Cathy Zick

The Shelter Association of Ann Arbor

Do you have a current figure on the number of homeless people in Ann Arbor? I know that the shelter served 908 homeless throughout 1988. On a given night in winter when our numbers are highest I see 70-plus people. In addition the other shelters are full. Then there's the hidden homeless, a group that uses us as one of several supports. They might be with a friend tonight or a relative another night and use us at the end of the week.

It must be hard to do accurate surveys. It really is. In any given month we see over 200 different people. It's a very fluid population.

How did the shelter get started? It grew out of an effort at St. Andrews Church back in 1983. They provided shelter throughout 1983 and most of 1984 either at the church or in The House Across the Street. In Feb., 1984 the Shelter Association was incorporated really broadening its support much beyond St. Andrews and other churches to include all sectors of the community.

Is there an average period of time people stay here? We provided over 20,000 bed nights at the shelter last year to 908 different people. That's only 20-some per person if you just divide it. In reality that's not how it happens. We have a number of people who are only here for a night or two passing through. But we have a number of people that are here much longer, the people that have really bottomed out. It also takes longer than 30 days to raise what's now usually $800 for a security deposit for a single room. There is another group of people that really can make it on their own for a while, but don't have enough resources to really make it long term. A crisis comes and they end up back in the Street or the living situation they can secure is just so marginal that you or I would be doing well if we made t last eight or ten months.

Our biggest staff is four full-time VISTA volunteers. Plus we have one and a half paid advocates. Advocates are service workers that work one-onone with the folks. I would say we probably have at least 30 people right now providing some support services.

What are the advocacy services? We try to connect people with advocates right away. Everybody can use the shelter for 30 days. If they choose not to use an advocate at that time that's their decision. Some people don't need it. Other people think they don't need the help and they do. People get hooked up with a lot of substance abuse treatment programs because a large portion of our population has some kind of chemical dependency. Advocates assist people in getting connected with financial resources. More and more we have employers that will call us with jobs meaning we can place people in employment.

We have relationships with a number of landlords to help people find housing and we help people raise the security deposit.

We have Community Mental Health and Public Health services provided on site at the day program. The Veterans Affairs office and Social Security office come in periodically.

Does the shelter have a city affiliation? No it doesn't. The city has always been a prime supporter, but by far, not the only supporter.

What is the difference between the shelter that you provide and that of the Salvation Army? We serve different populations and different needs. At Arbor Haven you can't be currently using or abusing drugs or alcohol. At our place you can stay, even if you are currently using, as long as you can abide by our simple rules.

A lot of our folks need much more than just pointing in the right direction. A lot of them you need to go hand in hand with to appointments, to the housing search. The needs are greater.

In terms of the day program services, we provide much more structured services than we did initially. At first we just had the overnight shelter. We try not to limit ourselves by setting up a lot of criteria that is going to exclude those that need the services. Like taking on a money management task and becoming somebody's payee. We've done that in a very few cases but it was something needed we couldn't get anybody else to do.

What amount of growth in homelessness have you seen in the past few years if any? We served around 800 people in 1986 and 1987, and 900 in 1988. It has grown somewhat. But I think it's grown more in terms of the length of time that individuals stayed as opposed to how many different people were served. Either they need us longer or are coming back sooner because the housing is becoming scarcer and more expensive.

We have more people working than ever before. Between 20 and 25% of our folks are working and are really trying to save money. Two weeks ago, somebody told me two weeks ago they found a single room. They were told it'd be $250 a month for the room, but $800 to move in. We have a lot of people that are working, even holding down two jobs, in order to get the deposit together. We work out a money management plan so that they're saving and not paying anything for their stay with us.

Have you turned anyone away? We try not to this time of year. A number of nights this summer we turned people away. Some people find summer sublets. Some people will choose to stay outside.

It's not easy to stay in the shelter. I wish we could make it better than we can. It's really hard when you put 50 people in a building that size. You share a bedroom. You share the bathroom. You share the laundry room. You're with people with all kinds of behavior and from different backgrounds, likes and dislikes and problems. We do our best but I know there's no way to make staying at the shelter real pleasant.

What do you do if clients can't find someplace in the Ann Arbor area to move into? We don't limit our house hunting to Ann Arbor. We probably place more people in Ypsilanti than in Ann Arbor because that's where the placement exe. Some people feel very strongly about staying an Ann Arbor resident. We encourage people to be realistic about what they're looking for.

What other programs do you have? A program that we're excited about, that just starled in August, and really got off ts feet in October, is our Women's Services Program. That operates six nights a week downstairs [in the administrative building next to the night shelter]. It's always been real hard for women to stay at the shelter when they are out-numbered by four-to-one. The common characteristic among homeless women is that they have been physically or sexually abused so it's real hard to come to a public shelter in the first place. Most women will hold out as long as they can so there's usually more damage and they're more needy. We started this program as a way to provide a refuge.

The women cook meals together a couple nights a week. What's exciting is for the first time there is a sense of community among the women. Women are also a very isolated population. You hardly ever saw any support networks. You'd see some among the men. You'd see a woman with a group of men but you didn't see many support networks among women. It's real nice to see what's happening there. It's also a place from which no woman is barred even if she's been barred from the shelter. If she has been placed in the community she can come to that group. We have several women that are starting to be a real support for those that move on and leave the shelter but happen to live in the Ann Arbor area.

Is the Ashley St. location of the day shelter a permanent location? No, we'd like it to be, but our lease expires the end of April. We hope that we can renew the lease for another year or until we find another site if we find one.

Why do people end up in the shelter? There are so many different reasons. A lot of times there are financial problems, loss of a job. Sometimes the housing has either become unaffordable and the lease will expire or inaccessible because the owners want to remodel, then gentrification hits. There can be a family break-up, divorce or dispute. We have people, who have been raised in foster care or institutions, who are all of a sudden on their own at 18 and aren't able to make it.

Deinstitutionalization has affected us locally. About 30% of our population has some mental illness. For health reasons like mental and physical health, sometimes substance abuse.

I think the biggest reason that people stay homeless though is the lack of affordable housing. They might have lost housing because of some crisis in their life or because of one or more problems that affected it, but they tend to stay homeless because of the lack of housing in the area.

What solutions would you propose to address the causes and the symptoms of homelessness and specifically in Ann Arbor? I see affordable housing as a long-term solution. I think some needs to be supported housing where there are services for the people that need them. Whether it's counselling or job services, some of the same services that we might have at a day program would be available for those that want it, not mandatory, but there if you need it.

I see a need for some that would be supervised. Not the kind of structure of an adult foster care home, but more like the kind of supervision the Salvation Army would have provided had the SRO gone forward, somebody on site at all times. I see a need for additional living situations for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. I'm hoping that the grant that was recently funded by the Department of Mental Health will have some long-term effects for the chronically homeless mentally ill. That's just getting off the ground so it's too early to see. There's a need for more different types and more housing for that population.

Do you think that the city is going to build an SRO or any additional housing? I hope. I feel that there's a commitment by a lot of people, but time will teil. We desparately, desparately need it. I think there are going to have to be more kinds of services for folks with substance abuse problems and transitional housing for them too if they're coming from the streets. Unless housing is found immediately for them it is really hard for them to go back into a drug oriented environment. The stress of the streets is enough probably to make anybody drink.