We discuss homelessness in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County: The systems in
place to help people, and how they fail sometimes.
Special guests:
* Greg Pratt, longtime advocate, affiliated with Washtenaw Camp Outreach,
and the Housing and Human Services Advisory Board.
* Ariah Schugat, a person who recently experienced homelessness in Ann
Arbor.
Please sign this petition from Health For All / Yma Johnson calling on the
Washtenaw County Health Department / County Board of Commissioners to use
its emergency powers to freeze eviction processes through the end of the
school year.
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/use-emergency-powers-freeze-evictions-until-school-year-ends-washtenaw-county-health-dept/
Health For All Washtenaw: http://www.healthforallwashtenaw.org/
Other organizations mentioned in this episode:
Washtenaw Camp Outreach
https://www.facebook.com/washcampoutreach/?view_public_for=105028904610453&ref=
MISSION
http://www.missiona2.org/
Mercy House
https://www.facebook.com/mercy.house.39
Peace House, Ypsi
https://www.facebook.com/PeaceHouseYpsi
Transcript
NOTE: This version of the transcript was generated by an automated transcription tool and will contain (sometimes hilarious) errors. When we have time for human editing to clean this up we will update it, but we hope this imperfect version is better than nothing.
Michelle (00:00:00):
Hi, and welcome to this episode of Ann Arbor af, a podcast for folks trying to figure out what’s going on in Ann Arbor. We discuss current events in local politics and policy and governance and other civic good times. I’m Michelle Hughes. My pronouns are she, her and I. I’m joined by two guests today to talk about our special topic. Why don’t you introduce yourselves?
Greg (00:00:26):
Hi, I’m Greg Pratt. I am pronouns are he him. And I’ve lived in Ann Arbor for, or Ypsilanti, actually for the last 25 years, Ann Arbor for probably the last 11. And I work with a newer organization that formed in the wake of the pandemic, the Wasaw Camp Outreach, as well as I serve on the Housing and Human Services Advisory board for the city of Ann Arbor.
Ariah (00:01:01):
Hello, my name is Ariaga and I am here to discuss my kind of adventures through the organizations of Washtenaw County. As I struggled with being newly homeless after an event that took place in mid August, I am now housed, but I’m hoping that I can use my experience to help improve other people’s situation in the area.
Michelle (00:01:33):
Yeah, this is good stuff. So yeah, as you may have guessed, the topic today is homelessness. This is one of our deeper dive episodes. We try to do those in between. We here on this show, we usually do an episode covering what’s on the upcoming city council agendas. And then on the weeks when there’s not a city council meeting coming up, we do a deeper dive on the issue. And this week’s issue is homelessness. And I was inspired partially because of winter is coming up and I had heard that we were previously, the city previously had a bunch of hotel rooms at this Red Roof Inn that was set up to handle homeless people in during this pandemic with a little bit more social distancing. And then I’d heard that those hotel rooms were being shut down. And so I thought, okay, what is the situation right now? And so are the systems that are in place. And then Aria, I hope you could tell us how it actually feels to try and access those systems and what happened for you. So I don’t know who wants to talk first here.
Ariah (00:02:48):
I guess I’ll start. Okay. I came to Ann Arbor on the 19th of August and landed immediately at the Ann Arbor U of m er.
Michelle (00:03:02):
The emergency room?
Ariah (00:03:03):
Yes, the emergency room with $278 to my name and a fresh injury from an ex-boyfriend. And I was newly homeless at this point.
(00:03:18):
I was seen by the doctors and very shortly after discharged because there was no immediate danger to my health. They prescribed me a pain medication for, well, an inflammatory inflammation medication, sorry for my shoulder pain, which I couldn’t fill till the next day because no pharmacies are open after 9:00 PM I was immediately told to call Safe House Center for Domestic Violence victims and to kind of go from there. Unfortunately, safe House Center couldn’t see me because of social distancing, pandemic, and they didn’t really want to bring new people who were from out of town into more local concentrations of people.
Michelle (00:04:13):
It makes me think about how this pandemic is hurting everyone, but it hurts most the people who already are be hurt, are hurt most by everything.
Greg (00:04:25):
And with that in mind, I’m just wondering, aria, did they suggest or offer you one of the hotel rooms that Michelle was referring to in the opening segment here?
Ariah (00:04:41):
No, I had never heard, well, I heard of that very late into my time working with Lannis. Like once I got a case manager, he very briefly spoke about the Red Roof and kind of housing a bunch of homeless people, but now that they got all that money, they were doing a big remodel and thus removing all the homeless people to hopefully bring in more profitable clientele, so to speak. And so that’s what I was told about that. But that was only around September 4th, maybe right before they closed the warming center on the seventh.
Greg (00:05:28):
That makes sense with the timeline of how things kind of went down, but okay.
Michelle (00:05:33):
So you said that you first called Safe House and they said they were full ups. And then what happened from there?
