From Intake to Housing: How Homeless Shelters Work

Drew Thomas  0:05  
Fast fact, operating a community shelter is typically estimated to cost between $16,500 and $30,000 per bed annually, depending upon where you live in the country. I'm Drew Thomas, and this is Bank Chats.

Drew Thomas  0:45  
Yeah, so I'm going to put it on you, and this is how this is going to start today. So, we, we are going to start, see now we're laughing, and then we're getting, then we're going to talk about this heavy topic. So, we are going to talk a little bit today about something that we've never really touched on, on the show, and that is the topic of homelessness and how that affects people, obviously, from a financial point of view. But there's a lot more that goes into dealing with this problem than just handing somebody some money and saying, hey, you know now you're not homeless anymore, right? So, I'll let you go ahead and, because I feel like I talk all the time, and then I'm just sitting over here vamping, so I'm going to let you introduce our guest and then, and then we're going to go from there. Yeah.

Jeff Matevish  1:36  
Thank you, thank you. With us today, we have Roxann Tyger, the Director of the Women's Help Center and the Community Help Center here in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your programs, your shelters and yourself?

Roxann Tyger  1:49  
Yeah, I would love to, well, I've been at the Women's Help Center for five years now. Actually, this Saturday will be my anniversary, five years.

Jeff Matevish  1:57  
Congratulations.

Roxann Tyger  1:58  
It's flown right by it's so busy, but yeah, so what we do at the Women's Help Center is we've also created a division called the Community Help Center, because we really have been trying to open up and help everybody who's in need of housing or homelessness services. So, having that other division, per se, the Community Help Center, makes it much more approachable, I think, for anyone who needs that kind of help. So, a wide variety of services and emergency shelter. It is transitional housing for people who are coming out of a homeless situation but aren't quite ready to be independent yet. We have community health workers. We have certified peer specialists. I'm just trying to think of them all in my head that we have. We do a food bank, we do financial literacy, renters' education, street outreach, which is something relatively new that we haven't had here in Cambria County before, and eviction prevention. So, we do a lot of housing support services too, where we can either help people who are at risk of eviction, they have a notice or they're behind in their rent, and also, once they, individuals find an apartment or a house to rent or just need that extra support, we can pay for up to three months of rent for them, plus some other services.

Jeff Matevish  3:20  
That's nice, yeah.

Roxann Tyger  3:21  
Moving assistance, transportation assistance.

Drew Thomas  3:24  
Well, I can understand why you're here and have all this time to sit and talk with us because you have nothing else to do.

Roxann Tyger  3:30  
I love spending time with you two guys.

Drew Thomas  3:34  
No, so I mean that, in and of itself, tells you just how involved trying to address this problem can become. And I know that you said that you have emergency shelter, but that you also have a community, community outreach, obviously, and community shelter. So, how does, I guess, I guess the first question is, and you know, if somebody finds themselves in a homeless situation, how does that usually happen? Is it usually because of something, like, they, they lost their job, and then they can't, they can't find another one? Or is it something usually that's associated with, like, maybe an addiction issue or domestic violence issue, or, I'm sure it's a little bit of all of that. But what's, what do you commonly see? Like, how do people usually end up first, first arriving at your doorstep? Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  4:24  
And it really is a lot of those kind of things. So, it could be domestic violence. Sometimes it's just a relationship that's dissolved, maybe a couple living together, someone moves out, the other individual can't afford it on their own, or the individual who has to leave is now homeless. Job loss, hours being cut. So, it might not be losing your job, but just not having the hours and enough money to be able to pay the rent. Yeah, it really has just been a variety of situations. There can be some behavioral health issues, things where people need help and just aren't able to work or maintain their living at that current level.

Drew Thomas  5:05  
My daughter, she, she works with a local school, and she's a what they call a behavioral health, or behavior, behavioral specialist, and she works with elementary school kids that have, you know, sort of like autism and mental challenges and things like that. And a lot of them are on a, I mean, the term spectrum is used a lot, right? But I but a lot of them are on a spectrum, where they can be, you know, they can have a job, they can hold, they can hold down certain things, but sometimes they have additional challenges. So, like, whenever you're saying, like, you know, like, it's, it's, you know, it's losing that job, or it's losing the, the that knife's edge where you're on, where I, okay, I was making 30 hours a week, and I'm just getting by, and now I'm cutting back to 20 hours a week, and now I can't pay my rent, or I can't pay for a car. I can't and then...

Jeff Matevish  5:53  
They may not need a lot of help. They're, they're right on that edge of needing assistance, where, yeah.

Roxann Tyger  5:59  
It doesn't take much to push you.

Jeff Matevish  6:01  
Yeah, it may be a few days or weeks or, you know.

Drew Thomas  6:04  
I remember, I worked with a guy that one time, he ended up quitting, he was working for us part-time, not here, but he was working for us part-time. And he, he ended up quitting because it was cheaper for him to stay home with his kids instead of paying for daycare.

Roxann Tyger  6:16  
Yeah, yeah.

Drew Thomas  6:17  
You know what I mean? So, you, you know, but then all of a sudden, like, as your kids get older, well now, it now I don't have a job, and now I haven't had a job in 10 years, and that becomes an issue. And then if something happens with your spousal relationship or something like that, like you said, you know, they can find yourselves like, well, now you know, my wife owned the house and now I'm out, or vice versa. So, so what do you typically do, like, what's, what's the process when someone comes to you and says, okay, I need help? Do you have to do that sort of whole evaluation to see where they are on that, that spectrum? Yeah, what are your criteria to be able to help somebody like that?

Roxann Tyger  6:57  
Well, when someone first comes to us, they can either call in, sometimes they just walk in because they just need to talk to someone. We do an assessment. It's not very lengthy. It might just be 10-15, minutes. And for us, it's just trying to understand what they've been doing so far. You know, sort of what happened. Tell us how, how you got here. But you know, what are all of your, you know, your strengths and resources. What are you, you know, do you have a job? Do you need a job? Do you have any income? We really try to look at what their situation is, and also to see, do they have any other resources or supports out there that maybe they haven't tapped into? Do you have family you can stay with? Because a lot of people, you hear the word shelter and it's like, oh, my, that's horrible. I don't want to.

Drew Thomas  7:37  
Sure, yeah.

