Boulware sets sights on larger facility, expanded services

Homeless mission renovating former convent

by Carrie Blackham

From the front steps of the former Passionist convent on Benita Avenue, it is easy to see the signs lining the lawns along adjacent Geary Court stating, “No to Boulware.”

The Boulware Mission, a homeless shelter and substance abuse treatment center, purchased the long, empty building in March and will move there next year. This new, larger location will allow Boulware to more than double the number of people it can serve at any one time – from 40 now to 90 in the future. The mission also expects to increase its staff from 15 to about 24.

The yard signs are the last remnants of an attempt to prevent Boulware from moving from its current site on Hall Street. The efforts included a lawsuit which was recently resolved in favor of the mission.

While some of its new neighbors argued that Boulware should have expanded its existing space, the mission’s administrators say the convent site will better meet the mission’s needs for housing. And expanding is critical, they say – Boulware is the only shelter in Daviess County for single men. The Hall Street site will be used by another organization, Lifeboat, as a detoxification facility.

At the convent site, Boulware will be able to serve 60 men and 30 women. That still won’t be enough to meet the need -- the mission served 300 clients over the course of last year, but had 3,000 requests for services, up from 2,000 the year before.

“A homeless person is anyone who does not have a safe, decent home of their own,” said Linda Roberts, chief operations officer at the faith-based mission. While homelessness in Owensboro is somewhat invisible, area shelters are usually at capacity.

Roberts believes that homelessness is a result of the increase in single-parent families and the limits of public assistance -- a single parent cannot support a family on minimum wage. Substance abuse is another common reason for the homelessness of many Boulware clients. While there is little concrete data available, Roberts believes that homelessness is on the rise. In particular, she says that there is a correlation between the incidence of substance abuse and homelessness.

Mission serves clients who have hit bottom

James, a resident of the mission, considers himself fortunate. He has been there for 18 days after spending two months in jail on his third drunk-driving charge. James is very soft spoken as he recounts the story of two failed marriages and the loss of a construction business that employed eight people and gave him a $150,000 salary. He recalls how he used to live in his truck.

James openly admits that he is an alcoholic and is incapable of rehabilitating himself. It became obvious that he needed the kind of long-term substance abuse treatment that Boulware provides. Previously, he had two unsuccessful stints in a 35-day program. While in jail recently, James wrote for drug court, ”I am a menace to myself, people around me, and society. With deep shame comes the knowledge that I live with no sense of social obligation or know the meaning of moral responsibility to my fellow man.” James appears sincere when he expresses gratitude for his most recent arrest because he feels as though ”it was the beginning of the end” of his addictive lifestyle.

The mission encourages its clients to remain in residence for six months to a year, a time frame that Roberts believes is necessary to treat the entire person. Case managers and clients develop a plan to address the specific needs of the client, including physical health, mental health or substance abuse, emotional health, spirituality, education, job skills and housing.

Boulware takes drug court referrals and self-referrals on a first come, first served basis. The mission serves residents of all counties in the Green River area, with the majority of its clients coming from Daviess County.

Brandy, now in her late 20s, is a young mother of three who began drinking at age 15 and using drugs at 17. The drug court in a nearby county offered her the choice of going through the programs at Boulware or spending 10 years in prison on drug possession charges. Brandy said that she was tired of living and would probably be dead if she had not gone through drug court; she credits the mission with saving her life. She has been clean since December of 2005 and once her treatment is complete, she plans to obtain her GED (high school equivalency diploma) and focus on her children.

Other shelters serve women, families

There are two other agencies in Owensboro that provide similar services. OASIS offers shelter and support to women and their children affected by domestic violence and substance abuse. It provides shelter for every woman at risk for domestic violence, but there is a waiting list for those women with substance abuse issues not related to domestic violence.

The Daniel Pitino Shelter offers shelter to single women and families, but is unable to serve single men. This agency is strictly a shelter and does not provide any other support services on site. It has room for 14 families and several single women.

Besides Boulware, the only other shelter in the Green River area that provides shelter services to single men is located in Henderson. Since 1921, Boulware has served homeless men, women, one- and two-parent families and couples without children.

Expansion will include wall

In the renovated convent, Boulware will have 27,000 square feet of space. The mission plans to close the Benita Avenue entrance to the building and continue the wall around the mission so that it is completely enclosed. Administrators expect to complete the $3 million renovation within a year.

Boulware is currently seeking donations from community leaders and organizations through private negotiations until it reaches an undisclosed benchmark. At that point, when the mission can assure the community that there is significant support for the mission’s expansion, administrators and board members expect to begin a public fundraising campaign.

The mission also receives funding from the United Way, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, local churches and some businesses.

But what about the neighbors?

While the Daviess County community has always supported Boulware’s efforts to help men like James with difficult substance abuse problems, neighbors of the new site have been concerned that some of those problems could begin affecting the neighborhood.

Donna Embry, neighborhood representative, cites two reasons for neighbors’ opposition to the mission’s new location – finances and fear.

James and Brandy said they do not understand the opposition – that they believe that Boulware is instrumental in taking troubled people off the streets and turning them into productive citizens.

However neighbors have doubts that Boulware can raise the money needed to support the new site and believe that it would have been less expensive to renovate the current site, Embry said.

The other reason for neighborhood opposition is fear that the neighborhood will be less family oriented and less safe -- that residents won’t want to venture out because some of Boulware’s clients could pose a risk to them.

Embry also said the neighborhood would have been more accepting of the move if residents had been prepared with a series of meetings between the neighborhood and the mission so that concerns could have been aired freely.

At the same time, Embry supports the mission’s work. She had two suggestions for calming some of residents’ fears -- conducting more stringent FBI background checks so that sex offenders from other states are not missed, and having trusted clients from the mission ride bicycles or walk the neighborhood to get to know residents and make sure that no one is experiencing problems.

Mission administrators indicate that they already use an Internet-based FBI background check on every potential resident. They also rely on a pre-admission interview to determine whether someone is an appropriate candidate for residency at the Boulware Mission. Roberts said staff members have experience interpreting both the behaviors and the answers given in the lengthy intake process because, unless a person has been convicted, their background check will be clear.

Roberts indicated an interest in Embry’s idea of having pairs of “residential volunteer staff” make regular rounds in the surrounding neighborhood . Roberts also plans to open the mission to visitors two or three times a year so the community can see how the residents live and learn about the programs they are required to participate in. “The people who enter these doors are human beings that made mistakes,” Roberts said, “but they are ready to do the work necessary to help themselves.”

 

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