Gene Leahy Mall benefiting from mayors shelter supports

[eomaha]

Shelters' day hours catch on

Daytime hours at three Omaha homeless shelters are drawing crowds, though not keeping all of the city's needy people indoors.

Two months after Mayor Mike Fahey launched an ambitious day shelter plan, people are still lining up downtown at the Gene Leahy Mall for lunch, but their numbers are down.

The Siena Francis House, Open Door Mission and Stephen Center are reporting full lunchrooms and afternoon crowds.

"We are chock full of people," said Del Bomberger, director of the Stephen Center, 2723 Q St., where a tiny cafeteria doubles as a day shelter for now.

Fahey gave the three shelters seed money in December to open their doors during the day to anyone who needs a place to warm up, do laundry, take a shower and get help.

All three homeless shelters had run some form of 24-hour service but were limited in providing daytime help because of cost, space and a primary focus on emergency overnight shelter.

Fahey also promised $2.5 million in public and private funding this year for shelter expansion projects. Tess Fogarty, the mayor's spokeswoman, said Fahey is working to raise the funds.

With the promise of funds in mind - though no word yet on when that funding would come - each shelter is moving forward with plans to expand:

• Siena Francis House wants to build a 23,000-square-foot day center north of its current facility at 1702 Nicholas St. It would be separate from the building being constructed east of the shelter for overnight guests.

• The Open Door Mission, which outgrew the day room it opened over a year ago at its main shelter near Eppley Airfield, envisions a 5,000-square-foot center for men on one side of its main building and a slightly larger center for women and children.

• The Stephen Center has cleared ground for a building that would double the size of its recovery program, opening up more space for daytime services.

For now, each of the shelters is making do and opening its doors during the day to anyone who shows up.

And people are coming.

"The word is getting out there," said Rob Bauer, the day program manager at Siena Francis House, which has three staff members assigned to handle day cases. "Unfortunately, a lot of these people get stuck in, 'I live at the Francis House and that's all I'm ever going to do.' That's just not so."

The Open Door Mission is bringing on a full-time staff member to handle the day caseload and will make three Internet-ready computers available in March.

"We want to equip them with the tools to be self-sufficient," said Candace Gregory, president and chief operating officer of the Open Door Mission.

Shelter residents have given the changes mixed reviews.

"They've got good food here - good hot-cooked food," gushed Elizabeth Harlan about the Stephen Center, where a platter of Panera Bread pastries and fresh coffee was set out for residents.

"They provide for babies," said Harlan, who is staying at the shelter with her 14-month-old son. "They help you the best way they can."

Richard Santee, a resident at the Open Door Mission, complained that a lack of city bus service past the shelter and limited job opportunities were part of the reason he languished at the shelter for three weeks.

"I've got nothing accomplished," said Santee, 46.

The shelter already provides regular van shuttles to and from downtown Omaha and job sites. Gregory said she is trying to increase shuttles.

Despite the welcome mat at all three shelters, some of the city's needy still prefer their familiar spots along the Missouri River bank, at the Gene Leahy Mall or inside the downtown library.

"Kind of feel like you're in a zoo, but you got to eat," said Paul Yarpe as he stood with 30 other people in a line recently for a free lunch that two Creighton Prep students were handing out at 14th and Farnam Streets.

Yarpe, 46, said he prefers a warm sleeping bag in a downtown alley to shelters.

"Too many hassles," he said, explaining that he wanted to avoid crowds, fights and anyone with drugs.

"I don't do dope, but I do drink like a fish," he said. "I don't bum spare change or steal. I only make twenty-five, thirty bucks on a weekend (in temporary labor). For me it's easy to get drunk and forget about it."

Yarpe, who has spent a lifetime on the road, had prepared for a winter of camping out by getting vaccinations for pneumonia and the flu.

But the idea of a place to stay warm, shower and get help seemed to appeal even to this veteran of the streets.

"I got the wanderlust and now it's catching up," said Yarpe. "Lousy job history. No good skills. Too old."

Shelter directors say they know the day centers won't help everyone.

But with patience and time, they expect to see results.

"We've made some progress," said Bomberger of the Stephen Center. "The longer you talk to (the needy), you start to see you're making some inroads. We're now getting a guy away from the river and into treatment who initially had no interest in that. It's a long-term process."

[CountOfMC]

"I don't do dope, but I do drink like a fish," he said. "I don't bum spare change or steal. For me it's easy to get drunk and forget about it."

I'll pretend I didn't hear that.