Roxann Tyger  7:37  
And our shelter is not like that. But I would say that's, that's usually just the first thing people think of when they think of a shelter is, you know, a bunkhouse, kind of a situation where people are all living together. And although there's some communal aspects to it, it's definitely, you know, much nicer home-like environment we try to provide for individuals. But they would come to us, complete that basic information, and we do ask everyone to register on what's called 211.

Jeff Matevish  8:05  
Okay.

Roxann Tyger  8:06  
Which is a statewide system. It really is sort of like a system that's run by the United Way that connects people to different resources. So, like Jeff, if you're experiencing homelessness or even food insecurity, right? You don't maybe have to know where to call. You can call 211 to tell them about your situation. They'll give you resources for where you're at, where you live, for the need that you have. But we do ask everyone to get screened through 211. The system that we use in the state for the homelessness system, it does interact with that, the 211 system. Okay, so that's how you sort of get on our list, so to speak. With the shelter that we have, unfortunately, there is a waiting list. It has been full for quite some time, so we do ask people to, to get on the waiting list, and we are constantly checking with individuals on the waiting list to see, make sure that they have resources that we're helping the most pressing needs first, because sometimes people call us, but maybe they are sort of couch surfing, which means they're staying with someone else. It's not their own place. It's not an ideal situation, but they still have a roof over their head, so although they still have a need, you know, if I have a mom with two kids who's living in her car, they are at the top of the list, right? Sure, that's someone who's staying in a place that's not fit for habitation. So, we, we're always looking at that to see, you know, who has the highest need, who has the priority to come into shelter. And we also work with people if, for some reason, we can't bring them into our shelter, are there other shelters out there who could help them too?

Drew Thomas  9:37  
Okay.

Roxann Tyger  9:38  
So, it's not just...

Jeff Matevish  9:39  
You work with like a network of other shelters, okay.

Roxann Tyger  9:41  
So, so we do see what other options are out there, but sometimes individuals want to stay in a certain area. You know, maybe they have a job, and it's in Johnstown or somewhere in Cambria County. So, going to a shelter in Pittsburgh isn't really going to, to help their situation. They, or they have family, some family supports here, so they really don't want to leave. They just need somewhere to stay here until they get back on their feet.

Jeff Matevish  10:04  
Do you service all of Cambria County? Or is it just specifically okay.

Roxann Tyger  10:07  
Yeah, it's all of Cambria County. And actually even for individuals to come into shelter, if we're just talking about emergency shelter, they don't have to even be in Cambria County at that moment. Yeah, we really, we can help people, other shelters and other places may have a residency requirement, like, you have to be a resident in this area for three months or six months. For us, there really is no residency requirement. It's really, we just look at the person in front of us and their needs.

Drew Thomas  10:36  
So, in terms of, in terms of things like the shelters in the, in a given area. Is there any kind of requirement that says, okay, for so much population, there has to be so many shelters to help offset some of the homelessness need? Or is it sort of, is it just, are you, your nonprofit, correct?

Roxann Tyger  10:57  
Correct.

Drew Thomas  10:57  
So, is it just that whoever can, can stand up enough shelters, or is there government assistance for this? I guess my question is, you know, if I have a population of 20,000 does there certain, does there have to be a certain amount of shelter available for that population size, as opposed to, like Chicago, that might have 6 million people, and that sort of, does that make sense?

Roxann Tyger  11:18  
I get your question. Okay, no, there is no requirement.

Jeff Matevish  11:21  
Because it's not state run, right?

Roxann Tyger  11:23  
Well, there are, there's state funding, but there's no requirement that you have to have an emergency shelter. So, there are some counties where they don't have a shelter.

Drew Thomas  11:53  
Okay.

Roxann Tyger  11:31  
Available to them, and really, it's being able to establish what your need is in that county or that city, wherever you are, and being able to approach the state to say, hey, we have a homelessness population of x. We need a shelter. There is no ratio of population to the number of beds you have to have available. Okay. So, I think in most counties, all of us are just looking to provide as much help and as many beds as we, as we can for the funding that we get.

Jeff Matevish  11:54  
Yeah, okay, so they their, their case has been looked at through the 211, and you've approved them to stay in the shelter. How long is an, is a typical stay? And do they have criteria they have to meet as they're staying there? Like, do they have milestones they have to hit, or else they maybe not necessarily kicked out, but are asked that, you know, to leave because they're not making progress?

Roxann Tyger  12:31  
Great question. Well, a couple of things. So, we do have basically two types of emergency shelter. So, we have our, I'd say, the regular shelter, but we also have one that's our peer-led adult shelter, which would be for individuals with behavioral health. And it actually is the only one in the state of its kind where the staff are also individuals with lived experience with behavioral health. So, they're really coming from a place of that lived experience, being able to help someone as a peer versus a case manager who may not have ever had that experience, being either homeless.

Jeff Matevish  12:55  
I'm sure that's really helpful.

Roxann Tyger  12:59  
Yeah, so it is. It's someone who's coming from the same level, yeah, they understand your experience and what you've been through. So, we have Cambria House, which is for men, 13 beds, but that is solely behavioral health. So, anyone there has to have some kind of behavioral health issue or challenge that they're working through, and all the staff there are certified peer specialists with the state. We do have a few beds at the Women's Help Center for females who are in that same situation with behavioral health. And we have some certified peer specialist staff there. In that program, we go in with a 30-day limit, but it's as long as you're working on your goals and making progress, we can extend that. So, we don't tell anyone they can stay indefinitely, but say Drew, if you're, if you're there and your 30 days is, you know, sort of coming up, we'll meet with you. Well, we meet with you every day. Okay. We'll meet when we come close to that 30-day point, just to see how much progress you've made. Have you had job interviews? Have you been talking to landlords trying to find housing? So, I see that you're working on it, even if you haven't been able to maybe land that job yet, or you're just on the verge of starting a job, right? So, then we'll extend your stay another 30 days. Because we know that 30 days when you're coming to some in a situation where you're coming in crisis. So, everything, you know, all of your possessions are gone for the most part. You may have a little bit, you know, mentally, that's a severe crisis. That's a traumatic situation that you've been through. So, 30 days to find a job, get paid, get enough money for furniture and a security deposit, all those things that could take a few months. That takes time.

Drew Thomas  14:47  
Yeah, I think a lot of people forget that too. They say, oh, go, go get a job. Okay, well, depending on when I got hired, it might take three weeks for me to even get a paycheck.

