HOUSING PROGRAMS SUPPORTED BY BUTLER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Home Repair Program- Neighbors Who Care: $20,000 (administered by SELF)
Emergency Home Repair Program: $50,000 (administered by People Working Cooperatively)
Down payment Assistance Program: $18,000 (administered by Neighborhood Housing Services of Hamilton)
New Construction Program: $100,000 (administered by Habitat for Humanity)
Holding Hands Food Pantry: $10,000
Butler County spends almost $500,000 a year helping the homeless with mental illnesses get into permanent homes.
The Shelter Plus Care grant money comes from Housing and Urban Development funds and it is administered by the Butler County Housing and Homeless Coalition. Mindy Muller, chairman of the coalition, said as of the last count in January — HUD requires annual tallies — there were 257 homeless people in the county and they get about 70 people housed each year.
To qualify for the the grant money the person must be suffering from a severe mental illness, hence the “plus care” part of the grant title. Muller said 99 percent of the recipients have a severe mental illness but perhaps can handle a part-time job. The money pays for partial rental assistance — are required to pay some of their own rent — and treatment.
“It’s for people who have had ongoing homelessness or for an extended period of time,” Muller said. “To qualify you have to have a qualifying disability, so it is largely people who have severe mental illness and this is a permanent housing solution for them. It’s for people that don’t have the ability to hold down a full time job and be able to stand on their own.”
Laura Kimble, the executive director at Serve City shelter in Hamilton, said when the homeless find out they will finally have a safe, permanent home, it is “life changing.”
“There’s a lot of power when you get that key,” she said. “It’s huge and it’s a relief.”
People can only stay in the emergency shelter for 90 days. Resident Kerry Rutherford’s time there is up on Monday.
“I’m trying to get on feet and get housing,” he said. “Certain things ain’t working out and certain things are. I’m taking it one step at a time. I can’t jump back to what it used to be, but I’ll get there. I’m 55 years old and when you’re up there and get slapped down… It could happen to anybody.”
The shelter and the coalition help their residents out, allowing them to save up some money so they can move into what they call “three quarter” apartments that are shared by two or three other people. Rutherford wound up in the shelter after he spent some time in the county jail and lost his job and everything else.
The Navy veteran likely wouldn’t qualify for the rent assistance, he has debilitating physical issues but doesn’t suffer from a mental illness. He said even if he did qualify, he wouldn’t take it.
“I don’t think I should take it from somebody who is going to need it more than me,” he said.
Nick Hawn has only been at the shelter a couple days now, a family conflict left him on the street. He said shelter officials don’t let people just languish there, the goal is to get them back on their feet. He said from day one they set up goals. His goal is to get enough money to be able to move into the efficiency apartments that are the next step up from the three-quarter apartments.
“I think that’s why they set up goals,” he said. “What are you trying to do? Are you trying to better your situation or are you just goofing around.”
Shelters aren’t the only places you’ll find the homeless. Kathy Becker, CEO of Transitional Living, said there are camps of homeless dotted across the county, usually in wooded areas. But the emerging problem is those people who had been making five-figure salaries and lost their jobs are finding themselves on the streets now, often living in their cars, parked in the lots at the open 24-hours stores.
“It’s harder to reach some of those individuals, not because they’re obstinate,” she said. “But if you made $70,000 a year for the bulk of your life and you got laid off and you’re going to work at fast food and you’re going to make minimum wage and you can’t keep your house and you have no health insurance if you get sick, they don’t want necessarily want to be seen, because it’s such a failure.”
County governments offer many services and funding for the poor and homeless — food stamps are the obvious one — but there are several other programs as well. The county commissioners recently agreed to earmark an additional $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to help pay for plumbers to hook the new $2.8 million sewer line up to residents’ homes in the Williamsdale subdivision.
Community Development Manager Desmond Maaytah said they also allocated $198,000 to fund programs to help low-to-moderate income residents with home repairs, down-payment assistance, Habitat for Humanity and the Holding Hands Food Pantry in the New Miami and Williamsdale area.
Providing funds for emergencies is a government function, but Jeffrey Diver, executive director of Supports to Encourage Low-income Families (SELF), said his community action agency is designed to help people help themselves so they don’t need government funding assistance.
SELF has programs to teach how to save money — the agency matches two-to-one dollars people save to buy a house or a car and since late 2006 clients have acquired $1.3 million in assets — prepare to get jobs or better jobs, support entrepreneurs — 37 new small businesses have started up since 2012 — and the list of programs goes on and on.
“A lot of our work is done in classrooms and offices,” Diver said. “It’s a little abstract to some people… these are all initiatives to help people require less emergency assistance.”
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