Ariah (00:05:42):
I ended up sleeping in the lobby of the ER for a day. I had to wait till 11:00 AM to go to the hospital pharmacy and fill the prescription. But because I still had nowhere to stay and was unable to get far without pain affecting my mobility, I ended up just waiting in the lobby until my aunt could get me the next day. And then from there we got a motel room and then it was just kind of on me to do things. Yeah, I was, should I say the name of the business or no?
Michelle (00:06:34):
I don’t know
Ariah (00:06:35):
The day, the days in that I say that. Does it matter? Oh,
Michelle (00:06:38):
Okay. That that’ll be fine. Yeah.
Ariah (00:06:40):
Yeah. Okay.
Greg (00:06:42):
And when you
Michelle (00:06:42):
Say you’re staying at a hotel is what you’re saying? Yeah. Sorry,
Ariah (00:06:44):
Greg ahead. Yeah, I’m staying at a motel.
Michelle (00:06:46):
Okay. Greg, what did you say?
Greg (00:06:49):
Well, when you were saying it was on you, could you say a little bit more what you mean by it was on you to do things?
Ariah (00:06:57):
My aunt has health issues, her husband has health issues. She lives in St. Clair Shores. So it was on me. Okay. I kind of was sink or swim on my own terms. And in the middle of all of this, between the injury having very little money, I was also still am dealing with mental health issues of depression and anxiety. But I was unable to kind of treat or medicate because I had left my last bottle of anxiety meds in a town far away. I am not welcome in. So yes, it was very much on me.
Michelle (00:07:46):
And another thing about it being on you is it, in my ideal scenario, you would’ve gotten in touch with somebody who would’ve seen through and made sure that you know had what you needed. But it sounds like at this point someone just said, try Safe House and Safe House said no, and then you had to figure out what to do from there, right?
Ariah (00:08:08):
Yeah, A lot
Michelle (00:08:09):
Of, wasn’t there? Wasn’t anyone guiding you through the process?
Ariah (00:08:12):
No, not really. A lot of it came down to just being told to call Hawk all the time, call housing access of Washoe County all the time. If I called Safe House, they’d say Call Hawk. If I called theist, they’d say Call Hawk. If I called any of the housing organizations that fall under the kind of umbrella of Washtenaw County, they would all say Call Hawk. And there’s nothing you can do until gets back to you. And because of the timeframe that I came in, there was a lot of waiting. There was Labor Day, so there was that kind of Labor Day weekend where Friday and Monday were just gone. And when you have very little money and your only consistent income is donations from strangers on GoFundMe or Patreon, not Patreon Cash app, it can be very stressful and you have to stretch every dollar,
Michelle (00:09:16):
Every one of these days that you’re not being helped is a big deal. It’s not like you can just be like, oh, okay, I’ll just call in three days.
Ariah (00:09:26):
If you miss a phone call from Hawk or any of the other resources that you may have reached out to, it can be several days before you hear back from them because there is a list of people that they’re going through. It’s not just you. And then weekends are very tough because none of them are open for reasons, but homelessness and all that kind of stuff doesn’t take a break for the weekend organizations can.
Greg (00:09:58):
I just wanted to follow up on, you said that, you know, were being told by everybody you sought help from to call Hawk and including Safe House. Did you talk with House after you were at the hospital or just the one time when you were there?
Ariah (00:10:23):
I called Safe House a few different times. I called them while I was still admitted in the hospital because they brought in a social worker to talk to me about domestic violence and asked if I was still safe and steps that I could take to stay safe if my ex or whoever was trying to find me for whatever reason. A lot of it was like don’t post pictures or say where you are on social media, that kind of stuff. But yeah, a lot of ’em, I called them when I was in the hospital. I called them when I was in the lobby the second day waiting for my aunt. And then probably a week and a half later I tried calling them again to see if they had any resources and they were still saying Call Hawk, but I was already on the triage list with Lanis Center and all that. So I was just going in circles and waiting for availability to happen, which they said it’d probably be a month, but because of covid they’re spacing things out more. So it’d be like two months. And it was two months eventually. Eventually they did get back to me, but I was already housed by that time. So
Greg (00:11:43):
The folks with the triage from the triage program,
Ariah (00:11:48):
My case manager Alex at Lonna Center was the one who got me on the list and I did an inter intake survey and all that kind of stuff when I stayed there a few nights.
Michelle (00:11:59):
So what would that have meant? What is this triage list?
Ariah (00:12:08):
The triage list is for people who come to the Lana Center and they live in the Deana Center on the upper floors, like floor two, three, and four. So when you’re on the triage list, they’ll ask you, do you want to live in the building or they’ll try to find you some kind of subsidized housing through one of the other organizations that falls under Hawk.
Michelle (00:12:28):
Okay. So it’s a more permanent settled situation then because it
Ariah (00:12:34):
Sort of, they’ll pay for the security deposit and things like that for the first month, but you need to have a job before you’re considered for the list or income in general. So yeah, they’ll help you get in there, but then it’s on you to kind of handle it yourself, but it is at a reduced rate. So,
Greg (00:12:58):
And it’s a shelter diver. They’re trying to get people into housing quicker rather than spending more time in shelter
Ariah (00:13:06):
And they want to get them into subsidized housing and stuff like that.
