Publication:Sandusky Register;

Date:Mar 13, 2009;

Section:Front Page;

Page Number:A1

Publication: Sandusky Register; Date:2008 Dec 09; Section:Front Page; Page Number: A1

Christmas for Crossroads   By AMANDA GODFREY   PERKINS TWP. Meadowlawn students learned a little glue and glitter can create a lot of Christmas cheer. Students in Tracy Plue’s and Dawn Zappa’s multiage classes spent a portion of Monday afternoon creating and decorating ornaments for the Christmas tree at the Volunteers of America Crossroads homeless shelter. The classes, all members of the Volunteer Center’s Kids Care Club, meet once a month with youth director Brandy Bennett to brainstorm how they can make a difference in the community through volunteerism. Bennett guides them through various projects, providing them with supplies but encouraging them to think creatively. With the Christmas season rapidly approaching, Bennett sought out worthwhile causes for the month’s projects. Through word of mouth she learned 18 children are living at Crossroads. She also discovered that, although the shelter did have an evergreen last year, it was sparsely decorated. Bennett explained the situation to Lighthouse Pools manager Tom Bruni, and “without hesitation” he donated a pre-lit Christmas tree for the Kids Care Clubs to decorate for the homeless shelter. “The whole idea of the Kids Care Clubs is to help others and bring something positive to the community,” Bennett said. “The need is there, and the kids were so excited when they found out this is what we were going to do.” Armed with pre-made Santa Claus and gingerbread man kits containing patterns, frosting swirls, hats, buttons, hair pieces, and plenty of glue, Bennett spent an hour talking to the children about theshelterandhelpingthemcreate holiday ornaments framed with red ribbon. “The people at Crossroads work very hard to help people, but sometimes they don’t have a lot to work with,” Bennett said. “They provide people items for their basic needs, and there’s not a whole lot left over. There aren’t any pretty decorations on the walls or bells hanging from the trees.” Bennett said Kids Care Clubs all over Erie County are working to make similar ornaments to fill the tree with Christmas joy. “The more we make, the better,” she said as she handed out extra kits to the students. “Each ornament is special because it was made by you.” The students listened intently and worked eagerly, fastening buttons to Santa’s middle and gluing tiny rolling pins to the gingerbread man’s hands. “It’s really fun to do stuff like this because it’s going to help people smile at Christmas,” Drew Hill said. Bennett passed around the shelter’s wish list and explained that while many children want a new toy or book for Christmas, children at the shelter vie for basic health and hygiene supplies and a warm place to sleep. She asked them to take the lists home with them so their families, if able, could donate. “Other people don’t have the kinds of things that we have,” Samantha Smith said. “It’s not fair for someone to have a lot and not help someone who has a little.”   Smith and classmate Addison Sausser said it’s important for children to help children. “That’s what the club’s about,” Addison said. “Christmas is the best time to help other people. If you have a lot, give some away. You won’t miss it.”        Homes for Homeless Stretched Thin By ANNIE ZELM | Sunday June 01 2008, 1:18am SANDUSKY When the bottom drops out, those already on shaky footing are the first to fall through the cracks. Many of the area's homeless shelters are filled beyond capacity, and their resources are stretched thin. Between its 18-bed emergency shelter, transitional housing units and family and veterans rooms, Crossroads in Sandusky can comfortably hold 84 people -- but they've consistently kept an extra 15 to 20 since the winter. "We were running all winter at 120 percent and pulled out every extra mat we had," Volunteers of America director Sandra Anderson said. "We're just seeing a multitude of greater need there ... last week alone, we had 239 calls." Inside the shelter's common area, residents talk about life before they lost their jobs, suffered illnesses or were evicted for a multitude of reasons, some of which were no fault of their own. Many just wait. They pass the time by working puzzles or playing dominoes while awaiting disability benefits or veterans' assistance. "It's not where you want to be, but it's a great place to be if you need help," said a 28-year-old resident who moved into the shelter after losing a job in the plastics industry. Though the shelter has never exceeded state occupany limits, funding is based solely on bed numbers and does not take into account the additional costs of utilities, food and other necessities that increase when 10 extra people are sleeping on the floor. Those actually in the shelter represent only a portion of the homeless population. On their last 24-hour counting period at the end of January, VOA volunteers encountered 119 homeless people in Sandusky alone -- staying in all-night retail stores, emergency rooms, parks and abandoned buildings, Anderson said. More than 90 percent were local residents. For most, the lack of shelter was a temporary problem brought on by unexpected circumstances, not a chronic lifestyle, she said. The problem is all too familiar statewide, said Douglas Argue, manager of the Coalition for Homelessness in Ohio. Approximately 13 percent of all Ohioans are now living below the poverty level, he said. "Unemployment, foreclosures, home prices -- all those factors combined are putting a lot of pressure on families, and it's stretching local resources very thin," he said. The Ohio Housing Trust Fund, the state's main source of funding for affordable housing, is capped at $50 million per year, and Argue said that limit could possibly go lower -- resulting in cuts for nearly all local agencies. In Fremont, Liberty Center of Sandusky County executive director Margaret Weisz said her 24-bed shelter is also feeling the impact. "Even in the last few weeks, we've been very busy," Weisz said. "Most of the time we can fit quite a few people in ... sometimes you just have to be