arlington-alexandria coalition for the homeless

Local Coalition Provides Homeless with Beds, Life Skills, Hope

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 3/8/07)

It was the mid-1990s and Gerald Turner couldn’t kick his heroin addiction. A slave to the drug for a quarter-century, Turner led himself, his wife and their three children to the brink of home eviction.
Now, a decade later, Turner sits at a desk in a basement office on a side street in Clarendon, literally the face of the organization that gave him a second chance at life and that took him from no home to new home.
The Turners are a success story for the Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless (AACH) and its Adopt-a-Family program, which offers case management, rental assistance and community assistance for families who find themselves homeless and in need of a way to get back on their feet.
Before being “adopted,” Turner was making minimum wage. Now he holds down a full-time job at the post office and a part-time job as receptionist at the AACH’s Sullivan House.
“I’ve quadrupled my salary,” he said in between answering phone calls. “I would have volunteered here, but since they offered to pay me, I took the job.”
Michael J. O’Rourke, executive director of the AACH and former associate director of finance and administration for the diocesan Catholic Charities, said that the AACH was founded and incorporated in 1985 by “a groundswell from faith communities” in response to the area’s increasing number of homeless.
Four components make up its current structure: Sullivan House, a temporary housing refuge for women and families; Adopt-a-Family; LifeWorks, which helps the homeless develop job and life skills, work on resumes and find employment; and SKIT (Support for Kids in Transition), which assists and advocates for the families’ children.
Sullivan House, named after the AACH Board of Directors Vice President Rosemari Sullivan, is the oldest and the biggest cog in the coalition’s wheel. It is owned by Arlington County and is operated under contract by the AACH. When a kitchen cabinet hangs loose, the county sends a repairman; when it snows, the county sends a plow.
The three-story, 10-unit shelter can house up to 50 people at once, and currently accommodates 22, including 15 kids. Most families stay for three to six months, some longer depending on their circumstances.
“This is a transitional shelter, meaning people don’t walk off the street and say ‘I need a place to sleep tonight,’” O’Rourke said. “Families are identified and vetted through the county based on need, and we talk to them and see if we can help them. Generally we can.”
Although single women and families are invited to reside at Sullivan House, single men are not.
“Since we have one and two bedroom quarters, we’re more designed for families,” O’Rourke said. “If we started taking men in, we might have all 10 apartments filled up and only 10 residents. And then where would the families go?” A nearby shelter is available for single men, he said.
Sullivan House coordinates with LifeWorks to make sure the clients are “positioned for success” when they leave; that is, that they have the life skills to be able to make it on their own.
O’Rourke said being positioned for success includes retaining a job, being responsible with finances, having transportation to work, and, finally, maintaining a home.
“We want them in a position to move forward and succeed or else we’re just wasting the money,” he said.
Serena Bonora, who has worked for three years as director of volunteers and community outreach for LifeWorks, said this is one of the aspects of the AACH that most appeals to her.
“I like that beyond just the shelter there are after-care programs,” she said. “That we don’t only assist clients to make sure that they get a job and find housing, but also that beyond that, a couple years down the road, they remain stable and independent.”
O’Rourke’s office is in the basement of Sullivan House, a converted two-bedroom apartment with 1950s paneled flooring and whitewashed walls. Nearby is Turner’s office space, as well as that of Mark Moreau, senior case manager and director of operations for the house.
In his 22 years of employment at the AACH, Moreau said he has seen numerous reasons why people end up on the street and in need of assistance — everything from domestic violence to mental illness to drug addiction — but also, especially in this affluent area, a lack of affordable housing.
“A lot of our folks have worn out their support network in the area with friends or family and we often get clients that are young mothers with young children who are asked to leave,” Moreau said. “The issue in this area is most people can find jobs, but it’s the living wage” that’s the problem. “They can’t earn enough to afford the housing. The housing costs have just outpaced the wages.”
“It’s not just that they’re unemployed,” O’Rourke said. “They may be underemployed, where they don’t make enough to live on their own.”
Sullivan House continuously fights this uphill battle, and O’Rourke is happy to report that 30 former clients have been able to purchase their own homes, most through Habitat for Humanity. The clients help with the house construction and end up going from homelessness to home ownership.
“Our goal is to get 70 percent into their own housing, whether that’s an apartment with a lease or a shared situation,” Moreau said. “And the last couple of years we’ve been able to do that.”
The Adopt-a-Family program, which Turner was a part of, can only support 25 families.
“These are people that are beyond living in a transitional shelter now — that live out in the community in their own apartments for which they’ve signed a lease,” O’Rourke said. “But we help them with the rent and help them obtain and retain employment.”
LifeWorks, Adopt-a-Family and SKIT are based next door to Sullivan House in a low-rise building with seven full-time staff members, a conference room, a playroom for kids and a technology center.
Colorful walls surround the SKIT playroom, which is filled with board games, toys and books. According to Bonora, activities for the 15 children residing at Sullivan House are planned for two to three nights per week, as well as two Saturdays per month, to give parents a break and to give the kids some educational and recreational activities.
They’ve gone to the Smithsonian, movies, the National Zoo and ice skating. Volunteers also are rallied by SKIT staff to help tutor and read to the kids.
Even though the AACH is not a Catholic institution — O’Rourke’s wife had to remind him that he couldn’t open his first staff meeting with a prayer — O’Rourke said that he feels like the organization still works to fulfill the “message and mandate of the Gospel like any other nonprofit that works for the good of our fellow men and women.”
He added that while the AACH is supported by faith communities — one local church even adopts families so that the AACH’s resources can be used to help other ones — he would like to do more to reach out to local churches, including the Catholic community.
“The faith communities are particularly suited, and are also prone to” helping the less fortunate, he said. “I think we can do more with faith communities, and I’d like to.
“The more people that know about (the AACH), the more people will try to help us,” O’Rourke said. “It’s a good place. A lot of good gets done here.”
Turner, a living example of that good, agreed.
“I love meeting and greeting clients and telling them there’s hope — to keep plugging and things will get better,” he said. I’m “just trying to give them encouragement.”
Which makes sense. Because, after all, who would know better than he?
For more information go to www.aachhomeless.org.

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.