Michelle (00:13:10):
And when you’re in the shelters, how it’s like it’s three people to a room, I heard. Is that how that
Ariah (00:13:17):
Works? I’m not entirely sure about the upper floors. I think at the time I think they were doing about two to three because of covid. But I think I remember talking to one of the, not, I’m not sure, I guess I’ll just call ’em chaperones for the moment. That might be a bit dismissive, but there’s four to six, I think at one point before covid, but they started spreading them out when the red roof in opened up.
Greg (00:13:45):
Yeah, that was actually, so the shutdown happened mid-March, right? Something like that. And they at first maintain we’re working with the,
Michelle (00:14:03):
You’re talking about the The COVID 19 lockdown,
Greg (00:14:06):
The COVID 19 lockdown, the state lockdown, which wasn’t a full lockdown of course, but anyways, the they at first were having the usual four to six per room. And then I think they had two positive diagnoses. And so at that point then, and a lot of the response that happened, the county and all of the service provider organization, shelter Association slash the organization for Denis is Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. They eventually started working on different places to put people, and they eventually found the Red Roof in and worked with the health department to reduce the amount of people they had. I think they had to reduce it to 52 people total in the building at one point during the shutdown. And so this is going through from March, April, and then I think May was when they actually started having the access to the Red Roof Inn. After that they didn’t have any positive diagnoses at all. So putting people in and spreading people out into hotel rooms actually worked pretty well as far as keeping people safer and healthier.
Michelle (00:15:46):
I’ve heard a rumor that the hotel thing also just has better results in terms of getting people back on their feet. Is that right? It’s a less hectic environment. You can,
Greg (00:15:59):
Well, certainly from my perspective, trying to, I had a few patients and folks I was helping who were there compared to Deiss. I mean, they have a phone in the room, you can call them on the phone and talk to them from your office. There’s a place where they can have their own space where you can meet and talk with them socially distanced of course about their personal business, not in front of other people.
Michelle (00:16:32):
And that’s not something they have at des.
Greg (00:16:34):
Not all the time. I well can hard, well actually I didn’t go there during the time Aria was there. And during non Covid times, every once in a while you could squeak out a room, but for the most part be you, you’d be talking about your business Aria in front of other folks potentially who might be walking by.
Ariah (00:17:00):
Definitely there’s very little room for privacy because they are worried that someone might bring contraband or any of that kind of stuff. The showers are very kind of open. There’s like a curtain there, but sound echoes and all of that, you know, have to be on the floor with one of the people in one of the volunteers that comes to watch over everything and take care of the paperwork. There’s very little room to have a private moment unless you walk away from ANA Center or Yeah, there’s not really a whole lot of room. Even trying to sleep in the warming center was kind of a mess because well, you can socially distance, some people are going to sleep with their mask on and some aren’t. Some people are just going to do what they do.
Michelle (00:18:11):
So
Greg (00:18:12):
Was the rule though that no matter you had to have your mask on at all times though, right? Kind of thing?
Ariah (00:18:20):
Typically you had to have your mask on if you were walking through the building, but you didn’t have to have it on if you were eating, it wasn’t required if you were sleeping.
Greg (00:18:29):
I see.
Ariah (00:18:32):
Yeah, usually those were the two big ones. And also obviously when you’re showering you can take it off, but typically they’d only have two people in the shower at once and there’s enough showers that they can be spread out and then there’s walls and curtains and all that between them.
Greg (00:18:47):
Right.
Michelle (00:18:49):
One thing. Yeah,
Ariah (00:18:51):
Sorry, go.
Michelle (00:18:52):
Oh, one thing you mentioned earlier was phones. And it sounds like were you doing, when you were having to call all these organizations and stuff and wait for calls from them, you had to have your own cell phone, is that right?
Ariah (00:19:07):
Correct. When I first got to the city and the first day that I was out of the hospital and able to start moving around, I immediately took the bus down the road to Metro PCs and I got a brand new phone, but that cost me $80 with activation, which is I start with 2 78 and I’m already down to less than 200 with my very first purchase basically.
(00:19:41):
And so that definitely took a toll and then dropping it and having to contemplate whether or not you replaced the phone completely or whatnot. But ultimately I ended up just getting another month of data, which ended up coming in handy. But without a phone, you can’t talk to any of these resources, they can’t get back to you. A lot of them will not email you. So that’s not a real viable option. And like I said previously, if you miss a call from them, it can be several days. So if in that time that they call you and your phone is dead, you’re just playing a phone tag with him at that point.
Michelle (00:20:25):
Yeah. So what ended up happening, it seems like you’re housed now. How did you get from what you were telling us before to There
Ariah (00:20:43):
Was a lot of luck and just the kind of kindness of human strangers that helped me. I talked with Equality Michigan and they were able to get me, I think it was four days, it might have been three, but they got me a few nights in the motel once the warming shelter had shut down post September 7th. So that was very helpful. I also knew a woman from the town I was previously in who also paid for a few nights, but a lot of it came down to just, like I said, few human kindness. I helped a woman whose bike chain fell off and that led me to meeting Michelle and then getting into a Discord where I eventually met my future roommate and she was able to take the hit of a security deposit to help us get into the apartment. But I didn’t sleep on the streets at all, but I was homeless for about a month.