Roxann Tyger  14:55  
Exactly.

Jeff Matevish  14:58  
Like we had mentioned. You may not even have the documentation. Maybe you, maybe your, your spouse shredded your driver's license, your ID, and you can't even get a job.

Roxann Tyger  15:05  
And that's not uncommon that people come to us without their documents. I know we didn't finish the other part about how long they can stay at the Women's Help Center too, but on the document piece, if they do come and they're, they're facing homelessness, we are able to get them a birth certificate replacement for free. So, we have, you know, we've got the power to do that. So, we can help with that. For individuals with their kids, because also they come, if an individual comes with their children to the Women's Help Center, if they're trying to get their kids in school or different programs, they need birth certificates too. So, it's not just a barrier for the parent not having that documentation. But also, you know, for the kids to be able to move forward with that.

Drew Thomas  15:47  
I mean, you make, you make a, you make a point there that Jeff actually found an interesting statistic, which I was, I was shocked by that in the last school year, there are 12 school districts in Cambria County and the school district that primarily services the city of Johnstown had the highest rate of homelessness at 5.7% which is one out of 20 students. And you don't really think sometimes about kids being homeless per se, you know, you think about the adults, because your adults are supposed to be taking care of, the responsible ones, yeah, and taking care of the kids and stuff. But you know, so do you hear like, do you sometimes find out that somebody, a parent or a guardian, is homeless through the school district? Like, is it, is it that the kid says, like, hey, I've been, I've been showering at grandma's, or I, or they, maybe they're not getting clean clothes, or they're not maintaining like so do you reach out to, do you reach out then and see?

Jeff Matevish  16:46  
Or wait for people to come to you with, with an issue?

Roxann Tyger  16:48  
Yeah, well, we do have relationships with the homeless liaisons. The school district has a homeless liaison.

Drew Thomas  16:54  
Okay.

Roxann Tyger  16:54  
For the children. So, it works both ways. So if we get a family who comes to us and we know that the kids are in school and they're now in the shelter, or they're homeless, we'll make that connection with the homeless liaison, because then the kids can then get picked up. It helps to reroute the bus so they have as little disruption in their lives as possible, so they can get picked up on the bus at the Women's Help Center at the bus stop. Okay, so it's not like because oftentimes people don't have transportation to be able to get the kids to and from school. Or whatever school district they're in, every school district has a homeless liaison.

Jeff Matevish  17:17  
So, like a CYS type thing, or is this totally different?

Roxann Tyger  17:27  
Totally different, yeah. But also sometimes, too, the school districts will call us that they, they are concerned about a student, mainly from their end, making sure, see if there's a resource on how they can access the shelter for assistance. And I think to the, to the point of that, what I've noticed in maybe the last year and a half or so is that we have been seeing an increase in families seeking shelter. So, it's not single individuals, it's, you know, moms with kids, or, you know, dads with kids, or mom and dad with kids, and also larger families. We're seeing families with, you know, four or five kids. You know, we had a family with of 11, you know, recently, wow. So, that's something, even if we have very limited funds that I can use for a like a hotel room stay. So, if I have someone who's in a dire situation, I might be able to pay for a little bit of time, a few days or a week in a hotel. But when you're looking at a family of that size, that's not a hotel room, that's several hotel rooms, for sure, which is very expensive.

Drew Thomas  18:29  
Now, do, do local businesses like local hotels, things like that, do they work with you on things like that? Is it something where they say, all right, you know, like in the banking industry, we are, I don't want to say, financially incentivized, but there are things that we have to do to try to give back to our community, and we want to do those things, but there's also, there's regulations around certain financial institutions, and what you're supposed to do, do, do hotels and other places, do they work with you on stuff like that? Or is it pretty much like, like, hey, you know what, it's full price if you want to use the hotel. I mean.

Roxann Tyger  19:03  
Yeah, we've had some hotels who have given us a discount. But right now, no, they're, it's we pay the regular price that someone else is paying for that.

Jeff Matevish  19:12  
I'm sure there's, there's some stigma between, you know, homeless, maybe dirty, you don't, you know, a hotel may not want homeless people, you know, staying in their hotel. So...

Drew Thomas  19:21  
I guess, yeah, but to your point, though, like you said, like, people can end up homeless for a variety of reasons. I mean, now do you work with people, for example, that maybe, like, God forbid, like, had a fire or something like that in their home? Like, can they come to, to, to a shelter like yours for, like, temporary housing, or?

Roxann Tyger  19:41  
Yeah, and we have helped individuals and families who've been the victims of a fire. I actually, I guess, on my, my personal life, I'm a supervisor with the Red Cross, okay, a different county, but we do a lot of the disaster response, so I often deal with families and on that end of things, who are facing fires. That's usually the biggest emergency that we deal with in Pennsylvania, as far as the Red Cross or house fires. So, I'm often referring them to the, the local emergency shelters in their area. And again, it really depends on availability of space, because a house fire is something that's immediate. That day you have to be, you're out.

Drew Thomas  20:17  
Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  20:18  
And you've lost almost everything, if not everything. So, that's although you're now homeless, but it was a situation where you had absolutely nothing to do with your situation there, right. Yeah.

Jeff Matevish  20:33  
And it was one of those where I keep it in your head, keep in your head while someone's talking, and then as soon as they're done, ask the question and it's, and it's gone. You okay, so backtracking a little bit. You had mentioned that if they're coming up on their 30 days, you have more meetings with them to see what their progress is. Have they found a job, or have they sought out an apartment or anything like that. How much do you do versus how much do you make them do? Like, are they, you give them a room and then you give them the resources? Or do you help them make the phone calls and set up the interviews and all that kind of stuff?

Roxann Tyger  21:18  
You guys are, like, packed full of great questions today. So, that is a great question, because sometimes people may come to us with that expectation that we're going to do all those things for them, right? Part of what we're trying to do is help them regain their independence, right? So, the more I do for you, the more you're going to depend on me, right? And we know that, that this is a temporary situation. So, if I'm doing things for you in the real world out there that's not going to happen. So, what we do is, especially in our, with our peer specialists, is, you know, where we can sit with you while you do things. So, we can be there as a support with you. If you have to make a list of phone calls or call your doctor and ask some questions, we can help you prepare for that and make your list and check in with you on that. But we really don't want to be in the position of doing the work for you, because then we're really not helping. It feels like you're helping in that moment, but ultimately you're not really.

