Transatlantic Practice Exchange: Reflections on a US Shelter Visit

May 17, 2017

Transatlantic Practice Exchange: Reflections on a US Shelter Visit

In April 2017 I spent two weeks in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of the Transatlantic Practice Exchange, find me on twitter @ruthfranciszka and follow #homelesslearning

Whilst I was in Grand Rapids I had my first experience of the American Shelter system, I visited Mel Trotter Ministries, a Christian shelter and the largest provider of emergency accommodation in the city, over 300 homeless, men, women and families sleep there every night.

One of the biggest culture shocks I experienced during my time in the US was the difference in the systems supporting family homelessness. In the UK families with dependent children are considered in priority need and by law must be given emergency accommodation until permanent housing is secured; in the US there is no equivalent legislation; there are a shortage of family shelter beds and it is not uncommon for families, with children to rough sleep.

At Mel Trotter the family and women’s emergency shelters are set up as individual bed sits or small dormitories, whereas the men’s shelter is set up as one large dormitory made up of over 180 bunk beds that are fully occupied every night.

When I visited during the day dormitory was empty, but it was easy to imagine the noise and commotion that 180 people living in such close quarters must create. As with most shelters of this scale outbreaks of bed bugs are common; as a result, personal belongings of residents on the family, women’s and youth sides of the building are treated overnight in a specialist heat treatment facility. Men’s belongings are not treated, but are surrendered at the door for collection the following morning.

The ministry offers a variety of faith based programmes; including vitamin based none-medical detoxes and programmes geared towards employment or addiction recovery.

If participants choose to enter one of these programmes they are able to move out of the large communal dormitory to a smaller dormitory where they can keep their belongings with them and secure a regular bed without queueing outside on a nightly basis. Further involvement in programmes can lead to moving up to a higher floor of the building where participants have their own apartment style rooms.

The ministry offers separate accommodation for unaccompanied young homeless men (aged 18-24) unaccompanied young women live within the main female population. There is move on accommodation available to some of the young people, they pay a subsidised rent, and a portion of this is placed in a savings account for the young people to use as a future security deposit.

Many of the organisation’s services, such as catering are funded through donations and are provided by volunteers, although the ministry does not offer any paid employment options to its participants, it does offer letters of reference for homeless volunteers leaving the programme and seeking employment.

The ministry also runs the Public Inebriate Shelter where community members who are publicly drunk can be bought, up to several times a day, to sober up, shower, eat and sleep. People accessing the clinic are offered sign posting to substance misuse services and access to faith based recovery is strongly encouraged. The public inebriate service is designed to reduce the cost and burden on Accident and Emergency services and is supervised by registered nurses.

As well as the clinic the ministry offers free medical care services, such as dentistry and optometry to the wider community as well as shelter residents. In the US access to medical care is generally restricted to those who can afford to pay for health insurance and even an emergency ambulance journey carries a cost to the patient; as a result these free services are a vital resource, not just to the homeless population, but to low income households across Grand Rapids.

The sheer scale of Mel Trotter ministries felt difficult to apply to a UK context, however in some ways the model is not dissimilar to the UK hostel or night shelter system; often participants move through a programme as they are deemed to have reached a level of housing readiness. While housing resources do not match demand, there is a vital place for emergency shelter, however currently in both the UK and US most of our emergency accommodation systems do not naturally support a strengths based approach; they rely on needs led, deficit based assessment and require residents to prove housing readiness before they can move on.

Community Rebuilders also offer emergency accommodation, currently this is on a much smaller scale than the ministry and takes the form of a fully furnished 5 bed house, specifically for homeless veterans. The house belongs to a private landlord, CR have built a relationship with the landlord, involving him in their mission to end veteran homelessness in Kent County, as a result the property is finished and furnished to an incredibly high standard; providing a calm, safe base for the residents to, with the support of their Housing Resource Specialist, move on to their own tenancy. In comparison to the emergency shelters I can’t help thinking how much easier concentrating on your goals and planning the future would be in an environment like this.