(00:21:50):
And then my future mom, she let me stay with her for about a month while I was working so I could save up money for my first rent payment. Wow. And that definitely helped in a lot of ways. It helped my mental health because I had someone where I could sleep and feel safe and didn’t have to worry about someone coming to kick me out of what the space I was in or trying to steal from me or any of that stuff that I’m sure is kind of commonplace when people are desperate and in need of things on the street. And you said you were able to get a job at some point during all this? Yes, I applied for quite a few places and there’s definitely a stigma about being homeless. I did take everything that I owned at this point in time, which a lot of it was just clothes.
(00:22:52):
And I took that to all of my interviews because I had no, to put it at the time because I would check out of my hotel for the day, apply to a bunch of places, and then pay for another night and then check out the next morning and apply for another couple places just to make sure that in case anything happened, I got double charged. It wouldn’t take more funds from me than I had. And ultimately the donations came out to about a thousand dollars. And even that wasn’t enough because as I said earlier, the week of Labor Day, because nothing was happening, but I still needed to be near wifi and a phone and all that kind of stuff and someone to charge my phone. I ended up spending a bunch of money paying for nights in a motel where I essentially just kind of sat there. Yeah.
Michelle (00:24:00):
And so it sounds like ultimately the thing that helped you wasn’t even the system.
Ariah (00:24:06):
No, ultimately the system kind of failed me. I have spoken with Greg off the podcast about this and he kind of explains to me that such a rapid response situation like mine isn’t something that the system can necessarily take care of because of just the way that things are. I guess regulated might be the right word, but it might not. And so people who are more chronically homeless are going to be able to, they’re going to be prioritized over someone who is kind of fresh in the system’s radar.
Greg (00:24:53):
Although the triage program that you were in is kind of set up for a more rapid response to getting somebody house, but not everybody is ready to go as soon as they drop. Got to already said, you have to have an income in order to move forward with that. And not everybody has all of the things that they need to communicate regularly or to get calls. But it is correct though that the resources get prioritized, especially the supportive housing with supportive services, which maybe isn’t even something that you would need in the long term, but it certainly sounds like you needed more support than you were getting in the short term. And where you were guided to house though, that was actually the correct thing for the social worker to recommend. I don’t know if it has, I mean obviously it sounds like because of the Covid situation, they didn’t have space and typically they don’t have space all the time anyway.
(00:26:22):
But the refrain is like, well, if you need housing support services in Washtenaw County, you got to call Hawk. You got to call Hawk. And it is kind of like a refrain that often gets passed around. But for folks who have recently been experienced domestic violence, for folks who are ages 10 to 20, and for veterans actually you contact, so for domestic violence, you contact Safe House directly for ages 10 to 20, you contact Ozone House directly, and if you’re a veteran, you contact the VA directly for getting established with housing resources. And if you need emergency shelter, I’m not sure, I don’t know about the VA having an emergency shelter, they, you’d probably end up at Deiss. But for your housing support for your case manager, you would have a VA case manager. But Ozone, and as you’ve already mentioned, aria Safe House has emergency shelter for people experiencing crisis. There is another program too for folks who literally end up without any place. Now you had said that you didn’t end up sleeping out on the street. You were able to navigate away into shelter and or housing eventually with help from friends that you met.
(00:28:10):
But for folks who end up with no place and who are either going to sleep on the street or in the park, need a tent, there is actually, the county has an outreach team called the Path used to be called Port Project Outreach Team. And it’s, it’s within the community mental health structure. So for folks who end up like that, if you want to access or talk to somebody from there, you call the crisis line of course 7 3 4 5 4 4 3 0 5 0. And that’s the community mental health access line. That’s the community mental health crisis and access line. It’s kind of multifaceted. You can get connected with, if you’re having a mental health crisis, that would be regardless of your housing status, that would be the number that you call as well to speak to somebody. If you’re feeling like you’re the ground underneath you is falling apart and you don’t need somebody to talk to that, that’s not somebody that, or you don’t have your, maybe you’re not around anybody.
(00:29:24):
But I guess also a way to connect with the, I’m thinking with the outreach team, they could connect you at least to leave a message for them so you could figure out a way to make a plan to meet up with them to work on housing. And like we mentioned, I mentioned in the beginning, there’s also, well, let me back up, because when the pandemic first happened and the shutdown first happened, a lot of county workers, state workers, nobody was working. So in response to that, myself and some other activists and people, volunteers actually with the Shelter Association Church rotation Shelter started going out to camps and we ended up forming that organization. I mentioned WASAW Camp Outreach, which still works and exists today. And we don’t have a fancy crisis line or phone number, but you can find us on Facebook Wasaw Camp Outreach and contact us that if folks are needing help, who are finding themselves in a spot like that. But I just wanted to mention those resources too, because there Aria, aria mentions it was up to, it was her, it was on her right. And if you don’t have a phone, you don’t have a a shelter to go to. Your other option is sleeping on the street, you need a tent or something like that. And so where do you go to get that kind of stuff and try to work on a plan to get into shelter eventually. Those are some of the resources that are out there currently in the county.
