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THE DROP
Open Hearts,
OPEN HOMES Homelessness in Athens is on the rise, but some locals are doing everything in their power to help. BY KELSI BOWES | PHOTOS BY DANIEL RADAR AND KELSI BOWES
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ucked away at the end of Central Avenue, the Timothy House is more than it first appears. Despite its deceptively small appearance from the outside, it is actually a homeless shelter that houses 15 residents year-round—the only such shelter in nine surrounding counties. Its warm and inviting atmosphere is a reflection of those that live and work there. “They are not homeless. They are a person that is experiencing a situation called homelessness,” Keith Wasserman, founder of Good Works Inc., stresses. “And [Good Works] thinks it is important to separate what is going on in someone’s life from who they really are.”
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backdrop | Fall 2012
The Works
Good Works was founded by Wasserman in 1981 and has developed into a parent organization which branches off to include 20 other projects including the Timothy House. It provides housing for anywhere from 150 to 225 people each year. There are full-time staff members and roughly 60 people who volunteer throughout the year to help keep the shelter going. “There is a deep sense of caring that goes on with the people in this community,” Wasserman shares. “. . . This community provides almost 100 percent of [Good Works’] meals, over 21,000 meals this year—primarily from donations.” Athens’ mayor, Paul Wiehl, also thinks the local community does much to help. “[Good Works] is the only [homeless shelter] in eight or nine counties,” Wiehl points out. “So, therefore, in one sense we are probably doing more than any other county in this location.” In order to guarantee that Wasserman and his staff run Good Works in the most caring and supportive way possible, he uses an unconventional training method; Wasserman actually chooses to live in homeless shelters. In over 20 years, he has
According to the 2010 Census, 46.2 million people in the United States live below the poverty line.
lived homeless 10 different times, in 10 different cities. “Each of these experiences, I’ve done them intentionally because I want to see what it’s like to be on the other side,” Wasserman says. “It completely revolutionizes how we do things, particularly how we treat people.” He adds that it replenishes the compassion he and his workers show toward those they help. This is important to him because he wants Good Works to be as humane as possible. “The most significant thing about humanizing is are we loving people? Are we respecting them? Do they feel honored?” Wasserman clarifies. “ . . . Do they feel a sense of dignity?” Wasserman also emphasizes that homelessness is really an experience of loss. “Not only have you lost your housing, but you’ve also lost your support system,” Wasserman says. “Then you’ve lost your source of income, and you’ve lost your sense of sanity, and you’ve lost your sense of identity. And all these combine to create a great deal of instability.”
The Impact of the University
For people without homes in Athens, the OU community can provide some benefits due in large to the amount of support from the student population. “The OU students are great. Student clubs, they raise a lot of money,” Nicolas Claussen, community relations coordinator for the Athens County Job and Family Services, says. “. . . And there’s a whole Community Involvement Center in Baker where they send students out to help with different things.” But experiencing homelessness near the university also has some consequences. Because of the high demand for housing, lessors are able to maintain steep rent prices. Most of the residents of the Timothy House that are working fulltime are unable to afford the price of rent in Athens.
By the People, for the People
The state of the economy in Athens is also a significant reason that people become homeless. To soften the blow, Athens County Job and Family Services is responsible for many different types of assistance such as welfare, cash assistance and food assistance. In addition, they refer people to Good Works. Claussen says that there are about 2,000 people a month on cash assistance and about 11,000 on food assistance in Athens. But the assistance Athens County Job and Family Services is able to provide just isn’t enough. “Assistance needs to be expanded. A lot of people aren’t even eligible for assistance,” he notes. “If you’re single and you don’t have any kids, you’re not going to get cash assistance.” Claussen adds, “If we just provided more money for assistance, it would alleviate a lot of problems because people meet their basic needs.” Another fundamental problem the community faces while attempting to aid people without homes, aside from funding, is shelter. Because of the lack of available housing, Good Works has been forced to make some very tough decisions. In 2011, they had to turn away 142 people seeking shelter. This year they have turned away over 248 people,
including families with children. And the year isn’t over yet. “It’s very difficult to operate a 15-bed shelter as the only place for people without homes in nine counties,” Wasserman confesses. “We have maximum capacity all the time.” In 2007, Good Works applied for a variance in order to renovate the house next door to the Timothy House. Wasserman says they had wanted to use the property to focus on providing shelter and for families, while under the supervision of Good Works. But the variance was denied. “The official reason? It’s not in the code,” Wasserman explains. “We knew that. That’s why we applied for a variance. But we were denied the variance because it’s not in the code . . . it’s a circular argument.” When applying for a variance, the cases are brought to the Board of Zoning Appeals, a citizen board that decides what is acceptable and what is not. “[Wasserman]’s been given many variances and he’s been denied some variances as well,” Wiehl says. “. . . To change the code, it’s easy to say that. But the fact is, when you change the code there are unintended consequences. Changing the law is a broad brush there to dealing with the problem. That’s why the Zoning Board of Appeals exists.” In January of this year, several people spoke at a public meeting voicing their concerns about the problem of homelessness in Athens. After a six-month commitment to addressing the issues, Wasserman went to the June meeting and Wiehl responded, “We talked about it.” Wiehl says that the main focus of the meeting was to “get all the resources together and make sure everybody is talking to each other.” “The city has a very specific role, whether they like it or not,” Wasserman says. “They have enormous power, and they have a role to play. The question is: will they do their part?” However, the city’s part is complicated. “We do as much as we can, but there’s not a lot we can do in many cases,” Wiehl says. “ . . . But what is the role of government to do in these things? Do we apply dollars for homeless? Do we let the private non-profits do it? Do we let the church groups, the volunteer groups do it?” he asks. For the time being, the Athens community must work with the resources that are available to them in order to help those who need it most. “I’ve said from the beginning [that] homelessness is not a Good Works problem; it is a community problem,” Wasserman states. “It’s against the law to do more than we’re doing now. There is something wrong with that.”
In 2010 more than 30 percent of Americans dropped out of high school.
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