Tag

homelessness

May 09

Wheeler Mission CEO Rick Alvis reflects on decades of nonprofit service

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

When Rick Alvis took over as CEO of Wheeler Mission in 1990, the challenges of homelessness seemed clear cut.

Alvis, who had previously served as CEO of an Evansville homeless shelter for 10 years, recalled the profile of the typical client at that time. “During the late ’70s and ’80s, a homeless person was really just an alcoholic,” he said. “We weren’t dealing with drugs. We weren’t dealing with mental health issues. If somebody would ask me to describe what a homeless person looks like, I could quickly say it was a white male that had an alcoholic problem and actually had a skill.

“Today, you not only have alcohol challenges, but you also see drug addiction and mental health issues,” said Alvis, who recently announced his retirement from Wheeler Mission. “It has significantly shifted over the past 40 years from being a simple problem to a very complex problem because you must deal with all three of those issues.”

Under Alvis’ leadership during the past 32 years, Wheeler Mission has undergone significant changes, many of them to address the increasingly complex challenges involved in alleviating homelessness. The nonprofit organization, which had 17 employees and a budget of $700,000 in 1990, now has the distinction of being Indiana’s largest nonprofit that serves people challenged with homelessness. Wheeler Mission, which currently has 175 employees and a budget of nearly $16 million, has navigated three mergers, expanded its reach to include women and children, implemented comprehensive programs to address the challenges of drug addiction, and launched a capital fundraising campaign that resulted in the development of the Wheeler Mission’s Center for Women & Children, a state-of-the-art building in Indianapolis that serves up to 367 women and children a day.

Leading through constant change

The ability to adapt to change, as well as proactively pursue change through innovation, has been at the core of Wheeler Mission’s growth, according to Alvis.

“As I look back, it helped me to continually look at our ministry and our programs through new eyes,” Alvis said. “One of my chief program officers always says, ‘Rick’s never satisfied with our programs. Well, that’s true. I’m never satisfied because I want to make sure that our programs are on the cutting edge. Leaders today can get bogged down with protecting the programs they created. I tell our team that it’s open season (on programs) when it comes to strategic planning. Nothing is sacred, even if I created it.”

One of the most challenging tests of that philosophy came when the organization faced a financial crunch in the midst of the Great Recession throughout 2008 and 2009, Alvis recalled. “We had to cut a huge chunk of our budget, which meant we had to cease some programming,” he said.

For an organization that dates back to 1893, determining which programs needed to be canceled was tough, Alvis said. “We had programming here at Wheeler since the Depression years that I decided I needed to go. That probably was among the hardest decisions that we had to make.”

As a leader, making decisions like that, which included cutting a youth outreach program, can also be unpopular, Alvis said.

“One of those programs was what had attracted me to Wheeler 32 years ago,” he said. “For me to let that one go was very hard.”

Throughout his tenure, Alvis said, it was key to make sure that donors’ dollars were being maximized and used appropriately. “We wanted to make sure we are doing the best possible thing that we can with programs. And if there’s something that I created that needs to go, then it must go.”

Expanding support through mergers and new programs

Seeking to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness also was central to the three mergers Alvis helped to lead during his decades of service to Wheeler Mission. He noted that the first merger with the Care Center in 2000 evolved from a need to better serve women and children. A merger with the Lighthouse Mission followed in 2006, and a 2015 merger with Backstreet Missions in Bloomington helped the organization strengthen services outside of Indianapolis.

“Those three mergers were very significant to Wheeler’s history. We wanted to do a good job of meeting people’s needs, not just men,” he said. “Prior to the merger with the Care Center, Wheeler didn’t have a residential program for women.”

In adapting to the changing needs of people experiencing homelessness, Wheeler Mission also invested in innovative offerings, including an addiction recovery camp on 300 acres. The Hunt Training Center in Bloomington, male participants undergo a six-month comprehensive program in which they cover topics such as anger, worry, biblical communication, relationships and change.

The program, which was launched in 2000, has been effective in helping the participants overcome their addictions, Alvis said. “It’s been great to see men come out of addiction and be productive people again,” he said. 

Although the COVID-19 pandemic limited the team’s ability to expand the program throughout 2020 and 2021, Wheeler is focused on increasing capacity and re-introducing a lodging component that allows family members to visit on weekends. “It allows us to minister to the entire family because the wife and children need just as much help as the man does,” Alvis added. “It helps them recalibrate their marriages and their relationships, which I think is key to the success of our program.”

In addition to providing a focus on addiction recovery at the camp, Wheeler also has made it an integral offering at its Center for Women & Children homeless shelter on East Michigan Street. 