Jeff Matevish  22:04  
You're not breaking that cycle that could happen again.

Roxann Tyger  22:09  
Yeah, behind the scenes, we might go on our own and do some research. So, if I'm thinking, hey, Jeff, you know maybe this shelter isn't working out for you, or you need to relocate somewhere. So, I'm going to call some of the local shelters in other counties to see who has what programs and who might have space for you and all that, so I can present you with options. This is what I found, because I know maybe that would be overwhelming for you to do that, that's a big ask and a lot to do. But if it's things like calling your doctor, talking to a landlord, getting ready for a job interview, going to Career Link. We do use Career Link a lot, Goodwill, so we look at, for us too, we're not trying to duplicate or replace resources that are out there. We're trying to connect people with the resources that are out there.

Jeff Matevish  22:54  
So, your resource center. Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  22:56  
And really making that, that connection, or sometimes even that warm handoff, like, hey, let's you know, I can call Career Link for you, and we'll put you on the phone. Okay. Yes, I can call and get the call started for you if you're having anxiety about that. The same thing with it might be going to, we have the peer empowerment center here, or Peer Empowerment Network, that is a drop-in center for people with behavioral health. So, we try to connect individuals in our behavioral health program with them, because that's a great support. But sometimes you get a lot of anxiety. I don't think I'm going to know anyone there. I don't know how it works there. I'm unfamiliar. So, sometimes the staff will go with them for the first time, just to help introduce them or help them feel comfortable. But we know, again, we don't want them to rely on the staff to go with them. That's, you know, that's the one time. So, we can help you prepare for how to do that.

Drew Thomas  23:46  
I would think even and correct me if I'm wrong on this. But I would even think working with local, you mentioned Goodwill, which was triggered, triggered it in my head. Like, you know, if I'm going to go on a job interview, I need clothes.

Roxann Tyger  23:59  
Right.

Drew Thomas  23:59  
Right? Sometimes, you know, if I'm homeless, I may not necessarily have a nice shirt and pants and shoes to go on, and make a good impression on a person for a job interview or something like that. So, you know, even just putting people in touch with that and maybe being able to supply them with, okay, like, yeah, we can get you a blazer. We can get you a nice top or something like that to try to make a good impression when you're going for things like job interviews and things like that, right?

Jeff Matevish  24:26  
Do you accept donations that are non-monetary, like, do you accept donations of clothing and stuff like that?

Roxann Tyger  24:30  
Yeah. So, hygiene products are always in demand, because when you think about someone who is lower income, they have SNAP benefits or food stamps, it doesn't cover hygiene products and those kind of supplies. So, we always try to help people with it.

Drew Thomas  24:46  
I've always found that, that's fascinating.

Jeff Matevish  24:47  
You can buy a soda with SNAP, but you can't buy a bar of soap.

Drew Thomas  24:53  
That's crazy to me.

Roxann and Drew  24:54  
Yeah. Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  24:55  
Yeah. So, those are always in demand, but we do help, we also accept clothing. Right now, just new clothing only because, it's not because we're, yeah, snobby and think that we don't want to accept anything secondhand, but just because we have...

Drew Thomas  25:09  
Christian Dior or nothing.

Roxann Tyger  25:10  
That's right, Coach bags for everyone. But, you know, we have a whole third floor that is packed full of clothing, so we do have a lot. And if someone gives us something that's like used clothing, like we have to launder it, like, there are a lot of resources that people not really realize they have to go through using that, whereas, if you're giving me something new, I can just put it where it needs to go and hang it up. And, you know, a lot of the clients, and sometimes people, if they do give us used clothing, it's in very poor condition. So, you know, that's something that we wouldn't be passing on to someone.

Drew Thomas  25:42  
Yeah, I've definitely noticed that too. Like some people think that, oh, well, I'm going to donate my old, you know, clothing or whatever, yeah, but it's got holes in it, and it's got, it's like, no, no, this is garbage. Yeah, it's, you're just, you're just giving it to someone else to throw away.

Jeff Matevish  25:57  
Just because it's something, yeah, right, right.

Drew Thomas  26:00  
You know, and you just because you think you're, oh, I'm going to donate this to somebody, you know, it's, but, I mean, come on, like, if you're going to donate something, you know, at least make sure that it's something that somebody's going to want to wear, yeah, you know, would be the thing.

Roxann Tyger  26:11  
Because you do want them to feel good about themselves. Because this, they're in a situation.

Jeff Matevish  26:11  
A tough time already.

Roxann Tyger  26:13  
Yeah, they're going through a tough time. So, you know, giving them something that's, you know, even if it's, even if it's sweatpants, it's a clean pair of sweatpants that are brand new. Yeah, a sweatshirt or whatever that is. We also take donations of housewares. Those are always a big-ticket item for us, because after, when someone is leaving us, we try to at least see what we can help them with to get set up for their new home. And a lot of times that's the basic kitchen things. When you think about, if you had nothing and you moved into an apartment, how would you make your, how would you make dinner? How would you cook a meal? You need a microwave. You need dishes, glasses, silverware, pots and pans, not just furniture, but you need all those little things that make it more functional for you.

Jeff Matevish  26:54  
Do you work with any, any, like donation centers, I know, like there's a Cambria City Mission. They, they furnish a lot of like the halfway houses in Johnstown. Do you work with any donation centers? Or it's just all, all donations go to the, the Women's Help Center or Community Help Center?

Roxann Tyger  27:13  
Yeah, so if we get something that we know that we can't use for some reason, we do reach out to the other organizations, like St. Vincent de Paul, Goodwill, the mission to see if they need it, and we can pass that on. We also get people who call us with furniture, and we just don't have much storage. So, for us, although that's great, we love those calls, it might take us a day or two to figure out, do we have any residents or people who've just moved out who could use that? And then you just have the logistics of hooking them up with that. Okay. Right? So, we don't want to necessarily have a space where people bring in their beds and all that. That's one of my dreams, is to have a furniture store that we can use for that, but because I think that would be fabulous. But right now, we just, we just try to make more of that direct connection. Okay. Like this person has, you know, a brand-new twin bed with a mattress. This person needs it. We do have a van, so we can sometimes help facilitate that and make that happen. Sometimes the people themselves are willing to go and deliver it and drop it off.

