Jeff Miller: Introducing a new column, and a close look at homelessness in Portage County

Miller Community House. Jeff Miller/The Portager

Hi, everybody!

I’m Jeff, a Kent boomerang who has returned to Northeast Ohio after spending 14 years in Chicago. While in the city, I had the good fortune of getting to write some books for kids, worked some odd jobs to keep bohemian dreams alive, and generally ate a lot of cheese. But now I’m back home in Kent — where networks of family and friends have welcomed me back and the overcast skies, underscored by Cleveland sports heartache, just feel right. It’s like I’m getting to live out a Bruce Springsteen song that’s happening in real-time, which is both jarring and charming all at once.

Northeast Ohio is welcoming and challenging and everything in between, but it’s special, and I want to acknowledge the privilege afforded to me by getting to return home. I’m very lucky. And so with my time here, I want to focus on and draw attention to the people that make Portage County special — this week, specifically, those helping folks who face the challenge of having nowhere to call a home of their own.

(And for transparency’s sake: As of a few weeks ago I admittedly knew nothing about services for homelessness offered in Portage County, so I’m hoping that sharing what I found while glimpsing this world might provide some insight.)

Over the holidays I ran into Anne Face, who is not only a longtime family friend but the associate director for Family & Community Services, which is a wide-reaching nonprofit headquartered in Portage County. I was able to pay her a visit at the FCS offices shortly into the new year, where she gave me a general overview of their many programs. It was interesting timing, too, as I discovered January was a pivotal month for FCS.

Our meeting came shortly after a recent collaboration where FCS merged with AxessPointe, a local and federally-qualified health center that focuses on services for people in poverty. This essentially means that the medical care provided by AxessPointe — which includes a mobile unit, a pediatric unit and eye doctors, as well as a host of other holistic wraparound services — will be coupled with the social services provided by FCS, like support for issues with housing, transportation, domestic violence, behavioral health and many other ways they help people who could otherwise slip through the cracks.

“Many of the people we serve don’t have an established doctor, so I think with AxessPointe we’ll be able to support and build that relationship so people can get access to care that they need,” Face said. “It’s incredible, the things we’re going to be able to do for people. I’m really excited.”

Our conversation also happened right before the Point-in-Time Count, which is the process of counting people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. It’s how the government allocates funding in each community.

In the few conversations I had with industry professionals, it seems that it’s challenging and most likely impossible to get a complete and accurate number of who might be experiencing homelessness in your community. People who couch surf or stay with friends or family can’t always be accounted for and, from my understanding, this oftentimes largely includes folks under the age of 24. Even if you technically are without a home, you are not meeting the definition of homelessness, since you aren’t sleeping outside or in a car, for instance. Thus, the numbers probably don’t reflect the reality of the situation.

To that point, on Jan. 19, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development hosted a virtual meeting to discuss plans for funding of the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, an initiative designed to reduce the number of youth experiencing homelessness. Many regions in Ohio have received funding, and now it is time for Portage County to decide how it can be best put to use.

As an attendant with very little knowledge of the system or the commonly used acronyms, it seems that advocating for those experiencing homelessness is, in my opinion, quite difficult. There are rules, regulations and never enough funding. But getting to see people who are acutely aware of the lack of help — and continue working anyway? Those are my kind of people.

And so, on a blustery but sunny January day, to get a sense of the daily work being done, I toured both Miller Community House and Freedom House, programs under the FCS umbrella overseen by Program Manager Emily Werger.

Miller Community House, one of only two shelters in the county, is a 30-day shelter that offers advocacy, info and connections to local resources and agencies. Freedom House, on the other hand, is a transitional housing facility specifically for veterans who are homeless. It provides constant support, along with structured and engaging therapies throughout the week in part from funding from the VA. By law, each veteran has their own room and bathroom, so there are a total of 14 rooms with ample space for each resident. Miller House, however, has space for 25 people but rooms, bathrooms and kitchen spaces are shared.

On my tour, I was welcomed into Miller Community House by the inviting energy of the staff. I was introduced to Renee Jones, the youth advocate for Miller lovingly known as “Ms. Renee.” Jones also serves as a cook, gets donations and creates and cultivates relationships with funders.

