URM Charging Guests a Fee?

I first became aware of the idea to allow guests to participate in their eventual transition out of homelessness by paying a proportion of the cost of their program when I walked into the Door of Faith Mission in Des Moines, Iowa, over 24 years ago. 

The Door of Faith was an interesting place, because it had been established by a man, George Holloway, who had himself experienced homelessness and missions for 37 years.  He did not like what he had experienced, so he established a Mission that welcomed men, fed them extremely well to make them feel good and help avoid addictions, expected and enforced sobriety, allowed them to stay in all day or rest on their bunk when they were not working, and required them to either work or utilize their income to pay a portion of their own way, $6.00 per day back then, because he believed men would feel better about themselves if they paid their own way and carried their own weight. 

This allowed for a good working model of a mission, as 1/3 of the operating revenue came from supporting churches, 1/3 came from individual donors, and 1/3 came from the men themselves, contributing to their own recovery.  Everything good I learned about running a Mission came from George Holloway, a man with a 3^rd grade education, and his successor, Chaplain EE Peters, who taught me how to love someone out of homelessness.  My friend and mentor, John Perkins, the grandfather of Christian Community Development, also has reaffirmed to me that people feel better about themselves when they can pay even a portion of their own way and help themselves.

The only good additions that I made to the Door of Faith philosophy, were to invite people to chapel rather than requiring chapel attendance, and to gradually increase the fee from $6.00 the first month, to $7.00 the 2^nd month, and $8.00 the 3^rd and final months to gently encourage the men to move on to their own apartments as they became ready. 

I brought this philosophy with me to Union Rescue Mission, but when I mentioned charging guests or allowing them to invest a portion of their income to empower their recovery, it was met with some skepticism, as it was a new way of thinking.  I had just experienced what happens when you bring too many changes too quickly, so I dropped the subject for a few years. 

However, during a staff town hall meeting, the idea came up again.  A front lines staff person, concerned about long time guests who had a substantial income that they were frivolously spending while residing at URM for free, asked, “Why can’t we ask guests with a substantial income to participate by paying portion of the cost to reside here?”  I quickly shared with them that I had thought of that before, and that we would explore it.  

Understand, this question comes from a staff person who is not highly paid, who during this recession has, along with the rest of us, had their pay cut twice by 5%, no longer is receiving a match on their 401K, and is contributing a larger portion towards their health care benefits. Remarkably, even with all of this, about 65% of our staff also donate some of their earnings toward the operations of Union Rescue Mission. They not only give their time, talents, and energy, but some of their own income towards this work and the people they love.  Why wouldn’t we explore allowing guests with substantial income to participate in their own recovery? 

So, we explored the possibility over a number of months.  I blogged about it, and we received fantastic feedback on comments to the blogs.

We met with local community activists who formerly experienced homelessness, and gained valuable insight from them.  We developed from these discussions a pilot program of 25 beds and 25 beds (10% of our total guest beds) that would consist of a covenant relationship with some benefits in return for participation in what we have described as the Gateway Program.  We ask for a commitment to sobriety, ask the guest to pay $7.00 per day – $2.00 to go into their own savings plan, and $5.00 to pay for their specific case management that will assist in empowering them to escape homelessness.  In return, the guests are provided a foot locker for their bunk, their bunk is home to them all day long, they can access their bed and rest any time they like during the day, classes are provided, and they receive the more intense empowering case management that they are themselves investing in. All of the meals, health clinic, dental clinic, mental health counseling, legal clinic, utilities, and a host of other services continue to be provided for free because of the support of donors. 

I need to say it again for clarity: the fees collected will be for personal savings and the guests’ specific case management.  We launched it at first as voluntary, and we have had some volunteer participation, but change does not come easily. So next month we are going to move from 280 free guest beds on the men’s side to 255 free beds and 25 Gateway beds, and from 208 free beds on the womens’ side to 183 free beds and 25 Gateway beds. I personally hope that this program proves so successful that it grows from the inside out. 

There is no question that these hard times have contributed to implementing this philosophy.  We hope to work through these difficult financial times, and allow our guests to participate by investing in their own recovery so that we all come out better on the other side. 

When we implement this plan for our families with an income residing in one of our private rooms, each family will participate by paying 30% of their income in a program fee, 10% will be put towards their savings, and 20% will pay specifically for the case management staff assigned to the families.  This quite likely is the only way URM can continue being one of the only resources for housing single moms with kids, single dads with kids, and two parent families with kids including teen-agers and teen-age boys.  Would it be wiser to close our 4^th and 5^th floors down due to a lack of resources or is it better to allow families with an income to participate, pay for their own specific case management, and keep the much needed resources available?  

The single moms with children who participate in this program will be the first to have the opportunity to move to our beautiful Hope Gardens Family Center, a fantastic transitional housing facility which also requires participation in a program fee/savings program.  I will ask the question again in closing – with the sacrificial giving by our donors and the dedicated selfless work of our staff, why wouldn’t we explore allowing guests with substantial income to participate in their own recovery? 

Blessings,

Andy