Drew Thomas  28:12  
So, we talked a good bit so far about just being able to help people get things like a job or get themselves back on their feet, find a place to live, that sort of thing. But when someone comes to you, and I'm assuming you, again, I'm making assumption here, but I'm assuming you work with people sometimes who end up coming to you with things like substance abuse problems, alcoholism, things like that, do you help get them into some sort of like a treatment center first so and then maybe they leave you and go to a treatment center, and then that way they can then, like, how does that sort of work? I mean, if someone comes to you sometimes, if they're homeless, it might be because they got into something like that, that they just couldn't get out of. It could even be something like a gambling addiction or something like that, where they end up losing their, their, their livelihood and their house, right? So, how does that kind of the thing work if you're, if you're in that sort of a situation?

Roxann Tyger  29:02  
Okay, so if you, well, we are, I should say first, we're a low barrier shelter and people ask what that means. That means that you don't have to be sober to stay with us. So, you can have or even a completely clean criminal history. There are certain convictions you can't have, like if it's anything with children, or if it's a very violent crime that you've committed, or anything sexual, if you're on Megan's, the Megan's Law. So, as far as using substances you could come to us still using. You're not allowed to have any of those things on site. So, you can use them off site, as long as your behavior is okay when you come into shelter, that you're not endangering anyone, belligerent, doing anything that's concerning, staying with us is okay, however, that doesn't mean we're not going to talk to you about getting treatment. So, always making sure that we're putting that offer out there, so if you, if you are struggling with substance use, you know, have you thought about treatment? We can work with different treatment providers to get you in. And sometimes that has happened where individuals have taken us up on that offer, which is wonderful, and we will hold the bed for them. Because usually that's a concern is I can't go because then I don't have anywhere to go back to. I'm going to lose my spot here, or I don't have anything so we can at least take that worry away. We'll hold your bed. You do the 30-day treatment program and then come back to us when that's completed.

Jeff Matevish  30:29  
So, you don't give that bed to the next person in line that's going to stay there for 30 days, theoretically, while that person is in a treatment center for 30 days?

Roxann Tyger  30:38  
Well, the average length of stay in all of our shelters is about 54 days.

Jeff Matevish  30:42  
54 okay, okay.

Roxann Tyger  30:43  
Yeah. So, even though we say the 30 that's, a lot of people need more time than that. You do have some who maybe they've already had a few things in progress, or they have an apartment lined up in a week or two that they don't need a long stay. But we do hold that bed. It may not be that exact bed, but we sort of hold their, their space in shelter. Sure. Or if we know someone staying short-term, it is like, I hate to say it's like a, you know, a card game or shell game, where you're, like, moving this, like, this person's leaving. I can do this. Yeah, yeah.

Drew Thomas  31:10  
It's like, those, those puzzles that you used to get whenever you were a kid, where you had to move all the pieces to make the, they're all in there.

Roxann Tyger  31:15  
But, yeah, we're always sliding things around, like, how can we help this person and still save this so we have a room in 30 days, yeah, to give them? But I think that's always an enticement. And I think when, when we're talking to someone in that situation, in a way, it's, it's a good thing when you're in shelter, because it's not like you have to worry about paying your rent. Like this is actually a good time in your life to get treatment, because you don't have to worry about, how am I going to keep my apartment going? How am I going to take care of all these things? How am I going to pay my bills? Take care of yourself first. Let's get that taken care of, and then we'll work on everything else. Because if you're using, or if you're, even if it's not substances, but just a behavioral health issue, right? Let's get you treatment. Because how are you going to get a job and hold a job? How are you going to do all these other things that are necessary to be successful, if you're struggling with substance use?

Drew Thomas  32:05  
Yeah, and that's, I mean, I think that's a good, a good point to make is that it's not about, it's not about criticizing someone's choices or their behaviors, per se. You know, we can all stumble on things, and things happen to us, and it's not about that. It's about, it's about understanding sometimes that, you know, it's a domino effect, right? You know it's, it's difficult to do certain things until you address other things first. Right. If that makes, if that makes sense. So, I think that's, that's an important distinction, that you know you shouldn't, you shouldn't, not seek help from somebody like the Women's Help Center, the Community Help Center, or anybody else, because you think, well, I'm going to be turned away because I'm in a particular situation, or I'm a, I'm, you know, dealing with substance abuse, or I'm dealing with, like, don't, don't, not go with that idea. But at the same time, if you really, truly want the help, you may have to do certain things you may not necessarily want to do. If that makes sense.

Roxann Tyger  33:05  
Exactly, and it's, it's going to be, you know, uncomfortable in a way, to talk about some of those things, but we try to approach it where, like I said before, like we're dealing with the person who's in front of us, so in a non-judgmental way. So, when someone's talking to us, it's not like if you say that you're using a certain substance that we're judging you, we're going to tell you that you have to leave.

Jeff Matevish  33:26  
Right.

Roxann Tyger  33:27  
But just that we're still going to talk about that, because that is part of your situation, and something that's making it more complicated.

Jeff Matevish  33:34  
Well, that's, I think that's where your, your peer, your peers, come into play too. You said that a lot of the employees are actually, were in the same situation as these homeless people were at one point. I think that, again, makes that easier to maybe talk about.

Drew Thomas  33:51  
Yeah, I would agree with you. I think that a lot of people find that it's a lot easier, you understand their situation better, and I feel like I'm more likely to probably talk to somebody who has been in my shoes, as opposed to somebody that hasn't. Because it's easy to pass judgment on, on things like that if you've never dealt with it, and it's maybe a little easier for that person to say, okay, well, if you've, if you've dealt with this, you kind of know where I'm coming from. You know what I'm feeling, you know what I'm thinking and, and it's a good example, quite honestly, that there is maybe an opportunity to move forward.

Roxann Tyger  34:30  
Yeah. And I think the other thing, I know, there was a statistic, and I don't have it at the top of my head, but you know, when we talk about how many, how many Americans have savings that can last them, one to three months if they lost their job.

Drew Thomas  34:43  
Yeah, it's way fewer than you want it to be.

