In 2015, Bethlehem Inn, the only full-service homeless shelter in Bend, Oregon, hired Jameson to copy edit, polish and rewrite its application for $300,000 from the city’s Affordable Housing Fee Program. The grant was awarded. Using it, Bethlehem Inn purchased the land on which it has built its new facilities.
While the original copy is private, the submitted application is a public document. These are excerpts from it:
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
THE NEED
Homelessness exacts a terrible toll in human suffering. Every day in Central Oregon, some 2,000 people endure the deprivations, indignities and dangers of life without a home. Hundreds are fleeing abuse partners and parents. Some 900 are children and teens who can’t provide for themselves. A hundred of them served honorably in our armed forces. Through various combinations of disadvantage, disability, misfortune and mistakes, they’ve lost their last fixed addresses and worn out their last welcomes. They are desperate.
In Central Oregon, the Bethlehem Inn is the only emergency refuge for these survivors of relentless hard luck. At any given time, the Inn provides 60 or 70 of them the basics of survival — a hot shower, three nutritious meals, and a place to sleep in warmth and safety. We connect them with the resources they need to land jobs, sign leases, enroll their children in school and give back to the community that helped them get on their feet.
Homelessness is not a warranted penalty for carelessness, foolishness or laziness; it happens every day to smart, conscientious, industrious people. In Central Oregon today, even people fortunate enough to find and keep jobs can’t always find and keep homes. Some families can’t cover rent, food and utilities no matter how many members work how many jobs.
For a survivor blessed with decent health and marketable job skills, homelessness may be a one-time crisis that ends with a quick hand up. For someone with a mental illness, active addiction, disability or criminal conviction, it can be a recurring condition; once on the street, survivors find it harder than ever to secure housing.
Homelessness is what happens when every last resource is lost. It’s the low point of poverty.When disadvantage and calamity come together, they can form a current strong enough to dislodge a family. Below such a roiling confluence, people swept along by events can miss their last opportunities for stability and cascade down to homelessness. Inadequately treated injuries and illnesses put employment farther out of reach. Repeated job losses and educational failures hold down earning power, making it hard to come up with the security deposits and advance rent payments needed to offset a checkered tenancy; bounced checks, overdrafts and bankruptcies make leases elusive. Unchecked, recurring homelessness can turn chronic.
OBJECTIVES, SERVICES AND IMPACT
To maximize resources for residents and operations, the Bethlehem Inn works with more than 70 nonprofit organizations, churches and business partners. Together, through innovation and compassion, we offer some measure of stability for Central Oregonians struggling through bouts of homelessness.
The Inn has made great progress in creating a broader awareness of issues of poverty. It is a major community resource for education and training. Students and instructors from local K-12 schools, Central Oregon Community College and Oregon State University-Cascades Campus turn to the Bethlehem Inn to research poverty and homelessness for training, internships and careers in social service. This educational function, fulfilled by residents as well as staff, is a key aspect of the Inn’s service to the community.
At the Bethlehem Inn, we take all necessary measures to keep the facility safe and secure and ensure that everyone we assist makes as much forward movement as possible. All residents are required to adhere to clear rules and conditions. The Bethlehem Inn staff evaluates the progress of the project toward addressing the needs of individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Using its own case management tracking system, the Inn evaluates residents’ progress toward stated goals. In addition, the Inn tracks resident data in ServicePoint, a statewide, confidential database, in partnership with NeighborImpact. Ongoing research will identify resources and input from other agencies using best practices and designs.
The Bethlehem Inn does not duplicate existing services. Each year it makes more than 2,500 referrals to local service agencies that provide affordable housing, health care, dental care, and treatment for addiction and mental illnesses. Ordinary citizens are a big part of the solution: Each year thousands of volunteers contribute a total of 22,500 hours to help give Inn residents temporary shelter and a hand up from homelessness.
The Bethlehem Inn works closely with each of these uniquely targeted organizations so as not duplicate services. Some of the basic requirements that a resident must be submit to in order to qualify for residency at the Bethlehem Inn include:
- Must pass a drug and alcohol test;
- Cannot be a registered sex offender; and
- Able to care for oneself.
The Inn is the only comprehensive program providing emergency shelter services for men, women, and families in Central Oregon. To meet a growing need, the organization plans to expand its capacity to shelter families.
The Bethlehem Inn is a private, nonprofit organization. It is not operated by the City of Bend or Deschutes County. This independence enables the Inn to react quickly to changing circumstances. Without the Bethlehem Inn, hundreds of homeless individuals and families would suffer unnecessary hardship and failure. Without the Bethlehem Inn, people in need of emergency shelter in Central Oregon would disrupt community life and burden public resources.
THE PLAN
The Bethlehem Inn plans to use revenue from the Affordable Housing Fee to purchase the land on which it operates. The Inn currently leases the property from Deschutes County. This stopgap arrangement has enabled the organization to meet immediate needs of the community’s homeless but does not empower it to develop a facility that will meet the community’s patently growing need for shelter and services. We are asking for the city’s assistance to purchase the property. This will the position the Bethlehem Inn to obtain funding for a sustainable response to homelessness in Central Oregon. Having established its effectiveness by serving 60 to 70 homeless folks every day, the Bethlehem Inn asks the city to entrust it with the challenge of meeting the long-term needs of our community’s homeless population.
The Bethlehem Inn is Central Oregon’s only emergency shelter. As the sole safety net beneath the cascade of misfortune, it must be strong. Its beneficiaries are all people with nowhere else to turn. Our mission, Transforming Lives with Shelter, Help and Hope, closely aligns with the City of Bend’s high priority goal of caring for underserved, disadvantaged populations in Central Oregon.
The Bethlehem Inn’s ability to gain site control is will allow it to pursue the long-range plan of developing a state-of-the art facility/campus, while continuing to serve the immediate need.
A major hurdle for such an endeavor requires appropriate siting and acceptance within the surrounding area. With the help and expertise from the City of Bend’s Affordable Housing, this location was found back in 2007. This established site has proven to be well suited for the identified shelter services. The surrounding businesses, local partners and community provide robust support of the Bethlehem Inn’s focused mission of providing Shelter, Help and Hope. (See letters of support)
A strong board of directors provides guidance and leadership through the organization’s strategic plan. The Inn has grown its revenue base to meet the annual operating budget and has several months of operating reserve on hand along with some seed money for development of a new facility. The purchase of the existing property has long been a stated goal of the organization. The staff and board are determined to build a facility capable of providing adequate assistance to all who need it and come seeking shelter.