADS to volunteer and after helping out for about a month and a half, he was offered to work the night shift.

On average, Heldman said there are seven people that stay overnight and while there are 16 beds and 18 mattresses at the shelter, John said PADS has been at full capacity at least three times.

One of the challenges that White has faced is making sure the guests comply with the rules of the shelter. Certain rules include making everyone smoke outside, having men and women sleep in separate living areas, and making sure guests do laundry within a certain time frame.

“We had one guy barred because he had been drinking and he had busted the window and was not acting right,” White said. “Other people because they constantly broke normal rules around here.”

Susan Coffman, president of the PADS board, said a person is usually barred if he or she is perceived to be a threat to the safety of others, has caused disturbances in the community, is a known felon or sex offender, or for other serious reasons.

White also said that certain rules should be more flexible or changed, as in the case if someone works late and can’t come to the shelter until midnight.

“It’s wrong to say that person can’t take a shower or wash their clothes because they weren’t here at the time they were supposed to wash them,” White said.

Coffman said that the board of directors has passed a policy allowing those who work late to shower if needed as long as they respect those who are sleeping.

She said the board does work to handle such cases individually and does work to try to meet the guest’s needs.

Unlike the 24-hour shelter that used to reside in Charleston, Mattoon’s shelter stays open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. with the exception of luncheons 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. PADS also has a 90-day stay policy, where after 90 days of stay a guest is encouraged to find a new home (depending on if case management grants a 30-day extension and if the board grants this extension.)

Also, case management is on a case-by case basis, said Coffman.

“Some instances guests are not granted extensions for various reasons and some are granted prolonged extensions,” she said.

While Heldman said he’s never had anyone stay the full 90 days, he did say that there were about 1,500 days of shelter at PADS by late August, in contrast to last year’s 1,857 days of nights provided.

White doesn’t keep homeless at his home as much as he used to, but instead tells them about places like PADS, a place that he said that if it didn’t exist, more people would be getting into trouble.

“More of them would be getting in trouble again instead of staying out of trouble and that’s the main thing,” White said. “They’d find a place to stay, whether it be out in the woods, under a viaduct or whatever. They’d find a place to eat, around dumpsters and stuff, around restaurants and find food that looks like it’s still OK to eat.”

As far as his job goes, White says he knows how they want to be treated.

“I don’t treat neither one of them like a criminal, like I’m better than they are,” White said. “I treat them like they’re just the same as me. I’ve been in jail before; I’ve had problems drinking before. I’ve been down and out before; I know what it’s like. I know how they want to be treated.”

While doing laundry in late September, a volunteer came up to Schwab and asked if any jobs were open at Hardee’s.

“Mention my name: John Schwab,” he said.