Roxann Tyger  34:45  
Yeah, it's concerning. So, if you think about you're in that situation, if you lose your job today, and maybe you don't have any family nearby, or that's a good support to you, right? And the job market, in some aspects, it's we're looking for, for staff, but a lot of them, it's lower paying jobs, right? So, let's say you can't get a job for six months. You're out of your savings, you're renting, or even if you own a home and you're not able to keep up, like, how far away from homelessness are all of us really? You know, when you look at every, your life situation or if things were a little bit different for you, you could be in that situation too.

Drew Thomas  35:20  
100% Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  35:21  
And that's, I think that's where we have that transitional housing program, so as, as people, our goal isn't to try to keep someone in shelter for a long time, right? But have some other options for them too. So, we have four properties right now, and it's, oh, I didn't do the math, probably 12 different apartments that we can use so that as someone is maybe they get a job, but they haven't quite saved enough to get furniture or they really need to get their feet under them a bit more. We can have them go into one of our transitional housing apartments. Some, some of them are two bedrooms or even one bedroom. We have one house where they, they just have their own bedroom, and there's a few of them sharing a house, but and they're paying something for a living cost to stay there, but it's all furnished. All the utilities are included. They still get case management every week or every other week, and they get food supports from us. So, it really is, it's that step to normalcy and independence with still some support. So, it's that in between, because we were finding, and I was finding when I first started, is that the goal was to try to get people moved on as quickly as possible. But what if you're not quite ready yet? So, Drew I get you out in 30 days, but you don't really know how to manage your finances, or you didn't have a couch or a bed, or, you know, maybe you don't even have some basic life skills like how to cook, or you don't know how to do laundry.

Drew Thomas  36:51  
Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  36:52  
You never had to make a bed before, something like that. How successful are you going to be? And we were seeing people bouncing back into shelter because of that. Yeah, well, I didn't realize I had, you know, if I didn't pay this month, that they were going to kick me out so fast. You know, we hear that sometimes too. And some landlords are more tolerant, or, you know, willing to work with their tenants. Others are not.

Drew Thomas  36:53  
Right.

Roxann Tyger  36:57  
And you just don't know until you find out, right? So, that's when we, we're thinking more about transitional housing. Is, wouldn't it be nice to give someone more of a chance to get on their feet? So, with this program, they can be in there up to 18 months. They work with we have a HUD certified housing counselor who's also our Housing and Resource Navigator. So, she works with individuals, really from the time they even come into shelter to help them find a place. We try to get them into the financial education classes, the renters' education so they know what to expect, how to be a good tenant, so that they don't get evicted, and then we follow them into transitional housing. Because if I tell someone, hey, you can stay for up to 18 months, I don't want you to wait until month 17 to start looking for an apartment, right? That's right, yeah? Because I'm sort of that way too. Like, if you give me a timeframe, I'm going to I know I have that much time.

Drew Thomas  38:02  
Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  38:02  
But I don't want you passing up on an apartment that would be great for you just because you're not looking or you think you have more time.

Jeff Matevish  38:08  
Sure.

Roxann Tyger  38:09  
So, we're always working with people and identifying different, you know, housing options that are out there, that they, that might be a great fit for them. So, it's not that we try to force you out, but I think making sure that you know the options like, hey, this apartment is, it's in the area you want. It's in your price range. You can afford it. We can help you with all these things. And we have a program where we can help people with the first three months rent. We can help them with a U-Haul rental, storage unit, and even transportation. So, if you get a job, you finally land that job, but you can't get there, we can get you a bus pass for the first month.

Drew Thomas  38:43  
Okay.

Roxann Tyger  38:44  
So, at least that gets you to a paycheck or two so that you can start paying for your bus pass yourself.

Drew Thomas  38:48  
Yeah. Do you also help sometimes with things like, I know there are a lot of people that are, that are either underbanked or not banked. And in order to do the basic stuff, like pay rent, you know, you kind of have to have a, be able to write a check, or you have to be able to get, you know, to pay the utility bills. You might have to have a bank account. Like...

Jeff Matevish  39:11  
Some place to direct deposit. Yeah, right.

Drew Thomas  39:12  
Yeah, for your paychecks. A lot of, a lot of employers simply won't, won't cut you a check. They're going to want a direct deposit. So, do you then help people sometimes who have a difficult time with like the banking situation as well?

Roxann Tyger  39:25  
Yeah, that's part of our financial literacy training that we do. It's seven parts. We actually have staff who are certified through the Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for their Building Your Financial House program. So, we teach that model. And part of it is budgeting, banking, understanding interest and credit and all of those kinds of things too. But we do talk to them about becoming, getting banked, getting a bank account. We see a lot of people now who are using just cash app or those.

Drew Thomas  39:54  
Oh yeah.

Roxann Tyger  39:55  
Which is a concern, because if you, we've also had people who've been taken advantage of you. And, you know, once you make, pay that money out, there's no getting it back, right? And the other thing that we've seen, not that we've necessarily talked about this, but we've had a few people come through our doors recently who have been scammed as far as apartment rentals. Yeah. They find someone on Facebook. You know, we had a couple who, they spent every penny that they had for their security deposit first month's rent, got the U-Haul, put all their belongings in it, came here to that house, and it wasn't available for rent like this, it was a complete scam.

Drew Thomas  40:33  
Oh, geez.

Roxann Tyger  40:34  
And then they're looking at, well, we don't have a place. We've spent all our money. We have this U-Haul. We can't even afford to keep the U-Haul another day. Yeah, where are we going to live? So, we were able to help them with a new program, continue to, you know, get let them pay for a U-Haul, help them with where they were going to stay, storage unit, and then when they found a place about a month and a half later, help them with the first months, or the security deposit and yeah, and some of the rent, so they were able to be successful with that.

Drew Thomas  41:05  
I think sometimes too, and I think this is an important part of what you guys, it sounds like that you do is, sometimes people just need just a little help, you know? I mean, sometimes it's, it's not about providing 18 months necessarily of housing, although for some people it is, but sometimes it's just, man, you know, if I could just get $1,000 to get me, like, to get that first month's rent in while I'm, while I'm getting my job, while it's, it's just a matter that little leg up that I think that sometimes some people need that, I don't know that, that boost, if you want to look at it that way, maybe you know too. And if that's, if that's where some is, somebody that's listening to this or watching this, happens to be like, there are people that want to help, you know, you know, 100% want to help and aren't going to necessarily, you know, judge you harshly for needing that help. I think we all need help from one time or another. You know, that's what a good community does, is tries to help the people within it, you know, to achieve what they need to achieve, right? So, yeah.

