You’ve probably driven by the low, white building on Michigan Street in South Bend dozens of times and never really knew what it was.

"You look around and it doesn't look like much. But it does so much."

Steve Beno is talking about the “Our Lady of the Road” center, which offers a save, warm place for the homeless community.

"Homelessness...it's a horrible thing. And it affects so many people," Beno says. "When I was at the Center for the Homeless I talked to a lot of Notre Dame students. And I said, ‘You know, you could be here.’ I said, ‘You have a perception of homelessness as a black, drug addicts, alcoholics, losers.’ And I say, ‘I live at the Center for the Homeless and we have people who have PhDs.’”

The center was built by a group of about ten folks who wanted to help people who are struggling.

"The Christmas story is a story about homeless people” explains one of the creators, Michael Baxter. “Mary and Joseph were homeless. They couldn't find a place to stay. Last night someone came to us. She's six months pregnant. She needed a place to stay. So we feel like we're entering into that story."

Baxter, a theology professor at Notre Dame, and the others own a few houses and welcome homeless people to live with them. He says that, typically, 30 people at a time are living together. Baxter also says they’re forced to turn away ten times the number of people they can let in.

"I think that's what people suffer from the most -- a sense of isolation and loneliness and not belonging, so we want a place people feel they belong," Baxter shares.

On New Years Day, dozens of people enjoyed a hot cup of coffee, did their laundry, showered, and enjoyed each other's company.

"I never thought I'd find myself without a job, because I'm a hard worker," Rick, a visitor, shares. "Hopefully 2009 will be better than what 2008 was. That's what I was hoping for, because 2008 was a bad year for me. It really was. It's just about one of the worse years I can remember in a long time."

Baxter says he’s working with the city to rezone the building so that people can stay there overnight.