[DTO Luv]

Ok here's a brilliant idea. Stop handing out lunches at the Mall. I remember a few years ago they talked about moving it to the Civic since it was big enough and the bums wouldn't use the library bathrooms.

[projectman]

Watch it guys as its very easy to sit in your comfortable homes and make judgements about how these people should be handled. Most of these guys probably made bad decisions or had some bad luck or battle mental illnes and I'm pretty sure they don't want to live in the streets. The alcohol and drug abuse is a disease and should be treated as such. If you arrest them they'll be back in the streets again. I don't have the answer but what we've been doing with the street people for the last 100 years doesn't work.

[Swift]

Here's what you do to solve the drug violence/addiction problem:

Legalize all drugs.

Legalize them and make them free for anyone who wants to use them.

Set up drug centers where professionals can administer safe doeses of the drugs with sterile equipment (notice this helps the AIDS epidemic too?)

Make users be confined in a locked room until the effects of the drugs has worn off.


Where would we get the money to do this? Well if drugs are free then there is no more market for them, and if there is no more market for them there are no more drug dealers, cartels etc. IF there are no drug dealers or cartels there is no war on drugs. IF there is no war on drugs there are billions of dollars freed up.

Controversial? Yes. Progressive? Of course. Effective? Likely.

[DTO Luv]

Places in Canda have that. So would they still be called Crack Houses?

[projectman]

It might work.

[OmahaRules]

I've always wondered about the hidden economic effect of the drug business. You know there are some really powerful people with their hands in the drug game if somehow they did stop the drugs altogether how that would effect the economy as a whole.....I know it'd be minimal but itd be interesting none the less.

(Stupid drug thought of the day)

[DTO Luv]

People would still sell drugs though. If the place only gives you a "safe" amount and not more people are still going to want more. Back to reality...

I really don't see why they don't move the handout spots to another place.

[Swift]

I've been to Omaha shelters. Multiple times. Yay Community Involvement Day.

[Swift]

Dude you obviously did not read the part in my post about containing a person until the effects of the drugs have worn off.

[Finn]

Come on. People are not going to line up to do drugs in a locked room. In such a controlled scenario, there would certainly be a drug market for people who want to use the drugs recreationally (i.e. not locked up). Thus, there would still be drug deals, cartels, etc. etc. Much the same as people are not going to go to a locked room for a drink. Part of the appeal of drugs and alcohol is the social aspect.

Effective? Definitely not likely.

[Swift]

Well we have obviously seen that people addicted to hardcore drugs will do ANYTHING to get the drugs (i.e. kill people, steal, armed robbery). So what makes you think someone wouldn't go sit in a warm clean room and get the drugs for free??

Granted that wouldn't work for marijuana or ecstacy, but ever since I did a report on marijuana in highschool I've been convinced that they should decriminalize it and sell it the same way they do alcohol.

Once you start replacing the words "war on drugs" with "prohibition" you realize how wrong really are going about this. Alcohol was incredibly easy to get during prohibition and it made lots of bad men rich. Once it was legal again, they were up a creek and had to start finding other ways to make money.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I've been to Omaha shelters. Multiple times. Yay Community Involvement Day.

LOL ;)

And I totally agree with your last statement.

[DTO Luv]

I've been to Omaha shelters. Multiple times. Yay Community Involvement Day.

Me too. Damn being poor!

[Big E]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2 ... d=10297240

The temporary site for the Siena-Francis House's day services near downtown will close today at 7 p.m. That means that beginning Tuesday, downtown workers probably will see many more homeless people on the Gene Leahy Mall over the lunch hour.

Yes, World Herald. That is exactly what that means. Good take on the situation.

I wonder what the echo is like when your head is as far up your own |expletive| as theirs is.

-Big E

(edit: 3+ year thread revival. Props to me.)

[DTO Luv]

So Big E, are you ready to start Bumbusters yet?

[Brad]

I thought the day shelter was brand new? Was that temp?

[the1wags]

Yeah it was only for the winter. I wish they wouldn't hand out the lunches at the Mall. They only do it there to make the homeless visible in an attempt to get more money from the businesses DT for the shelters. Here's an idea, why don't they hand the lunches out AT THE SHELTER.

[Brad]

How much money did they spend on a temp day shelter.

between that and the 1.2 billion pieces of junk mail the Open Door Missions sends per year, I have had about enough with the homeless shelters in this town!

[SarahEatsOmaha]

It definitely makes working/walking alone downtown more interesting, imo.

[Brad]

It definitely makes working/walking alone downtown more interesting, imo.

Makes my pockets lighter... We actually it doesn't because I tell them to get lost.