Homeless no more

‘They saved my life,’ says resident of Ozanam Manor

By Andrew Junker | Nov. 4, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Frank didn’t think it could ever happen to him.

But, then again, that’s a common thought running through the minds of the residents of Ozanam Manor, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s downtown transitional shelter for men and women.

Frank, 60, had worked for two decades as a licensed practical nurse at various hospitals, a position he said health care providers are starting to phase out. When he was fired from his job in July of last year, Frank found out all his potential employers were requiring a fingerprint clearance card from applicants.

He didn’t have one of these cards, and he didn’t have the money or a copy of his birth certificate to get one. Frank ran through his modest savings pretty quickly and was faced by the unthinkable: He was about to become homeless.

“My apartment landlord took me to court and got me evicted,” Frank said. “And then, just by accident, I found out I had high blood pressure that I didn’t know about.”

Somebody told Frank that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul ran a free medical clinic.

“I went there and told them that I was out of work and money and they recommended this place here that I’d never heard of in my life,” Frank said, referring to Ozanam Manor. “They were kind enough to take me in and saved my life, actually.”

There was a waiting list at first to get into Ozanam Manor — six weeks during which Frank lived on the streets of Phoenix. But once space opened up for him, he was given a bed, three meals a day and a dedicated case manager to help him get back on his feet.

These case managers come up with some short and long term goals to get the residents independent again. Maribeth Schmidt began working with Frank almost immediately after he entered Ozanam Manor. Frank wanted to try to get back to work, so first on the list was acquiring his fingerprint clearance card, which meant tracking down his birth certificate.

“That took about two or three months just to get,” Schmidt said. Frank legally changed his name a number of years ago, and his birth certificate was issued in Massachusetts, both of which made tracking the document down difficult to say the least.

Once Frank finally got his birth certificate, he was able to sign up for AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid program, which allowed him to begin visiting a primary care doctor for his health problems.

But there was still the problem of his fingerprint clearance card.

“That was a chore and a half,” Schmidt laughed. “We got that after probably five or six months. At that point, while we were waiting for that, he went ahead and looked at Social Security retirement, and he was eligible for that. His first check comes in January.”

Frank said it’s difficult to get back on your feet when you have no source of income. It’s been especially difficult this past year for all residents of the shelter who are able to work.

“It’s the economy,” said Mike Bell, director of Ozanam Manor. “There’s a pretty large minority here who can work — a lot of the people here are disabled — and they’re having the hardest time finding work. It takes them longer to move out, so I think the average stay here has gone up quite a bit.”

That means that the waiting list is longer at the shelter, and more people are left on the streets. Ozanam Manor has also been suffering from the two-fold effect of any recession: people need the services of charitable organizations even more, all while donations are down dramatically.

“We’ve had to cut our budget back a lot,” Bell said. “Our staff has had to take temporary pay cuts, loss of hours, changed schedules. We did that so we wouldn’t have to have as high a staffing level.”

At the same time, financial difficulties highlight the large impact volunteers have on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, said Ryan Narramore, communications director for the society.

“We’re a small staff by design. While donations are down, volunteer hours are through the roof,” he said. “If they can’t whip out their check books, they want to come down and offer a few of their hours.”

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is also hosting its Community Breakfast Nov. 13 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa. The annual event highlights the good work the society does across the state while serving as a major fundraiser for those works.

One way volunteers help at Ozanam Manor is through their mentor program. Frank’s mentor meets with him regularly, helping him wade through the bureaucratic paperwork that can feel crushing.

“It’s frustrating at times,” Schmidt admitted. “If things had gone faster, Frank would have been out of here earlier. There’s a lot of waiting around, and not a lot I can do for cases who don’t have a source of income.”

Still, when Frank begins collecting Social Security this January, he should have enough money to move into an apartment. He’s been doing extra chores at Ozanam Manor, for which the shelter is paying him in St. Vincent de Paul thrift store gift certificates. When he leaves the shelter, he’ll be able to use the store credit to furnish his new place.

Frank is looking forward to transitioning out of the shelter, even though he said it was the best thing that could have happened to him in his situation.

“They’ve been very kind to me. I can’t thank them enough,” he said. “I didn’t have any place to live. I didn’t have any place to go.”