‘Community Is Us’ New campaign to address homelessness

By Barb Arland-Fye
The Catholic Messenger

DAVENPORT — Humility Homes and Services Inc. (HHSI) has publicly launched its Community Is Us campaign, which already raised $2.7 million during the quiet phase of the $2.9 million fundraising effort to address homelessness in the Quad Cities. Community collaboration — with for-profit, nonprofit and faith-based organizations, businesses and local government — is essential as HHSI braces for a potential end to federal government funding.

A panel discussion preceding HHSI’s public announcement March 26 on the St. Ambrose University campus in Daven­port reinforced the value and importance of community collaboration and provided some unique examples. Among them is The Bridge, a new, non-congregate shelter village established by Home Sweet Homes Ministries in Bloomington, Illinois, that features 48 colorful cabins housing up to 56 unsheltered persons. A central club house provides offices for the faith-based ministry’s staff to help connect the village’s residents with vital services. The city of Bloomington provided crucial support in helping bring The Bridge to fruition.

Home Sweet Homes Ministries, which serves the hungry, homeless and hopeless in the Bloomington-Normal area (hshministries.org), recognized the need for change in addressing the growing challenge of homelessness in the area. “And so that’s why my organization stepped up and said, we don’t actually do much in the permanent housing realm at this point in our existence, but we know how to do shelter,” said Matt Burgess, CEO of Home Sweet Homes Ministries.

“We’re willing to get people inside, to serve as the bridge (between homelessness and having a home). And I’ve said from the very first conversation I had with our city manager when we started talking about this concept, this can’t be it. … Because if we don’t have a place to move people out to, we’re gonna fill this up, and then we’re gonna need another shelter because we continue to have that inflow into homelessness, but no ability to move people out of homelessness and into housing.”

Ending homelessness by offering housing opportunities and supportive services in the greater Quad Cities area is the mission of Humility Homes and Services, founded in 1990 by the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, based in Davenport. “We have had their strength and their support and their perseverance for the last 35 years,” Ashley Velez Hagler, HHSI’s CEO, said.

HHSI’s impact

While HHSI sees possibilities for a Bridge-like project locally, its Community Is Us campaign focuses on repairing and enhancing HHSI-owned properties — 147 units of housing across 46 properties in the Quad Cities — and supporting clients with services that address holistic challenges. In the past year, HHSI served more than 1,400 individuals, including 285 children, through programs ranging from street outreach to affordable housing.

The campaign, which has reached 93% of its goal with an early boost from philanthropists and others, “represents a critical investment in both people and place, strengthening our shelter environment, improving housing, and expanding supportive services,” Velez Hagler said. “We need everybody in the whole community, really helping to bring homelessness to a functional zero, which means that there would be enough services for someone who’s experiencing homelessness. If you experience homelessness, you won’t have to be outside unless you’re choosing the outside. You can be quickly housed. You don’t have to go on a 300 to 400 person list for housing each week.”

Federal funding, which has supported HHSI’s mission, is not guaranteed in coming years. Community Is Us “is our way of also starting to prepare and lay the groundwork to make sure that we’re not reliant just on federal funding,” Velez Hagler said. Moving toward eliminating homelessness takes “communities, businesses, government and other nonprofits to make this happen. … It takes all of us caring and seeing people as they are.”

Churches and their congregations continue to be invaluable supporters of HHSI. “They’ve opened doors, they’ve provided meals…. volunteered time, and really just walked alongside the individuals,” Velez Hagler said.

The secret sauce: accompaniment

Representatives of two Quad-City churches that support HHSI were among the three panelists who shared insights on addressing homelessness. The Rev. Katy Warren, an associate pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, shared how her faith community focuses on partnerships to address needs, such as housing and supportive services for individuals living with mental health issues. Retired educator Don Fry, representing Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bettendorf, shared how members of his faith community have assisted HHSI with lawn and yard care, among other examples. One family, whose lawn Fry had just mowed, had a picnic in their yard and invited him to have some of their chicken.

The panelists — Burgess, Warren and Fry — encouraged audience members to encourage the wider community’s participation by reaching out to others. “Help people find their place through a conversation. That’s how you help people get started,” Burgess said. Warren added, “Sitting down and actually having a conversation with someone else and learning where they’re coming from, particularly folks who are very different from ourselves, helps us figure out, ‘Where am I needed? Where do I jump in?’” Fry referenced an overarching, faith-based mission: “Love thy neighbor,” and to consider, “If not for the grace of God, there go I.”

Davenport Police Sgt. Andrew Harris, co-coordinator of the Good Neighbor Project, which connects neighbors, fosters relationships and strengthens Davenport pride, appreciated the panel’s encouragement to broaden the concept of neighbor. “The homeless are our neighbors and we need to take care of them,” he said.

Chris Dunn, an outreach navigator with HHSI, said he’s excited about the non-congregate model of shelter. This is a form of shelter that focuses on providing private living space for those in need rather than shared space, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  He knows from his interactions with people living on the streets that some cannot handle being in a community shelter. They would benefit from sheltering in a cabin designed for one person while receiving support services, he said. “It could work here.”

Leslie Kilgannon, who leads the Quad Cities Housing Council (QCHC), said concrete examples of housing models that work “gives people something to think about what’s possible to contribute to the solution to homelessness.”

“I believe accompaniment is the secret sauce to a program like The Bridge program in Bloomington,” said John Cooper, pastoral associate and business manager for St. Anthony Parish in Davenport. That differs from an approach in which unhoused people are placed in low-cost motels when emergency shelters are full. “Engagement and walking with people in a safe, positive environment is important.”

(To learn more about HHSI and how to participate in the Community Is Us campaign, go to humilityhomes.org)

A ‘Housing First’ approach

Humility Homes and Services Inc., based in Davenport, takes a “Housing First” approach, which means ensuring that people have the basic necessities, such as food and a place to live, before attending to other needs.

Once that happens, service providers can help people to focus on getting a job, budgeting properly, attending to substance abuse issues or other needs. Housing First also views client choice as part of the equation in housing selection and supportive service participation. Exercising that choice is “likely to make a client more successful in remaining housed and improving their lives,” HHSI states in a news release about its Community Is Us campaign.

HHSI notes that one in three Quad-Citians is housing insecure. To meet current housing demand, the Quad Cities require an additional 6,645 housing units. More than 50% of Quad-Citians pay more than 30% of their income on rent and mortgage payments, making them vulnerable to homelessness, especially with rising costs.

Leadership gifts from local philanthropists and corporate partners have generated $2.7 million toward the $2.9 million Community Is Us campaign. Those supporters include the Ryan Foundation, Omaha; Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, Quad Cities; Golinvaux Family Fund, Scott County; and the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, Davenport. To learn more about HHSI and how to participate in the Community Is Us campaign, go to humilityhomes.org