Allies of homeless brave bitter cold to hold demonstration

The icy cold under the Richland Avenue bridge Saturday morning rattled the bones of the 92 people walking in that part of the seventh annual Walk for the Homeless. Twenty yards away, the river was freezing over as the families, students, ROTC members and other concerned community members stopped to shiver and listen.

The icy cold under the Richland Avenue bridge Saturday morning rattled the bones of the 92 people walking in that part of the seventh annual Walk for the Homeless. Twenty yards away, the river was freezing over as the families, students, ROTC members and other concerned community members stopped to shiver and listen.

Rocks piled under the bridge serve as shelter for people who have no place to go, explained the volunteers leading the "The No Room at the Inn Walk." Then they told the story of homeless Laura, just like they did at each stop, all places in Athens where someone might find shelter.

Last year as the story goes, Laura called the Timothy House, an Athens emergency shelter program for the homeless that provides between 150 and 225 people with shelter each year. She hoped to get a room at the shelter, but she was turned away because the shelter was at its 15-person maximum capacity. In 2008, the shelter was forced to turn away 80 people.

"You know that it's cold outside, don't you?" asked Keith Wasserman, founder and executive director of Good Works, Inc., the organization that hosts the Walk for the Homeless and manages the Timothy House. "When you're homeless and the shelter is full, it's very cold outside," he added. "In our city, it is illegal for us to take in more people than we have. It is illegal for us to help people, and that is morally wrong."

Wasserman preached in the First United Methodist Church basement, 2 S. College St., before about 400 participants broke up into the five walking groups, each getting a different homeless tour. His message was a call to the community to spread awareness about homelessness in Athens, specifically to address local legislation restricting Good Works.

In September 2007, Good Works attempted to purchase the property next to the Timothy House on Central Avenue. They wanted to expand the shelter to help an increasing number of homeless, but the city denied their request because of a zoning issue.

Recently, a group of 18 local pastors signed a letter asking the city to address the issue of homelessness and zoning, one step in addressing homelessness in Athens.

In September 2007, the Athens Board of Zoning Appeals rejected a zoning variance request from Good Works that would have paved the way for the expansion. At the time, board members apologized to Good Works but said they couldn't overrule the requirements of the city code. Approving the variance, they said, would have expanded an already non-conforming use in the west-side neighborhood, in effect approving a variance of a variance. At the time, many people spoke on behalf of Good Works' request, though two members of the Westside Community Association spoke against it, as well as a neighbor of the facility.

Currently, 1,000 people are waiting for housing with the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority. Median household income in Athens is $29,785 per year, $19,149 less than the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. (The household figures, as differentiated from family income, include Ohio University students who live off campus.)

The solution to helping the homeless isn't big or complicated, according to Wasserman. It's about everyone doing just a little bit in making a big difference, he said.

"There are many heroic people in the world and you can point to your own heroes, whether that's Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or anyone else," he said. "But where are the heroic communities? Where are the communities that band together to do heroic things? Let's become a heroic community."

 

EACH WALK RECREATED a different homeless experience. One group saw a tent city, another dramatized myths about homelessness, and another simulated being homeless. Participants also brought in donations for Good Works, raising $37,000 and counting as donations are still coming.

The Richland Avenue bridge was just one stop on the "No Room at the Inn Walk," one of the five walks. The concept behind the event was to increase awareness by educating the participants and drawing the attention of onlookers as each of the five walks went through populated areas.

Walkers carried signs with biblical passages and homeless statistics. One young girl packaged in neon layers held a sign that read, "Are the poor and homeless invisible to you?"

The "No Room at the Inn Walk" toured locations across the city where someone might go to find shelter. The group stopped at the Athens City Parking Garage, the Richland Avenue bridge, Baker Center, outside Alden Library and the Gathering Place, a community-based support organization to help people struggling with mental illness.

"The truth is that there is a ladder of stability," said Andrea Horsch, director of care-giving for Good Works and the "No Room at the Inn Walk" leader. "People at the top and the middle rungs reach a place where they can't make a house payment. But they don't fall off the ladder completely. If you have stable income, you just fall down a few rungs and knock off people below you."

The problem now, Horsch said, is that the Ohio government is facing an economic crisis. Money is coming out of the system and impacting programs that help the homeless.

After finishing the tour, Horcsh introduced a couple former Timothy House residents to talk about their experiences with homelessness.

"What does a homeless person look like?" said James Stennies, a Timothy House resident in 2008. "I'm sure you've all seen homeless people but do you really know what a homeless person looks like? I was homeless, but I don't think I looked like a homeless person."

Stennies, who was attending classes at OU, found himself looking for a place to live. He bounced from bad living situation to bad living situation. Eventually, he was living in his car and a storage facility he had rented. When he originally was referred to Timothy House, he said he was rejected because it was full, but got a phone call a week later notifying of a room opening.

"While I was there, I had a chance to relax my mind because I didn't have to worry about where I was going to live," Stennies said.

 

THAT'S WHAT WASSERMAN lives for, instilling hope in the hopeless. When he talks about hope, even to just one reporter in the corner of a church basement, his eyes gaze off as if he's addressing a crowd. His hands animate his passion like a preacher on his pulpit.

"Those of us with resources, when we are able to express our care for others through personal sacrifice and at times a measure of suffering, we bring transformation to other people," Wasserman said. "We bring hope to so many people."