Michelle (00:31:25):
What about the, there’s another group called Mission. It seems like they have some similar things like that. They call themselves the Safety net Below the safety net,
Greg (00:31:35):
And
Michelle (00:31:36):
They don’t think, I don’t know if they’re really, are they really plugged into the system or not? They have some houses of hospitality and they get people things.
Greg (00:31:44):
So there’s, there’s actually, so Mission, which is an acronym, right? Michigan Itinerant Shelter System, interdependent out of necessity.
Michelle (00:31:56):
Oh, okay. Oh, hey, that spells Mission, gosh, would’ve what a lucky break.
Greg (00:32:06):
Yeah. It only to be a fly on the wall during the naming session for that. Right.
(00:32:14):
Yeah. So they, you mentioned a couple of affiliated Houses of Hospitality, one in Ann Arbor and one in Ypsilanti in Ann Arbor. It’s Mercy House, 8 0 5 West on you’ll, you’ll be able to see it. It’s right up actually from the Deana Center, and there’s a rainbow peace flag flying out in front. Ok. And similarly, another rainbow peace flag flying out in front of Peace House in Ipsy, which is on Davis Street where Arnett meets Davis. And those are two houses of hospitality that are affiliated with Mission. And those are places that have various hours where people can go, well during non pandemic times. People, they’d have meals on the weekend and you can do laundry, you can take a shower, you sign up, that kind of thing.
(00:33:19):
Oh, also another, it’s not like a House of Hospitality in the same sense that Mercy House and Peace House is in the Catholic worker tradition that those houses are run. But the Purple House, what people, or what people call the Purple House is the Jimmy Hill Memorial House out at 3 0 35 0 1 Stone School Road. That’s a house actually owned by the nonprofit mission. It has been mostly closed for renovations for the last year, but recently partially reopened for weather amnesty. And if I’m not mistaken, I believe that if the temperature gets below 21, up to eight people who are otherwise unable to access shelter elsewhere, either through Deiss, if some people get trespassed sometimes, then they can seek
Michelle (00:34:20):
Court causing problems at Deiss or starting fights or something. I’ll say, you allowed to be here. Or
Greg (00:34:26):
Yeah, sometimes that’s kind of stuff happens. I don’t know. Aria might even have more experience with that than
Ariah (00:34:35):
There was a few issues with people at Lanis kind of picking flights and just genuinely making other people uncomfortable. There was one guy who came onto me fairly soon after making eye contact, which was quite uncomfortable. I took the issue to the people looking over the floor, and apparently he was kind of a regular pest as far as it goes with coming onto women very strongly and genuinely being more aggressive for one race or another.
Michelle (00:35:27):
It also seems like that would be another advantage of the hotel type of situation because have, if you have more privacy, then there’s chance of someone being a pest to a lot of people.
Ariah (00:35:44):
And it’s there. There’s just a lot of different people with a lot of different intentions regardless of whether or not they’re homeless. But for whatever reason it is, it seems particularly bad in the homeless community, at least from my experience in the city. And to jump back to something Greg said earlier about the Ozone Center and the Neutral Zone and the va, I believe it was,
Greg (00:36:21):
I didn’t mention Neutral Zone, but I did say Ozone.
Ariah (00:36:24):
Gotcha. Okay. Well, there’s another place, but unfortunately, well, because of my age, I didn’t really qualify for help from any of those different organizations, but an organization that definitely did help was Equality Michigan. And so I definitely recommend that if anyone is in any sort of need that you can call them and they should be able to help you. It will take a few days, obviously, but it definitely helped push me kind of over the edge.
Greg (00:37:00):
What kinds of help did they, they offer you? Aria,
Ariah (00:37:05):
They offered to get my name around. They’re the ones that recommended that I make a GoFundMe and then they would pass it around through their kind of social circles. And it got me about five, 600. So it was definitely worth it.
Greg (00:37:26):
Yeah.
Ariah (00:37:29):
So yeah, that’s good. The LANs was a big help. So yeah, lannis was definitely a big help because during about the middle of the day you could take showers, which is definitely helpful if you’re going to job interviews and you could also do laundry there. So that was definitely a big help. I was hired on the spot. I know we’re kind of jumping around a lot, but I was hired on the spot at one job, which definitely turned things around because I was at the point where if I didn’t get a job that day, I was going to be sleeping on the street because I just wouldn’t have been able to afford to eat, pay my phone bill, which is very important when you’re out and about because you can’t go into a library or a McDonald’s or anything like that and charge your phone. So getting that job was very helpful and that is kind of what led me ultimately to getting housed. But again, I will say that I was very lucky in that I got a lot of human kindness that pushed me over the edge, less so than any of the systems in place in Ann Arbor, the Washtenaw County area, unfortunately.
