Part two of a two-part series
Read part 1
Shelters, transitional housing, food pantries aid those living in poverty
By Scott Alessi
Staff Writer
For those who have nowhere to call home or are uncertain about where their next meal is coming from, Catholic Charities is there to offer its support.
Catholic Charities runs programs throughout the diocese to assist those in need, providing a variety of services. In Warren County, the Basic Material Needs program addresses immediate concerns facing those who are suffering from poverty.
“We advocate for social and economic needs, but the work we do here is like a safety net,” said Sister of Mercy Michaelita Popovice, program director. “If we weren’t here, our clients’ lives would be in a really dangerous situation.”
The social service center, which is the largest food pantry in Warren, distributed over 12,000 bags of groceries to clients last year. The thrift store supplies clothing at a nominal fee to those in need, and “homeless kits” are offered to those who are without shelter. In the past five years, the center has increased its services by 35 percent to meet the growing poverty in Warren.
“When I first started, the food pantry was here for an emergency,” explained Sister Michaelita. “It’s a little different today. We’re not there just for emergencies. People rely on us once a month for their basic food needs.”
The food pantry, which has two full-time staff members and a number of volunteers, attempts to stock its shelves with healthy foods to offer clients a nutritious balanced diet. Sister Michaelita stated that this is especially important for the more than 50 percent of clients who are children.
“A child can’t learn if they’re going to school hungry,” she said. “We do our best to try to make the children healthier. We want to improve in whatever way we can the quality of their life.”
Making a transition
With a larger staff of case workers, the Ozanam Shelters in New Brunswick and Edison offer not only the immediate assistance of a bed and a meal but the opportunity for clients to turn their lives around.
The men’s shelter can house up to 40 people at one time, while the family shelter has room for 103 individuals, which breaks down to 26 families and 16 single women. Last year, the shelters served a total of 629 people and were filled to capacity throughout the year. During the winter months, Middlesex County also operates an interfaith hospitality network to house the overflow from the shelters.
The shelters provide job-skills and life-skills training through workshops sponsored by local organizations to help those living in the shelters become self-supporting. They also help clients with basic services such as check cashing and obtaining government aid such as welfare and food stamps.
“The ultimate goal is to get them out of the shelter and into permanent housing, but sometimes it takes the families a little longer,” said Wesley Moore, division director of housing and social concerns. “You might find stays of up to seven or eight months.”
To help families continue working towards the goal of permanent housing, Catholic Charities has Naomi’s Way in New Brunswick, one of two transitional housing facilities in the diocese. With a total of 16 apartments, Naomi’s Way offers families more independence while helping to prepare them for living on their own.
“We have a comprehensive educational curriculum,” said Moore, who oversees the Naomi’s Way program. “The expectations are higher. We look for growth, we look for development.”
Clients typically reside at Naomi’s Way for 18 months, but they may extend their stay on a month-to-month basis for up to a maximum of 24 months. Each client is required to complete four of the core competencies in the curriculum, which include workshops on maintaining a budget, medical care, safety and other basic needs to help families live independently. They also provide services to assist families in improving their credit scores, which raises their chance of obtaining a lease for a permanent apartment.
Families staying at Naomi’s Way are required to have some form of income, which may come from a job or through government assistance. Each tenant is charged a service fee that is pro-rated to 30 percent of their gross income, with a maximum cost of $300 for a one-bedroom apartment or $350 for two bedrooms.
“The goal is to get you up to that $300 or $350 amount,” Moore said. He stated that one of the main objectives of the program is for clients to improve their overall income by 10 percent by the time they leave Naomi’s Way. “Many have achieved or surpassed that,” he said.
Uncertain future
Although Naomi’s Way has been very successful in transitioning families into permanent housing and helping them to become self-sufficient, its future remains in question.
“Unfortunately, transitional housing is going to be a thing of the past,” said Moore, who explained that federal funding is being steered towards permanent housing, which is much more difficult for the homeless to obtain. “We’re looking at a reduction in funding, so we have to find some means of assuming the rest of that deficit. We’re not really sure where that is going to lead us.”
The social service center in Warren County has faces a similar dilemma. Despite the rising poverty level in the county, federal funding to the center has decreased each year. “We have to go to other places to find food to make sure we have enough on our shelves,” said Sister Michaelita.
At one time, the social service center had a life-skills program and an employment service, but they were eliminated due to the decrease in funding. “I believe that if we had more staff and there could be case managers to work directly with clients, it might make a difference,” Sister Michaelita said. Even with expanded services, however, she believes that more action is needed.
“We can’t do it all, Catholic Charities or any social service agency,” she said. “There has to be help from government and other sources to lift people out of poverty. There has to be more available housing, more affordable health care and a livable wage.”
Moore believes that increased wages would also help but that further services are needed to help people break the poverty cycle. “We would like to do a little better, but given the limited resources, there’s not a whole lot more we can do,” he said.
Nonetheless, Moore continues to identify areas where the shelters can improve their services. In particular, he would like to see a child care facility at the family shelter so that mothers would have an easier time getting to work without first finding a place to care for their children.
Sister Michaelita believes that the key to increasing aid to the poor and homeless is the education of policymakers in regard to the depth and severity of the problem. After she and other Catholic Charities representatives met with the governor last year, a line item was added to the state budget to increase the funding for food pantries in the state.
“It just seems like the rich are getting more and the poor are getting nothing,” Sister Michaelita said. “We have to make people aware in the government and in other places about poverty and that we need their help.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law