A temporary shelter run by Opportunity House and funded by the city with American Rescue Plan Act money has been an overwhelming success, Modesto Fiume said, but a more permanent solution is needed.
Fiume, president and CEO of Opportunity House, updated City Council at a meeting Monday on the emergency shelter in a former convent at 1500 Eckert Ave.
The intent is to provide short-term housing in the facility for families with the goal of transitioning them into more permanent housing, he said.
Thirteen of the families formerly housed at the shelter, dubbed Eckert House, were able to meet that goal, he said, but the facility’s 25 rooms have remained at full capacity for more than a month and there is a waiting list of 28 families.
“That is a tremendous red flag to me,” Fiume said. “It should be a red flag to everyone. I don’t think we anticipated the need was going to be this great when we got this going.”
Council at a special meeting in December allocated $400,000 in ARPA funds to establish and maintain the temporary housing this winter for families with children.
The money is enough to run the shelter through April, Fiume said.
“This was supposed to be a code blue thing,” he said, “but it’s clearly becoming much more than that. We’ve struck a nerve in terms of need in the community.”
The plan was to provide temporary shelter, meals and other care to individuals and families who have no suitable place to live during the cold months and in so-called code blue conditions, when temperatures drop to 32 degrees or lower.
The Berks County Coalition to End Homelessness, Rudden Family Foundation, Blankets of Hope and the building’s owner Reading Hill LLC helped outfit and furnish the shelter, Fiume noted, and The Daniel Torres Hispanic Center provides meals.
Within days of opening its doors in early January, he said, the shelter was housing 15 families.
“We are a bit overwhelmed, actually, by the number of people who continue to come in looking for services,” he said.
Many of the families are experiencing homelessness for the first time, Fiume said.
The majority of families helped are those who were struggling on a daily basis to pay their bills, afford rent and provide food and other necessities for their families, he said.
“They just got kind of priced out of things,” Fiume said. “The fact that we’ve had 13 families leave successfully in two months is a testimony to the fact that these are not truly (chronically) homeless people.”
Chronic homelessness is used to describe people who have experienced homelessness for at least a year, or repeatedly, while struggling with mental illness, substance-use disorder or other disabilities.
“That type of success rate just isn’t possible with that population,” he said. “That’s been our experience anyway.”
Children living in the short-term housing remain in school, which helps to provide much-needed stability and continuity in their lives, Fiume said.
“It certainly has become a place where if you walk in there about 3:30, 4 o’clock (p.m.), you’ll see the kids getting off the school bus and coming home,” he said. “You’ll see people being fed, people getting help with their homework.”
Clients of the shelter also receive on-site case management services, life-skills training and access to resources to promote long-term housing stability, he noted.
“It seems like the purpose that we set it up to be is really working,” Fiume said. “My concern is what do we do next?”
Fiume said he has reached out to potential funders and is exploring other options with his team.
“I don’t have anything definitive yet,” he said, “but I think I definitely want to come back. This needs to be, this is, a community issue. This needs to be the entire community stepping up.”
Councilman Jaime Baez said he visited Eckert House and was surprised by the number of children living there. It helped him understand the need in the community, he said.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that rents and not having a rent cap is an issue,” he said. “I know that that is an issue on the state level.”
Landlords in Pennsylvania can raise rent by any amount. There is no legal limit on the amount of a rent increase.
Councilman O. Christopher Miller said Reading is experiencing a perfect storm with an increase in the population and prices of rent and housing going up concurrently.
As a result, Miller said, he anticipates the city will see an increase in homelessness.
Miller asked Fiume if the short-term plan for Eckert House could be extended.
The building is part of a parcel that includes the former Central Catholic High School.
The Reading Zoning Hearing Board in November granted a Brooklyn-based developer a special exception needed to convert the former high school into a 78-unit apartment complex.
Council voted not to appeal the decision.
The former convent had been earmarked for storage at the time.
“It’s so much more than that right now,” Fiume said.
The building’s owner shared investment in the shelter with Opportunity House, he noted, and likely will want to use it for more than storage.
There have been no conversations with the owner about possibly extending the shelter service, leasing or subdividing and buying the building, he said.
“We’re just trying to figure out what our next steps are in terms of whether we should keep it going,” he said, “or just, when the money’s gone, close it down.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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