Michelle (00:39:00):
So now that the Red Roofing situation is closed down, has anything, has there been anything to take its place? I heard there are some hotel rooms available to people, and I’ve heard that there, they’ve opened up the wasaw Learning Resource Center as a shelter.
Greg (00:39:20):
So yeah, through by November, basically they shut down and either people were moved into housing and to, actually, they housed a lot of people Oh, out, out of the red roof in through the rapid rehousing program, Avalon and DES were, I think they housed at least like 80 folks. Oh wow. Over the summer really quickly, which was good. And that money came, I think the county was able to get money to support that through the CARES funding. So the initial, that’s Federal relief. Federal relief funds that were funneled, of course, through the state anyways. So yeah, the route that there were some people who were moved into permanent housing, others who, well, there’s 25 males every year. There’s a program I referred to earlier, the church rotation shelter. And typically the way that’s run is every, every week these 25 guys go to a different church and they stay, they’re able to stay overnight there. It depends on the church where they have access to showers or not. They always have access to the, at the Deana Center regardless. But this year they started it a little bit early, because that usually doesn’t start until Thanksgiving week or the week after Thanksgiving. This year they started it at the 1st of November, and there’s only four churches who were due to covid and nervousness about that. There were only four churches that committed to it, but each of those churches committed to a whole month. And
Ariah (00:41:19):
That’s good,
Greg (00:41:22):
But that’s just 25. That’s 25 guys going through that. Then Michelle, like you mentioned, there are hotel rooms. At first there were only 15, now there’s 27 at a local hotel. I’m not going to say which one every, most people know who it, which one it is, but I don’t know. I’m just not, I don’t know. But yeah, and those rooms are typically for folks who are medically vulnerable more so if they were to contract, COVID would have more severe CI circumstances, ORs health outcomes as a result of it. So there is that and the L R C, so the Learning Resource center, that is actually, I’m glad you brought that up in December in part in response to a demand, the wash knock camp outreach, we kind of put a letter together, a statement of demands on the city and the county and U of M to make sure that we’re taking care of folks who are stranded without housing during this pandemic crisis. And at the beginning of December, the county said that they were going to have a 24 7 shelter option that’s overflow in addition to Deiss, to help make sure that people, as the winter progressed and the cold, it got colder and the need increased for that for people, they’re going to have an extra, what they called overflow. And they were, at first they were suggesting Mary Lou Murray Rec Center, but the plan for that, that’s like the
Michelle (00:43:18):
Gym.
Greg (00:43:19):
That’s the gym, right on. Okay. Avenue by County Farm Park. And they were only going to be able to be there between, what was it, something like 9:00 PM and would have to be out by 5:00 AM And that’s
Michelle (00:43:41):
Cause they were going to continue trying to operate it as a gym
Greg (00:43:44):
In part for individual exercise of course, no group exercise or anything like that. And then as time were on, they were able to work with the county. The county was able to secure learning resource center, and in December they made the commitment that was going to be 24 7. But as of yet, I think they have it available overnight for people to stay overnight, but it’s not available 24 7. And I’m not sure, I don’t think it’s budget issues. I think it might just be some staffing issues with, because the Shelter Association staffs that and the work has been, this whole thing has not only hit it everybody at every level. So people working in these jobs have been hit. And I think some, I don’t think it has to do with positive covid, but there’s stress with the work is tough when you’re trying to, people don’t get into working for shelter systems who are cold-hearted. They want to help people. And when you’re in a situation where Aria’s story exemplifies, you don’t always have all the resources you want to help people, but you don’t have the resources to give them to help them anyways.
Michelle (00:45:11):
A lot of times when I hear people talk about solutions to problems, it’s like, oh, let’s create a system to direct people to resources. But if there’s no resources to direct people to, you need to create the resources then you can direct people to.
Greg (00:45:25):
It comes down to budgets. And we as a society do not budget enough for the needs for everybody who lives in our communities. We just don’t do it. We fund things like police and military more than we fund systems of care for everybody to have access to stuff, to life giving stuff. And shelter is included in that. Right. Housing,
Michelle (00:45:56):
I’m a city council watcher, so I don’t know the budgets of other places, but I know that we spend 30 million a year on police and 1.2 million a year on what the coordinated funding program, which goes to, it gets distributed to several nonprofits in town, some of which might help with these things. And then we spend something around a million dollars on affordable housing needs. But only in the last couple years have we done that, and it’s been a big fight on the city council every year to make sure that that continues to happen. So it just seems like such a, that’s not where I would pri, that’s not how I would prioritize the budget because I keep thinking if we spent more ways to help people, then maybe we wouldn’t need so many police
Greg (00:47:01):
People. Yeah.
Ariah (00:47:04):
LANs definitely seemed underfunded and understaffed. They didn’t seem at all prepared for what the pandemic had unleashed even what, five, six months into it in mid August.