As Wheeler Mission continues to evolve to meet the needs of people facing homelessness, it will always continue to rely on the generosity of its supporters, Alvis stressed.

“Individual donors contribute to 80 percent of our income,” he said. “We always encourage people to give, volunteer and donate food. Others can help by influencing the legislature in some ways to address homelessness throughout the state and in the city. And, of course, people can always pray for us because that’s our No. 1 need. That’s pretty cheap. Prayer doesn’t cost you anything.”

Nov 08

How do we reimagine shelter?: Pandemic forces Indianapolis leaders to seek new ways to address homelessness

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

In recognition of National Homeless Awareness Month, Not-for-profit News gained insights from nonprofit leaders on the latest efforts to support those experiencing homelessness.

When Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb issued a “stay-at-home order” on March 23, 2020, it became painfully clear that not all Hoosiers would have an equal ability to safely navigate the global pandemic of COVID-19, including people experiencing homelessness.

“It’s hard to be safe when you don’t have a home,” said Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), the organization leading The Indianapolis Community Plan to End Homelessness 2018-2023. “The way people were able to stay safe during the pandemic was to stay in their homes and engage in all the hygiene practices. That’s really scary if you don’t have that home in the midst of a public health crisis. It really elevated the nation of housing really is healthcare. We have to continue investing in and supporting permanent housing choices for people.”

Since the outbreak of COVID, community leaders and government officials have combined efforts to meet the needs of the city’s homeless as their numbers have swelled — to 1,928 on any given night based on a January 2021 point-in-time count. That’s up from 1,588 in January 2020. While some of those differences may be traced to a different counting method — over a five-day period instead of a one-night period, numerous factors have led to an increasing number of people experiencing homelessness, Haring Cozzi said.

In the past, Haring-Cozzi said, people may have avoided being counted in the homeless system because they relied on couch surfing for shelter. “What we saw this last year with COVID, people who may have stayed with family and friends found that was no longer a viable option. People are now saying, ‘I can’t run the risk of additional people in my house outside of the family unit.’”

Also, with social distancing rules in place, congregant housing, like Wheeler Mission’s shelters, were required to reduce the numbers of guests to abide by guidelines for social distancing during the pandemic.

Clearly, those challenges aren’t over. “We’re still in the midst of the pandemic,” Haring-Cozzi said. “Because of COVID, there are more people experiencing homeless, living unsheltered, and who are housing unstable.”

Another major complication in meeting the needs of those facing homelessness is inadequate staffing, according to Perry Hines, chief development officer for Wheeler Mission. Employee shortages have made it increasingly difficult to support initiatives to expand services at a time when they’re most needed. During a normal year, Hines said, the organization would serve 700-800 people with beds and/or meals at its facilities. In 2020, that number climbed to 1,200-1,300 per day because of the increased need, he said. 

“This year, we are planning for increased demand. What that means is finding beds and anticipating an increased need for food and social services — especially during the winter contingency time frame, which is Nov. 1 through March 31,” Hines said. 

However, some of the programs needed to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness, such as overseeing accommodations in hotels, require additional staffing, Hines said. 

“We are severely lacking in employees. We need help. At any given time, we will have 20 to 30 job openings. Our employees have a tough job. They’re on the front lines,” he said. “A lot of times our employees can go to McDonald’s and get $15 an hour. We don’t pay $15 an hour, so that makes it real tough to keep things in place. On top of the demand for more services and more people coming into your doors, you’re having a tough time getting qualified people to help open the doors.”

Planning a future with minimal homelessness

While the impact of COVID has been devastating for many individuals and families with inadequate housing or no housing, it has been impactful in accelerating collaboration around how to imagine alternatives to homeless shelters, Haring-Cozzi said. 

One of the primary ways that leaders are envisioning a new path is by considering alternatives to the prevailing sheltering model.

“A lot of sheltering is based on these congregate models,” Haring-Cozzi said. “That doesn’t allow for spaces where people can isolate and have privacy and for family units to stay together. The pandemic and the use of hotels really opened up a lot of our community leaders’ eyes on how to create safe sheltering models — one that serves public health purposes and serves the purpose of keeping families together. It becomes housing-centered.”

Those experiences helped shift the conversation to how to get people connected to permanent housing, Haring-Cozzi added. “We have started some intentional work around shelters being part of a rehousing process and not a destination — not a place where people stay for long periods of time,” she said. 