creative." The bigger problem Weisz sees is that approximately 60 percent of their budget is funded by donations -- and fewer are able to give. The waiting list for Sandusky County Metropolitan Housing in Fremont, which provides transitional housing for some after they leave the shelter, is now full. Shelter residents are allowed a 30-day extension after they exceed their initial 30-day limit, Weisz said, but some are staying longer. The shelter needs basic items such as sugar, paper towels, toilet paper, 30-gallon garbage bags and gift cards to buy groceries. Anny Morla, an outreach coordinator for the Erie-Huron Counties Community Action Commission, said CAC has a waiting list for its two-family house, which offers shelter for up to 90 days. "We get at least five or six requests a month that we have to turn down," Morla said. "Just in the last month, we paid rent for 31 families who were close to being evicted, and now we don't have any more funding for the year." At the Miriam House in Norwalk, up to five women and their children can stay for up to two years while they develop job skills and gain employment. Pat Ulmer, director of the social services branch of Catholic Charities, which oversees the house, said they've had as many as 24 residents at one time. They have two openings, but she expects them to be filled soon. "Most of our homeless here aren't living on the streets, but they haven't had a stable living environment for themselves or their families for years," Ulmer said. "Living here is a commitment -- they have to follow our rules and make an investment in themselves, and that's hard for people." The Rev. Kimberly Secrist-Ashby of First Presbyterian Church in Sandusky said she's seen an increase of about 20 percent in the number of people who come to Care and Share of Erie County seeking food, clothing and other items on a monthly basis. "We're spending $2,500 every week on food alone," she said. "We see people every day that are falling through the cracks, trying to make ends meet ... they've cut corners already, and they just can't make it work."       Article published February 23, 2009 18 Toledo area homelessness projects aided by $3.3M in HUD grants By IGNAZIO MESSINA BLADE STAFF WRITER The Toledo-Lucas County Continuum of Care has been awarded more than $3.3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for homeless assistance. “Public service makes a difference and laws do make a difference and new presidents do make a difference and I want to say to President Barack Obama, thank you on behalf of our whole community,” U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) said in announcing he funds. Eight organizations, with a total of 18 projects that are part of the Community Alliance and Strategic Efforts plan to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness, will share the award. “For us in Toledo, [it] is a lot of money particularly at this time, certainly for those who are the most fragile among us,” Miss Kaptur said. “These dollars will go a long way to helping them.” The grants awarded through HUD’s Continuum of Care programs will assist about 6,300 homeless assistance projects throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands as well as the Emergency Shelter Grants Program. “This is a 139 percent increase from our award in 2007, when we received $1.6 million,” said Paul Tecpanecatl, chairman of the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness board. He said none of the money — even grant renewals — was guaranteed. “It is a very competitive process to get this money.” Receiving money are: • Volunteers of America, Chestnut Hill Project, 40-unit apartment building with 16 units designated for the chronically homeless, $420,000. • Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, rental assistance to 19 homeless, mentally ill single adults at scattered apartment sites, $590,280. • Neighborhood Properties Inc., Good Samaritan Renovation Project, permanent housing for six homeless, mentally ill single adults, $62,337. • City of Toledo, Pathway to Shelter, 15 apartments in a complex maintained by Neighborhood Properties Inc., $95,400. • FOCUS, Toledo HMIS, a computerized tracking and data collection system that captures systemwide information about homeless people, $88,915. • Harbor House, Plus Program, a transitional housing facility with services for single women who are homeless as a result of alcoholism and substance abuse, $117,551. • FOCUS, Steps to Home, scattered site transitional housing and intensive case management and life skills services to 13 households, $271,820. • FOCUS, Steps to Home I & II, leasing and case management for 10 homeless households $119,220. • FOCUS, Coordinated Assistance to Combat Homelessness, transitional housing subsidy and intensive case management services to homeless families and individuals, $308,076. • Aurora Project, alternative sentencing site for women with chronic substance abuse with a history of recidivism, or multiple incarcerations or active involvement in the criminal justice system, $103,773. • St. Paul’s Community Center, transitional housing and services to the chronically homeless with severe and persistent mental illness, $186,811. • Neighborhood Properties Inc., First Avenue, permanent supportive housing for homeless, mentally ill, young adult ex-offenders, $229,249. • Families with Mental Illness program, permanent housing with at least two bedrooms, $77,676. • NPI, Families with Mental Illness Expansion program, six furnished two-bedroom apartments and six furnished three-bedroom apartments, $90,650. • NPI, Fresh Start, permanent supportive housing for homeless single mothers with substance abuse and mental health issues and their children, $108,889. • NPI, Housing First, permanent supportive housing for homeless, mentally ill single adults in one-bedroom apartments in scattered buildings, $180,089. • NPI, PACT Partnership, 14 furnished one-bedroom apartments in a single apartment building for homeless mentally ill young adults, $241,752. • NPI, Road to Recovery, 17 furnished one-bedroom apartments in a single apartment building, $73,976. Contact Ignazio Messina at:imessina@theblade.comor 419-724-6171.