Michelle (00:47:24):
Yeah,
Ariah (00:47:26):
There’s still a lot of the that I went in there. They were fresh out of any kind of p p masks or gloves or hand sanitizer, whether it be on the hand sanitizers they have as you enter the building or in the bathroom or anywhere. They were very strapped because people were coming in. They would give them the medical disposal masks and then those people would either lose them or they’d get dirty or whatever and they would just be wandering in and out of the building without one. So Donlan said its best, but a lot of what they got as far as PPE goes was donations from individual members in the community or organizations that might have, had they found a box somewhere random in a warehouse
Michelle (00:48:19):
Again, can us use it? So again, it comes down to the systems who are supposed to help us didn’t help as much. And then the individuals, we just get lucky with them. And that doesn’t seem like a good foundation to a system is to count on people getting lucky with individuals.
Ariah (00:48:37):
Yeah, it was very hard to socially distance in any way, whether it was sleeping or eating for breakfast and dinner, you would eat inside in the kind of cafeteria. But because there was such anyone that wasn’t on the upper floors, they ate in the cafeteria and sometimes people were just next to each other, other times, obviously without masks because they’re eating, but then other times you’d be outside in big groups for lunch from the, I think they’re called the Food Gatherers program or something like that.
Greg (00:49:18):
They run the kitchen at DES and other places too.
Ariah (00:49:24):
So yeah, there was very little they could do to socially distance or keep things sanitary. People either had clothes that were dirty because they couldn’t afford to clean them or didn’t know where to clean them. It took me quite a few weeks to figure out where I was. At first I didn’t really know how much the bus costs and because I was trying to save every dollar, I walked everywhere with everything I had on me at points in time. And it took a lot of asking people and figuring out where do I call, who do I call, how long does it take for them to get back to me? Because waiting wasn’t really something you could do as a home homeless person because resources are scarce and get scarce her every day.
Michelle (00:50:23):
So let’s talk just for the last few minutes here about what people should do. How do we advocate for a better system? What is it going to take to get us from where we’re at to where we need to be?
Ariah (00:50:39):
I think we need to go forward with C in mind, regardless of the vaccine, there’s still going to be lingering shenanigans and it may or may not be safe for people to come together in enclosed spaces for a while. And because of that, we need to get the people who are unhoused, we need to make sure that their phones are accessible to them. So battery packs and maybe the little adapter plugs and little blocks that you can plug into the wall. There are a few outlets that I’ve noticed walking around the city that people could use to charge their phone, but they need the equipment necessary to do that. When I first came to the city, I didn’t have one, so I ended up buying a cord and little block from the ER gift shop or the hospital gift shop, and that was about $20 altogether. Oh wow. So yeah, it can be a bit pricey to be homeless in Ann Arbor regardless of how good the resources are.
(00:51:55):
So that’s also something that needs to be taken into account. Obviously there are places where food is a bit cheaper like Dollar General and 7-Eleven, stuff like that. But those are also kind of few and far between to someone who’s unfamiliar with this city and isn’t very mobile because I didn’t come here with a car. So like I said, a lot of it was walking until I could figure out the bus system and then it was more natural to get her on the system or city. But like I said, that still took some time because I didn’t really have any extra money, so I couldn’t really spend that on getting to places faster, but I needed to make sure that I could eat. So a lot of it was walking and rationing food, which isn’t easy when you’re kind of used to a certain amount of food I guess, if that makes any sense. Other ways that I think we can advocate for that is to get, just have more places for people to get information because like I said in the beginning, a lot of it was called Lannis and Call Hawk from Safe House and Avalon, like Alpha House. All these organizations that I attempted to get in contact with, a lot of it was call Safe House called LANs, but there’s got to be more resources on the weekend to help people who are having crisises on
(00:53:35):
The weekend, whether it’s mental health or being unable to eat or whatever.
Michelle (00:53:41):
And yeah, I’m wishing that you had had more kind of a ombuds Ombuds person guiding you through the process. It sounded like it required a lot of wherewithal from you to get the resources that you needed. Not everyone is savvy enough to set up their own GoFund me or to figure out all these different places to call
Ariah (00:54:01):
And people have different levels of accessibility. I met many people who were in wheelchairs or had crutches or canes. And so me being fairly able-bodied made things definitely easier, especially because some of the places in Ann Arbor have inclines and so trying to get around the city while having mobility issues and being unsure of things could be a headache and just an absolute mess. And so there’s definitely a lot that can be done. And I definitely think that we need to start with making sure that people have access to the proper equipment for communication and food and possible hygiene for clean clothes and smelling nice can definitely help keep your head above water when things are feeling really, really difficult. And they were difficult when I was dealing with it just a few months ago.