Another layer of support that needed to be addressed is the access to technology, according to Haring-Cozzi. With so many services going virtual during the pandemic, including mental health services, many people experiencing homelessness didn’t have the technology to access them. “We realized we have to make services accessible in a different type of way,” she said.

Hines also said that efforts must focus on expanding support services, including those that address mental health and addictions, to ensure that the needs of a segment of the population experiencing homelessness are met. 

“We are always asking how can we do more beyond addressing the immediate needs? That’s the emergency shelter part. We also are asking how can we solve the underlying problem? That’s the social work part,” Hines said. “We know that there are a lot of joblessness issues that result from mental health and addiction issues. Our hope and dream is that we want to end homeless in Indianapolis but that means addressing both the structural issues as well as the underlying causes.”

Haring-Cozzi said that she is hopeful that significant change can be realized as a result of the millions of dollars in federal funds targeted to homelessness throughout the nation, including Indianapolis. “This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to take these federal resources and really focus on how you shift systems and how you help support people getting back into permanent housing,” she said.

She also said that the collaboration around addressing homelessness — among nonprofit agencies, service providers, and government entities — will be instrumental in realizing real change.

“I’ve seen collaboration this past year in ways I have never seen it before,” she said. “We’re all working under the same shared agenda. We’re trying to keep people healthy and then get them into housing. That’s significant. This last year really helped kind of solidify that shared vision. We don’t want to manage homelessness. We really want to move towards ending it.”

Oct 16

Battling homelessness relies on dedication, collaboration

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

The thought process in itself is pretty elementary. Identify a problem, and then get smart heads get together to find a solution. On paper, it sounds good, but real life can be another story.

The problem of homelessness is an issue that has vexed politicians and social service agencies for a long time. It’s complicated because it is so multifaceted.

In previous nonprofit positions at the Damien Center in Indianapolis and the Orange County AIDS Services Foundation in California, Alan Witchey has worked with marginalized populations and saw how their plights can spiral into homelessness. Since 2015, he has been the executive director of the Indianapolis-based Coalition For Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), and housing has become his primary job focus.

One thing he has come to believe is that solving the problem of homelessness has to be a group effort.

“Coming to CHIP was a great opportunity to think about how to solve homelessness from a collective perspective. An agency cannot solve a community problem alone. It can help people, and do good work, but it takes people working together, especially on a large issue like homelessness. One of the things, I think, has been very exciting is that I have really seen evolution and change in philosophy in Indianapolis among the homeless providers,” said Witchey, a 1990 graduate of Indiana University.

And what are some of the changes?

One is agreement to use a coordinated entry system. Together with providers, CHIP is launching a common housing application and vulnerability assessment.

According to Mike Chapuran, executive director of Family Promise, a nonprofit family shelter on the city’s Eastside, local shelters have verbally agreed to the updated system. Before now, a family seeking shelter would have to call each shelter to find one with a vacancy. Now, those seeking housing will complete an application, and CHIP will manage the list and prioritize the need.

And while it won’t immediately solve the capacity problem in the city for homeless families and individuals, it will prioritize housing, and add data to better understand the extent of the problem.  “That’s an enormous change for our community,” said Witchey.

CHIP realizes that the actual homeless numbers aren’t always easy to quantify. Every January, volunteers go to shelters, transitional housing and encampments to gain an annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count. This year’s results found the amount of people homeless in the city increased by 10 percent – giving Indianapolis the highest homeless count since 2014. Currently, 1,787 people are without homes, according to CHIP.

“We don’t ever think that we get to everybody, but we think we’re pretty good at counting, getting to a lot of people, not everybody,” Witchey said.

For example, the Hispanic homeless population is well hidden in Indianapolis and across the state. And Witchey believes there are other populations that are missed from the count.  The LGBTQ population, as well as some other youth populations, frequently double up or sleep on somebody’s couch and would be missed.

In July, CHIP teamed up with Outreach, which has been working with homeless youth for over 20 years, and the Indiana University Public Policy Institute (PPI) to conduct the first Youth Count Indy of ages 18 to 24. The data will help build a case for federal funding, expand advocacy efforts and educate the public. Outreach, a faith-based nonprofit, opened a new program facility on the city’s Eastside in April and hopes to serve more than 400 to 425 annually.

CHIP is not a direct service provider, but is helping to lead the way and change systems.

“I think we’re going in the right direction, and we still have a ways to go. There are some communities that are way ahead of us, and we haven’t been acting this way for a long time.

“You cannot expect a homeless service provider to be thinking systemically because they are dealing with the immediate crisis. People are walking in the door homeless every day, and they’re trying solve having no place to live,” said Witchey.

