Depaul USA receives grant to house N.O. homeless

By Beth Donze
Clarion Herald

A $500,000 grant recently awarded to the New Orleans branch of Depaul USA will enable the Vincentian-founded housing ministry to help some of the 500 homeless individuals placed in emergency hotel rooms during the pandemic to move into stable housing.

The grant, called “Safe at Home,” ultimately will enable 30 of those hotel dwellers to move into apartments of their own by covering a portion of their rent for a year and supporting them with loving and holistic case management as they transition to life off the streets.

The goal is to make their status as properly housed individuals extend beyond the life of the grant, said Jessica Lovell, director of Depaul USA-NOLA.

“Post-COVID, UNITY for the Homeless and the city started picking up people who were sleeping under the bridges – the street-homeless folks – and putting people in hotel rooms. They have contracts with various hotels,” explained Lovell, noting that the hotel rooms, while not optimal, supplied many individuals with the first stable housing they had had in a very long time and precious time to regroup.

“People are immeasurably grateful to have a bed – and not just a bed, a soft bed – a blanket, an A.C., a door they can close, a shower,” Lovell said. “(But) the clock is ticking, because it’s very costly to have people stay in hotels. It costs more money to pay for a hotel for a person for a month than it does for an apartment.”

Breaking the cycle

When Lovell initially heard about the Safe at Home grant – part of the emergency monies set aside for the nation’s homeless in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act – she needed reassurance that participants wouldn’t simply be kicked out of their apartments and “re-traumatized” after the funding expired, just as they were becoming stabilized indoors.

Depaul USA-NOLA already operates two successful housing programs focusing on long-term housing solutions for the homeless: Rapid Rehousing for Chronically Homeless Individuals (RRCHI) and Coming Home.

“I didn’t want to apply for a grant that would set people up for failure later. I would be happy to apply for this grant as long as these folks would be bridged to permanent housing,” said Lovell, who became convinced Safe at Home wasn’t just offering a band-aid solution, but also wrap-around services.

“They’re living on the street, unsheltered, and they’ve experienced a lot of trauma. A lot of things come with trauma,” she said. “People need a support system. One of the reasons they’re sleeping under there is because they don’t have (that), or they’ve burned bridges.”

Finding the right fit

The 30 Safe at Home participants will be referred to Depaul USA-NOLA by UNITY for the Homeless. Lovell, assisted by her case-management staff of one other fulltime and one part-time manager, first gets to know each candidate to determine where he or she will have the best opportunity to thrive.

“You have to be mindful of the person that you’re attempting to house and the environment around them, especially considering the struggles that they’re dealing with,” Lovell said. “I learn what kind of lifestyle they have – their patterns, their struggles, their strengths. Then, I’ll look for an apartment.”

Lovell also works with landlords, asking for information such as if the prospective rental property is a four-plex or a duplex, and who lives next door.

“I’m very particular about where to house people – I do not like to house people in neighborhoods where gang activity is going to re-traumatize them, because everybody deserves a good opportunity,” Lovell said. “If they’re going to get an opportunity (for housing), why not do it all the way?”

After Depaul USA-NOLA houses the individual, its grant co-partner, DePaul Community Health Centers, will step in to provide ongoing case management and wellness outreach.

Although they both have “Depaul” in their names, DePaul Community Health Centers is a separate entity that operates 10 area health clinics that provide compassionate and personalized medical, dental and behavioral health care, whereas Depaul USA-NOLA focuses squarely on housing and other support services for the homeless.

‘Keys’ to success

In early August, the first Safe at Home housing recipient ­– a man in his 60s who had been without shelter on and off for much of his life – signed his lease and moved into his new home.

“He is the sweetest man! He was so happy and thankful,” Lovell said. “He said, ‘Miss Jessica, I’m not going to let you down. I told him, ‘I don’t think you can let me down.’ He is just very, very grateful.”

When the one-year grant period expires, Depaul USA-NOLA, other homeless advocacy groups and the city will help eligible Safe at Home recipients transition to HANO vouchers, so they can continue to receive some rent relief.

“There will (also) be a large handful of people who won’t qualify for HANO vouchers for multiple reasons or who will need permanent supportive housing,” Lovell said.

Thirty others helped

In addition to the 30 individuals to be assisted by Safe at Home, Depaul USA-NOLA’s other two housing efforts currently are helping 30 more people find stable housing: RRCHI currently provides 24 months of rent assistance and case management to 16 individuals; and Depaul’s Coming Home program is helping 14 individuals who need longer-term rental help.

No matter when a given program expires on paper, Depaul USA-NOLA is dedicated to following participants and helping them locate resources that support their continuing housing stability and wellness, Lovell said.

Depaul USA-NOLA accepts donations of new and lightly used household items to help the formerly homeless furnish their new apartments. Each recipient is set up with basics such as a table, chairs and a bed; however, items often labeled “non-essential” also are needed, including wall art, plants, kitchen items, toolkits and TVs. Donors also can make monetary pledges toward the “adoption” of an apartment, so the household items may be purchased by Depaul and be delivered directly to the address without the added steps of storage and redelivery.

Depaul USA-NOLA is part of the anti-homelessness collaborative headquartered at the Rebuild Center at St. Joseph Church on Tulane Avenue. For more on how Depaul USA-NOLA combats homelessness, one person at a time, contact Lovell at (504) 458-8307 or email her at jessica.lovell@depaulusa.org. The website is www.depaulusa.org. New Orleans is one of six Depaul USA sites, each devoted to ending homelessness in its respective community. The others are in Little Rock, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis and Macon, Georgia.

bdonze@clarionherald.org