November 16, 2005
Goodwill expands emergency shelter
Goodwill observes Homeless Awareness Week with new shelter ground breaking, food drive for pantry
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Goodwill is observing this week's Homeless Awareness Week with a host of activities geared to help the region's nearly 500 homeless individuals, teens and families.
Monday morning the organization broke ground for their new Goodwill Inn shelter on Keystone Road. Wednesday, the current Goodwill Inn will hold an open house for the public from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. And from Thursday through Sunday, the Inn and retail store will be conducting a food drive to stock the shelter's pantry.
Expanding the emergency shelter capacity is crucial as the Goodwill Inn - a former motel on South Division that became a shelter in 1986 - is bursting at the seams. Demand has risen by 55 percent since 1999 and last year the 52-bed facility housed 425 people on an emergency basis. The average length of stay for a family at the shelter is four to six months and sometimes up to eight people bunk in a room.
"We turn people away," said Lois Lannin, manager of the Goodwill Inn for nine years. "Like last night [Wednesday night] I had every bed filled and two people on cots."
"We do overflow to the Whiting Hotel when we're filled and we've had that pretty full," she added. "During the winter, some of the local churches do overflow and that's really a blessing."
A recent homeless count conducted this September in the five counties of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau found 591 homeless people. The bulk of those numbers, 493, were found in Grand Traverse County. Nearly a third of the county's homeless were children under 19, mirroring nationwide statistics that show that 35-40 percent of homeless people are families and children.
The new Goodwill Inn facility will house 77 people with the ability to expand capacity to 115 during peak demand. The design includes a family wing as well as the area's only licensed youth homeless shelter, which will be run in conjunction with Third Level Crisis Center.
The new shelter will also offer interview rooms and other space for the range of training and education offered. These meetings are currently conducted on a catch-as-catch-can basis, often with staff meeting a client in the cramped laundry room for privacy.
The facility will also include an on-site daycare as well as a commercial kitchen and expanded dining space. Residents at the current Goodwill Inn share one kitchen and eat the meals they prepare at either an eight-seat or a two-seat table.
This week's food drive will restock shelves at the current Goodwill Inn's food pantry, which are tapped daily by residents for their meals as well as by other needy community members.
"Unlike other food pantries in the area, we have 54 people here eating every day," noted Ruth Blick, director of marketing and retail operations for Goodwill. "Last year, 982 people came here for food and personal care items, during our fiscal year that ended in October."
Gift cards in $10 increments from area stores are welcome donations during the drive and are doled out only as needed to residents. These are used to purchase meat and fresh fruit for the pantry or to help someone in crisis buy gas, shoes or another item they cannot afford. Meijer has pledged to match gift cards from their store up to $500 during the food drive. From Thursday through Sunday, donors to the pantry will receive a coupon for use at the Goodwill retail store.
"They gave me tremendous freedom to do what I needed to do all year," said Lannin of the gift cards. "We just ran out of them from last year, that's what good stewards we are."
Donations of food or gift cards will be accepted for the Goodwill Inn's food pantry on Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. They can be taken to the shelter at 1329 South Division or the retail store at 2279 South Airport Road.