Chapuran agrees that his staff is constantly responding to a family’s crisis. When a mom needs a ride to work, it’s difficult say “no” because a collaborative meeting takes precedence. But he also understands it is important work for changes to happen.

Collaborative work can be challenging. While an agency receiving HUD funding has a requirement to participate in developing collaborative solutions, many of Indianapolis’ providers are privately funded. Witchey believes it’s CHIP’s job to build a compelling case to work together.

One of those changes has been the work of street workers. In August, CHIP hired Tom Tuttle, a social worker with 10 years experience, to manage the Street Reach Indy program. While a similar program to give money to organizations rather than panhandlers started in 2014, this one has a full-time position dedicated to outreach Downtown and work with businesses.

There was a time when every agency did its own street operation, sometimes reaching the same person in the same day. But that has changed in the past five years. Now, Professional Blended Street Outreach (PBSO) combines 22 different agencies and has standards for the way services are provided.

These teams provide first-response services to the city’s homeless and are made up of organizations that include local law-enforcement, nonprofits, health providers and mental health entities. Horizon House does the on-the-ground coordination.

CHIP has begun hosting quarterly provider meetings and creating common outcomes.  At these sessions, providers talk about how individual programs and agencies are doing based on those agreed-upon metrics.

Chapuran believes that Witchey is bringing providers the best practices from HUD and randomized studies that help support all of their work. Statistics show that 93 percent of the homeless who are rehoused remain housed one year later, and 94 percent of those who receive homeless prevention do not fall into homelessness over the coming year.

And while providers have made changes, Indianapolis’ housing resources have lagged. In his annual State of the City address, Mayor Hogsett committed to provide 400 additional spots for homeless residents.

According to CHIP, last year the city had 1,059 shelter beds, and 26 beds in two shelters dedicated to youth. While the city’s homeless population is smaller than other large cities, a study concluded that faith-based groups provide 77 percent of beds for Indianapolis’ homeless. So the city’s involvement is key.

Hogsett directive was simple. “We need this challenge as a community to push ourselves. And this community can rise to help solve it,” he said.

As part of the solution, CHIP, together with United Way of Central Indiana and Eskenzi Health, created and funded a new position called the Senior Strategy Director for Homelessness. Since August, Rodney Stockment has been on the job. He is responsible for helping to align the city’s efforts around homelessness and to address the challenge of finding the 400 additional beds.

“He really is mapping it out and going through all the different affordable housing projects and programs. He is finding out where there are empty units, where there are upcoming units and identifying those, so we can actually place people in them. And then, we’re working with different funders to help fund either temporary rental subsides or ongoing subsides to help people as they move into those units. So it really is a collaborative effort, but it’s great that we were able to create this position at the city,” said Witchey.

The funders envisioned a two-to-three year position focused on how to identify potential units and connecting homeless people to those units. By the end of September, Stockment had identified 168 units of the 400.

For additional assistance, CHIP brought members of the Cleveland Mediation Center to Indianapolis for a two-day divergent training on how to mediate crisis situations.

Chapuran said the training can help with immediate needs.

“We’re excited about beginning the conversation to see how we can with modest financial support and in-home case management potentially keep a family that needs housing in the home where they’re staying and help manage a conflict. While doubling up is not a perfect solution, if there’s no shelter space, it’s better than the street,” said Chapuran.

CHIP has also developed program standards and strategies for outreach, transitional housing and permanent housing.

And it has piloted new models. Over the last year and a half, Indianapolis has invested in a Housing-First model and tracked its progress. Called Penn Place, the 38 furnished one-bedroom apartments opened last winter. Residents are surrounded by support services. Witchey said an evaluation of the facility was just completed.

“A lot of those pieces have existed for many years here, but there wasn’t a sort of consistent effort to bring it here and have fidelity to that model. So we did that when we opened Penn Place about a year and a half ago, which was a collaborative between BWI Developers, Insight Development Corporation, Indianapolis Housing Authority, Eskenazi, Midtown Mental Health and Horizon House.

Are we close to solving the homeless problem?

According to Chapuran, “Other cities have demonstrated what’s possible. Utah, especially Salt Lake City has addressed and “solved” the problem of homeless veterans.

“We know that individuals are going to be without homes. There will be family that kicks them out, there will be evictions, but can we make sure that they have a roof over their heads on the day that they become homeless. There are cities that have done that.

“So in that sense, we know the solutions are out there. But in Indy right now, we are working towards them. Thanks to CHIP in the last year, especially, we are finally implementing and having the working groups create policies and procedures around what other cities are doing, and so that gives me a lot of hope,” he said.