Jeff Matevish  42:11  
Yeah, you're not just helping the individuals. You're helping the community. Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  42:14  
Yeah, we're trying. And I know we can't be everything to everybody. I mean, there are going to be people who come to us and they need maybe some kind of assistance that we can't provide. So, we do get calls with people who need utility help. That's not something that we can do.

Jeff Matevish  42:27  
But you can direct them to where they need to go.

Roxann Tyger  42:29  
But we know, okay, you can call this place. They may have some funds for that.

Jeff Matevish  42:33  
Yeah.

Roxann Tyger  42:34  
So, it doesn't mean that we have to provide everything. It doesn't mean that, you know, I have to pay for you to live in a hotel for a month if I don't have, if that's what you want, that doesn't mean that, that that's something that we can do. But you know, at least being able to try to if there's a resource that we have directly being able to offer that to you and help facilitate you getting that help, or connecting you with a resource outside of us who can help you with that.

Drew Thomas  43:00  
Now, on the other side of things, if, if, if you're listening to this and you're like, wow, it sounds like she's paying for a lot of things.

Roxann Tyger  43:09  
Feels that way sometimes.

Jeff Matevish  43:11  
As a nonprofit.

Drew Thomas  43:12  
As a nonprofit like I think maybe she could use some help, where, how can people, you know, contribute to what you do? Is there a way that they can, you know, do donations? Do you, I know you're nonprofit, but how do you get your funding?

Roxann Tyger  43:32  
Well, first of all, we love donations. People can help us all the time with anything. You know, cash donations are fabulous. We look at, it's probably about, I think, $45 to $50 a day to help keep someone in shelter. Because you look at all the different services, it's not about just keeping a roof over their head or paying for the utilities, but food, case management. We're 24/7 at our site. So, that's an expense. So, anyone who can, you know, wants to help with those kind of things, they can go to our website, womenshelpcenter.org, or communityhelpctr.org, and make a donation. Even just calling us to seeing how you can help, it can be volunteering your time. So, even if it's not money, we always need help in some capacity. We've had groups who've come in to help us, maybe with gardening, doing some things outside. We're about ready to start our, we do a vegetable garden at the Women's Help Center, one of our apartments, and we're going to probably do a little something at Cambria House, because it really, I mean, it's always nice to have fresh veggies and...

Jeff Matevish  44:36  
Yeah, that's a skill that people can learn, and it's camaraderie and just yeah.

Roxann Tyger  44:41  
It's a little bit of self-sufficiency. If I learn how to grow tomatoes, then I don't buy tomatoes. I can, I can grow my own things. But so those you know, donations of time, talent, you know, and money are always wonderful. But as far as other funding, you know, we're constantly looking for grants and different opportunities out there, to help with the, with that. So, it's just, you know, for us seeing the need, even with our transitional housing program or the rental assistance, that's not something that was just sitting out there. It's like we developed a program and then we went out and tried to find funds to help pay for that and supplement that, just because it's we can see the need and see some funders who might have a fit with us, and then it's just a matter of us trying to go out there and get the money to be able to do that. So, even for all of our services, we can't guarantee how long certain funding is going to last, and we're just that's why we're always looking to see what else we can do and how else we can get that funded.

Drew Thomas  45:39  
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, you know, when you think about the fact that even, even, like, you said, when, like, when you own a house, like you're still paying a mortgage, right. If you're renting, you're still right, like you have overhead, like, you know, just because you have the building and you have the shelter, the shelter costs money to operate. The shelter needs electricity. The shelter needs, you know, water, the, you know, you're providing the food and things like that, or at least maybe subsidizing some of that. You know, as far as, as far as that goes.

Roxann Tyger  46:05  
And maintenance, just keeping up on, you know, you have, we have a lot of bathrooms. Bathrooms get clogged, like, there's always someone doing plumbing work or electrical work or, you know, something that, yeah, that needs either updated or upkeep or some kind of maintenance.

Drew Thomas  46:26  
Yeah. I mean, I you, well, you're, you're big on gardening and things like that, right? I mean, you, you're a green thumb.

Jeff Matevish  46:31  
Yeah. And that's an expensive hobby, yeah.

Roxann Tyger  46:32  
It is. If you have a great way to keep like bunnies and groundhogs out of a garden, please let me know, because that we lost a lot of our stuff. I know we lost a lot of our stuff last year. Yeah, but we are, I don't know if we've talked about this yet too, but we're also in the process of building a new shelter.

Drew Thomas  46:53  
Okay. 

Roxann Tyger  46:54  
In Kernville, so about a block and a half from our current space. Only because we were really looking at how the need has, has grown and changed. So, we purchased a building, able to get some, some grant funding. If we have anyone out there who has a large sum of money that they don't know what to do with, we would like to have that because we're a little short on our construction budget, but it's going to have room for single men single women. And then we're also doing some smaller like two-bedroom shelter units for families. And we'll have some staff on site as well, and it, space for medical providers or different treatment providers to come in.

Drew Thomas  47:34  
Okay.

Jeff Matevish  47:35  
That was another question I had, was, if you get a family who is in need of shelter, I'm assuming, you try to keep them together, and there's no like, you don't have to, you know, put the mother in the Women's Help Center facility and the father and kids, or whoever, in a different facility, right?

Roxann Tyger  47:53  
We, yeah, we try to look at options to keep them together if we can. And that's where some of our transitional housing can come into play. The problem is, though, you won't be surprised when I say this, it's always full, and there are people waiting to get into that too. Yeah. So, it's finding that availability of space sometimes. So, we may have to look at alternate lodgings for them. If you know, we have the Women's Help Center that's full, and Cambria House is also full. Like everything's full, but we do have flow through there. So, just because I say it's full today doesn't mean a room's not opening up. Don't, you shouldn't feel like I shouldn't bother calling. Right. As things change, seriously, day by day.

Jeff Matevish  48:29  
Well you said that you work with other shelters too. So, correct, there may be another shelter that has some availability that you can direct them to.

Roxann Tyger  48:36  
Right. And we triage needs too. So, that's why it's important whenever we're talking to someone, we're talking about, their, their other resources that they have. Because, just because I don't have a bed for you right now, maybe, have you ever asked your you know your cousin Jimmy, who you know, has a house and you can stay there for a couple weeks.