“But she really is our child whisperer,” Werger added. I was then introduced to “Ms. Shanay” Jefferson, who “makes sure people have soap or anything they might need, organizes in general, and de-escalates people that are mad about something. Clients come with every single possible issue and her job is to figure it out. These ladies are also event planners, and love to have a party. They really keep it lively and fun and festive here.”

In chatting with Werger, I could sense that she and her team want to instill in their clients that they are worthy of a place to call home, and everything that comes with it. Many people facing a housing crisis can feel like a burden, and Miller House seems to do their best to dispel that kind of thinking.

“There’s something to be said about building them up while they’re here, so they know they’ve got the skills. And they know they can call us if there’s a problem,” Werger said.
And while it seems simple, the three main rules clients need to follow are: Respect yourself. Respect each other. Respect the space.

“People respond very well to those rules. You don’t have to have a laundry list of rules in order to tighten up a space, you just need to have a collective sense that this is our home. And building community within the people that you have,” Werger said. “There’s a common misconception with homelessness: that they’re rowdy people, they need rules on rules on rules. No, they need to feel like they deserve to be here.”

We walked through communal areas, the kitchen and past bedrooms that are designated for families or individual clients. Each room is at capacity, and priority is given to the most vulnerable.

I asked how one might even go about starting the process of connecting with a shelter, and Werger explained the process of coordinated entry. This is where people can get to an access point like a library, police station or even Miller House itself, and the steps one could take to seek out emergency shelter.

“What does that mean? It means you can call here, and we can give you case management over the phone to try to get you into a shelter that will hopefully get you into the next step, which is some kind of transitional program, market rate housing if you can afford it, or subsidized housing. So for the individual, the goal is to get into the coordinated entry system so you can be on those lists and start the waiting process to get housed.”

The Miller House, like most other shelters, is typically always at capacity so clients do have to wait. This presents another challenge, as not everyone has access to a phone or email to be informed about any updates. And Werger was honest about some people not being the right fit for Miller House, as the safety of the group also has to be accounted for.
Werger also confirmed what I had heard during the HUD meeting, in that more 18–24-year-olds are seeking housing for a variety of reasons — but it seems there’s a spike in young people seeking shelter after sharing their sexual identity with their families, which is both very believable and very awful, in my opinion.

“We have a melting pot of people that have very different presenting issues, and often are challenged by each other’s company,” Werger said. “It really does make a person in this facility grow, when you’re like ‘gosh that person annoys me — but don’t kick them out, because it’s cold outside.’ You see the humanity come out in a lot of the people that we’re serving, which is awesome.”

I was even able to chat with Jeff, a Miller House client who asked to only be identified by his first name, about their day-to-day life.

“Sure we have issues with each other, but who wouldn’t? Personalities, you know,” said the client. “It’s unfortunate that they (Miller House) only have ‘x’ amount of beds, it is.”
Jeff was happy to share about his life, and told me how he used to sleep under a bridge in Kent and also spent time in Ravenna. From what he described, his journey seemed like one of continually finding himself in situations he’d never thought possible.

The client also confirmed that without the support of Miller House, he wouldn’t even know what services and programs were available. But now, he has some sense of stability after a journey filled with many question marks.

“I have someplace that I can say is my home. I get mail here. There’s friends here. An unlikely pairing of people, which is good,” he said. “I’m very grateful to Miller House for extending their hospitality, because I don’t know where else you could go, as a shelter, and have access to food. Or a way to cook it, if you have food.”

Now I understand that there are many factors that contribute to people facing homelessness, like economic barriers, social barriers, mental health barriers and many other situations. As Werger explained, not everybody has the same skill set or even desire to sustain housing — not to mention that finding permanent or even temporary housing is a huge challenge. But it seems to me it sure helps to have passionate people who respect human beings in a time of crisis and are realistic about the hurdles and challenges clients face, but still have hope for something better.

My biggest takeaway is to understand that sadly this is a time where many people are experiencing a housing crisis, but what I’ve gleaned is that they shouldn’t be defined by it. We’re all looking for something that feels like home, right? And while there are plenty of things we could do to help this community, namely giving money and other donations, it seems to me that starting with a little empathy might be valuable to all involved.

Jeff Miller
+ posts