Michelle (00:55:12):
And yeah, I’m sure those mobility problems are only going to get more difficult in the winter now with yes, inconsistent shoveling,
Ariah (00:55:20):
Things like that, I have, yeah, I’ve helped a woman recently this winter because her mobility wheelchair broke down on the side of the road and no one was helping her and it was dead. So I had to push her to the nearest electrical outlet so that she could get to where she was going because if I had left her, many people had, she wouldn’t have been able to get back to her motel room for the night. And she obviously has mobility issues because she’s in the wheelchair. But yeah, I think she was an amputee. But yes, many people did just leave her there. And there’s definitely a stigma around being homeless and how you are trained or how you are treated, how you are seen. So it’s definitely something that we need to work on as a society is that we just need to be more kind and caring for those less fortunate and not see them as some kind of burden.
(00:56:21):
I think if we change the kind of perception in society, then it should help these more recess, more resources be accessible because more people care about those less fortunate than themselves instead of just stopping those less fortunate than themselves from committing crimes or whatever. So yeah, I think overall if we do more funding in the homeless community and getting people housed and solving the kind of immediate issues, then a lot of the long-term issues will just kind of take care of themselves because people want to work. And one thing that I found where I was homeless is that once I was housed and could sleep and clean myself in my own time schedule, it was much easier to keep pushing forward and taking the next step to do what needed to be done and keep pushing forward until eventually I did get myself housed. But being able to stay with that woman and save money while also having my needs met definitely improved the rate at which I was able to get back on my feet. Whereas if I had been left out to handle the system in its entirety, I might still be out there now.
Michelle (00:57:40):
Yeah. Greg, do you have any last thoughts on what we can put our advocacy efforts?
Greg (00:57:49):
Well, I have a lot mean, I’m hopeful, especially with the millage that Ann Arbor just voted in this past November that we’re going to start building some more permanent supportive housing units for people to be able to have a longer term solution. But in the immediate, aren’t we like concerned about the looming evictions that are about to I
Michelle (00:58:22):
Know I’m concerned about that.
Greg (00:58:24):
Yes, the moratoriums been extended until January 31st, but I don’t know that we’re ready for the next wave of everybody all of a sudden is without a house, if a bunch of people start getting evicted and losing housing, which seems like it’s going to happen, as Aria has mentioned, we don’t our systems as well-meaning and well intentioned as everybody is working in them. If we don’t have the resources, then we’re not going to be able to meet the needs. And I agree, people need ways to communicate. People need food to eat and ways to clean themselves. And they also need, if we’re in, we’re still in a pandemic situation here, vaccine or not, we need people to be able to have spaces where they can be living and sheltering with dignity and hygienic and able to take showers and have their own space at most, maybe one other roommate with them or something like that.
(00:59:35):
So we need more hotel rooms right now. Mean who really is mean? Are there a bunch of people going around staying in hotel rooms and traveling and vacationing right now? No. A lot. Anybody who has their own house, for the most part, I don’t know about anybody, but a lot more folks are staying home, hotels are going, are going to be available, and we should be thinking about ways to bring our collective resources to bear in the near future on that. And I want to think that our county leadership is ahead of the curve on this, but I think we as a community are going to need to encourage them to think about using rainy day fund dollars. For example. So far they’ve spent about one, the county that is 1.8 million or so of the estimated 15 million rainy day fund budget. And that leaves a lot of dollars left to provide at least temporary emergency shelter for folks who might find themselves without a house come February 1st. I just want us to be thinking ahead rather than responding to this time when this pandemic happened, we had to on the fly try to respond to this. Well now we kind of know that these are the circumstances. We know that there is an eviction crisis looming. Let’s plan for it. Let’s try it. Let’s get some leadership together to plan for it. So I would suggest folks living in Wasaw County, contact your county commissioners and encourage them to think ahead and budget appropriately to meet the need that’s potentially going to be there.
(01:01:43):
I don’t know, does that sound? Yeah, does that sound right? That sounds like,
Ariah (01:01:48):
I think one other thing that is worth adding is that I am just one person and the system wasn’t really super helpful to me. So as Greg was saying, with the moratorium coming up and kind of another way of coming of homelessness, these families with children and things like that, the system is definitely going to be stressed. And I don’t think it’s ready for what’s coming. And like Greg also said, we need people who can get the situation of control and lead us through this no matter how hard it’s going to be. And it’s definitely going to be hard because we’re not ready. I mean, I don’t think any kind of city or anyone like that is technically ready for what the pandemic brought, but this city specifically from my experiences, is not ready.
Michelle (01:02:50):
So yeah, call all your representatives and tell ’em to get ready. So I just looked at the clock and I think it’s probably time for us to say goodbye today, but the fight carries on,
Ariah (01:03:04):
The fight carries on, and
Michelle (01:03:06):
The fight
Ariah (01:03:07):
Carries on. Hopefully something I said was helpful. But yeah. Well thanks. Be fighting for more.
Greg (01:03:14):
Awesome. Thanks Aria. And thanks Michelle for hosting us.
Ariah (01:03:18):
Thank you very much. Thank you. Great for your time, Michelle and Greg, it was wonderful to talk to you.
Greg (01:03:23):
Yeah, great times. Bye
Ariah (01:03:26):
Byebye. Great.
Michelle (01:03:27):
Bye. Have a good time. Bye.