Jeff Matevish  48:52  
When you're in that panic mode, sometimes just talking through it with someone can be a big help, I'm sure.

Roxann Tyger  48:56  
Right? Yeah.

Drew Thomas  48:58  
Yeah. And I think sometimes people make assumptions that, that, oh well, my cousin doesn't want to help me, or my, my aunt wouldn't take me in, or something like that. And while that might be true, it might not be, you know, there, you know, a lot of people are far more welcoming and wanting to help as, then I think we get credit for and we're, we tend to think of things in terms of what other people would think of us. But you know, if you asked me, hey, Drew, you know, like, if your, if your cousin was in need and needed a place to crash for a week because his house burned down, or something happened, or his wife kicked him out, or something, I would be like, yes, absolutely, I would do that thing. And I think most people think that way. But when the shoes on the other foot and they think, well, I have to ask somebody else, they're like, oh, nobody would ever help.

Roxann Tyger  49:47  
Yeah, or I don't want to burden them.

Drew Thomas  49:48  
Yeah, you know. yeah, yeah. So, it never, it certainly never hurts to at least ask, you know, if that's, if that's something, because your family, it's not universal, obviously. There are family out there that won't, but most of the time, there's somebody in your life that would like to help you, at least somehow, whether it's, you know, a couple of nights on the couch or whatever it might be, right? It's...

Roxann Tyger  50:14  
And even if, like, let's say you do have someone who could help you, but maybe they're out of state and you can't afford to get there. We can possibly help you with that. The one thing that we'll do, though, is we're going to confirm that that's the case, right? Yeah. So, I'm not just going to pay for a bus ticket to get you to Florida, because you want to get to Florida. I want to know that, if I get you there, and I get the funds together to get you there, do you have a place to go?

Jeff Matevish  50:37  
Yeah, true.

Roxann Tyger  50:38  
So, you know, we'll call and verify. And...

Drew Thomas  50:40  
My friend Mickey wants to help.

Roxann Tyger  50:42  
I'm invited to his castle; I just can't seem to get there. Yeah, yeah, that's a no, but yeah, if you know, if we have family, and we can actually call and verify some things, because certainly me being able to help you get there is much better than you trying to, you know, get back on your feet here in a shelter. Yeah, you know, if I can get you to where you have some support, you're probably better off in general.

Jeff Matevish  51:03  
Sure.

Roxann Tyger  51:04  
Than coming or, you know, staying here, where you're really just, you're on your own.

Jeff Matevish  51:08  
Yeah, frees that bed up for someone else who needs it as well. Yeah.

Drew Thomas  51:11  
This is, I've, I feel like I've learned a lot, and I definitely appreciate you coming in to talk. Is there anything that we, that we didn't touch on that you definitely wanted to make sure that people know about what it's either like to manage an organization like yours, or to take advantage of the services that you, that you may offer?

Roxann Tyger  51:33  
I really, I think, just for people keeping in mind that we are here to help. That we, we don't judge, and we hope that the stigma of homelessness that, hopefully this helps a bit, to understand, that you can understand it can be anybody that's experiencing that. So, if someone thinks of someone crazy pushing a shopping cart and dirty, and that's a homeless person, that's not. It's a lot of families, it's a lot of the person next door, someone you might see every day that you don't know that they're homeless. So, bearing in mind that it could happen to anybody, we're all in this together. I think whatever kind of support you can give to the system is great, whether or not it's our shelter or another shelter or someplace close to you. I think we always need help. We always need financial resources, donations, manpower, talents, whatever people have that. I think the only way we can help to solve the problem is together. You know, me sitting out here just trying to shelter people and all of this and helping people, it's great, but I think as a community, we can do, we can do a lot more to help people.

Drew Thomas  52:38  
Absolutely. And we will put links in the description on this. And we, you know, we'll, we'll get some from you things that we can whether it's to your organization, specifically, if you're if you're in our area, if you happen to not be in the, the, the area where we live, we can put the 211, information in there. So, we'll make sure that there are some links in the description of the of this episode to try to help, if you, if you need to get more information. Thank you so much for sitting down and talking with us. We really appreciate it.

Jeff Matevish  53:10  
It's a touchy topic, I know, but yeah, we would definitely appreciate it.

Roxann Tyger  53:13  
Yeah, I know it's not, it's not sexy, it's not fun, but I think it is essential. Just, you know, the human experience it. We know that that's out there, and people need the help, and people need the information on where to go and how to get the help.

Drew Thomas  53:26  
All right, thanks.

Jeff Matevish  53:28  
Thank you.

Roxann Tyger  53:29  
Thank you.

Jeff Matevish  53:37  
This podcast focuses on having valuable conversations on various topics related to banking and financial health, the podcast is grounded in having open conversations with professionals and experts with the goal of helping to take some of the mystery out of financial and related topics, as learning about financial products and services can help you make more informed financial decisions. Please keep in mind that the information contained within this podcast and any resources available for download from our website or other resources relating to Bank Chats is not intended and should not be understood or interpreted to be financial advice. The hosts, guests, and production staff of Bank Chats expressly recommend that you seek advice from a trusted financial professional before making financial decisions. The hosts of Bank Chats are not attorneys, accountants, or financial advisors, and the program is simply intended as one source of information. The podcast is not a substitute for a financial professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.

Drew Thomas  54:47  
We'd all like to believe that becoming homeless only affects a certain type of person, but here are some rather sobering statistics, only about 1/3 of Americans currently have enough savings to cover six months of expenses, should they lose their job or become medically unable to work. While 26% to 30% of Americans currently spend more each month than they earn. When you consider those numbers, it's not quite as hard to imagine a situation where you could find yourself underwater very quickly. Add in other statistics concerning domestic abuse and other factors, and suddenly you begin to realize just how vital these organizations are in terms of providing not just a roof overhead, but also safety, specialized care, trauma counseling, housing assistance and legal aid for people who are trying to rebuild their lives. AmeriServ Presents Bank Chats is produced and distributed by AmeriServ Financial, Incorporated. Music by SchneckMind. Our executive producer and co-host is Jeffrey Matevish. We'd love for you to subscribe to the channel, but likes, shares and comments also help us reach a larger audience, and we appreciate every one. For now, I'm Drew Thomas, so long.