Shelter and need growing
Officials say more women with children
seeking help; downtown site expanding
By Carol Biliczky
Akron Beacon Journal staff writer
Posted on Wed, Dec. 15, 2004
On any given day, homeless women turn to the ACCESS shelter in Akron, kids in tow, their earthly goods stored in garbage bags at their side.
There isn't always room for them.
But that should change in September, when the nonprofit agency doubles the size of its modest home on West Market Street near downtown.
A $900,000 capital campaign and a drive to build a $375,000 endowment fund are under way to fund the second major expansion in the small agency's short history.
``People used to think that the homeless were just a lot of alcoholic men, but it started to affect women and children in the late 1980s,'' said ACCESS Executive Director Barbara Reiter.
Since then, the influx of homeless mothers hasn't let up, she said, spiked by changes in society and a growing shortage in affordable rental housing.
Across the country, families with children -- almost always headed by women -- are one of the fastest-growing segments of the homeless population.
``Families are the last to experience homelessness,'' said Brian Davis, head of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland. ``The extended families will do anything they can to keep them housed and not put the kids in shelters.''
In Cuyahoga County, 42 percent of the homeless population are women and children. Davis estimated as many as 6,000 people are homeless in a year in Summit County. It's unclear how many of these are women and children.
Accurate numbers are hard to come by because the homeless move around, and some don't seek services.
``Our best educated guess is that homelessness among women and children is on the rise,'' said Jeannette Welsh, housing and services coordinator for the Coalition for Homelessness and Housing in Ohio in Columbus.
``Public housing authorities are overwhelmed with applications, and waiting lists are closed in many larger cities,'' she said.
Few options available
In Akron, the options for women and their children are few. In addition to a shelter for battered women, there are just two that cater strictly to women and their children.
Harvest Home was founded 25 years ago by Haven of Rest Ministries.
The Christian charity on East Market Street has been running at capacity for several months, housing 52 women and children with overflow sleeping on the floor, director Yvette McMillan said.
She estimated the shelter needs five more beds for single women and four more rooms for women with children, with two families housed per room.
As for ACCESS, it got its start 20 years ago on South High Street as the Akron Citizens Coalition for Emergency Shelter Services. Once a convent house for St. Bernard Catholic Church, the building housed 15 women and children.
In 1996, the agency converted that site into the Step II transitional housing program for single women without children, and moved the homeless shelter where it is today.
It took some remodeling to get the two-story office building in shape for 30 women and children. But the rooms quickly filled and the agency longed to expand.
When the city of Akron knocked down the neighboring buildings, ACCESS used $50,000 in government funds to buy the land this year.
The fund-raising campaign, with about half the goal raised, will pay for the expansion and for the added costs of running the bigger shelter.
When the project is done, the shelter will house 40 women and children, about a third more than the current shelter can hold.
The residents' common living quarters will expand. More space will be available to house boys ages 13 to 17, who don't stay in the same room with their mother and siblings. And total space will double, to 18,000 square feet.
Then, as now, residents will be encouraged to work on their problems -- from housing to work to welfare. Since this is emergency shelter, they have only 30 days to get on their feet.
Many turned away
But many women don't make it into the shelter for even that brief period of time.
Reiter, the director, and Joe Kist, the development director, say they turned away 2,400 requests for housing last year.
While some of those requests may be duplicates, the numbers show an unmet need, Reiter said.
``This is not a happy bed of roses,'' she said. ``I've been here for 19 years, and I'm amazed at these women's ability to survive and get out of this.''
They come with garbage bags full of their belongings -- two per person.
``It's real hard,'' said Julia Bush of Kent, juggling her youngest, 19 months, in her lap. She and her three children came to the shelter when her husband, Boyd, quit his roofing job for health reasons. When they couldn't find a shelter in Portage County for their entire family, they split up.
But she's optimistic they can get into public housing and reunite.
``Mostly, we get to see my husband only on Saturdays,'' she said.
When she leaves, other women will be waiting to take her place, although that problem should ease with the expansion.
Reiter expects to provide almost 14,000 nights of shelter in the first full year of opening -- with no one, she hopes, left on the waiting list.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com