Urgency—a word that sums up Michael’s journey to a new life. His journey begins at the Lawrence Street Shelter.

One day, after finishing breakfast at the shelter, instead of moving from his seat to go back outside, he sat there. He was afraid that if he had walked out those doors, then he would have died—if not physically, emotionally. So he waited with determination and carried that sense of urgency with him, and spoke with Jay Earl, the intake chaplain, about starting the New Life Program—a rehabilitation program at Denver Rescue Mission.

His sense of urgency paid off. By that evening, he was enrolled in the New Life Program and his life was forever changed.

“Jay Earl believed in me, and he gave me a chance when he had no reason to think I could clean up my life up,” Michael recalls.

Michael impressed his supervisors with his work ethic and positive attitude and earned four promotions in less than a year. Today, he’s an assistant manager at a Goodwill store and a graduate of the New Life Program.

Watch Michael’s story here!

------------------------------------

I am grateful to work at Denver Rescue Mission and hear these stories first-hand, and the best part of it all, is that we all can relate to Michael’s story of urgency and determination. We all experience the “white flag” moment that finally releases the crippling habits that bring us down.

The New Life Program is dependent on the men, who are seeking change, that want to fight for their lives. It’s a fight to freedom from negative decisions, addictions, abuse…

When you partner with organizations like the Denver VOICE or the Mission, you’re helping, encouraging and supporting men and women who are fighting for their lives! 

So glad that here at the VOICE, the homeless—sometimes made invisible to the public—have an open voice.

AND homeless are permitted to camp on propoerty of Congregation Har Hashem, a Boulder synagogue.

Her throaty laugh filled the room every time she visited. Sometimes her chestnut wig was askew and as her illness wore on the light in her coquettish brown eyes was dim at times. Funny, bright and mostly cheerful despite the cancer but though we talked every day, she had never mentioned her family. One day, she asked for the privilege of a long distance call. I watched as the expressions of shame, love, guilt and vulnerability chased themselves across her face that day.

She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket
She wears a cross around her neck
Yes the hair is from a little boy
And the cross from someone she has not met
Not yet

She wore a cross and told me how she prayed every morning in her tent, and how the mountains lifted her spirits, despite the chemotherapy and its attendant misery.  Her wheelchair became festooned with trinkets of good luck and affection, her former drinking buddies showing a measure of how her courage gave them heart. Yet, although I offered her privacy for her conversation, she demurred with a wave of her hand. I could not help but hear the tones of love and recrimination from her mother and the pain with which she asked her mother for news of her child.

She don't know no lover
None that I ever seen
And to her that ain't nothing
But to me it means, means everything

As she grew weaker, her pain grew, and her need for medication increased, her needs grew beyond the capacity of the shelter that I had begged to house her, pacing, tearful and sweaty. I fought with Social Security for her to receive expedited benefits, only to have her case selected for a “special” review, delaying them until after her death. She drew in upon herself in the gaunt and spectral way of the dying, yet still vibrant, often reminded me of her faith and our own special memories.

A local nursing home provided her hospice for the last few days of her life. I passed through the hallway, skirting our community’s untouchables, to spend a few hours before she died. I sat in silence, my only gift for her.

A few weeks later, her lover sang this song at her memorial, his voice yearning towards the mountains where they once camped. 

By Joy Eckstine

"She Talks to Angels" Single by The Black Crowes from the album Shake Your Money Maker Released 1990 Recorded 1989  Label Def American 

WASHINGTON, DC— The 100,000 Homes Campaign, a national initiative of Community Solutions, announced that Denver’s Road Home is one of just 15 communities in the country that is measurably on track to end chronic and vulnerable homelessness.

A community must consistently move 2.5 percent of its chronic and medically vulnerable homeless neighbors into permanent housing each month to be considered on track to addressing this need. Over the past four months, Denver’s Road Home in partnership with the Denver Street Outreach Collaborative (DSOC) and multiple service providers has connected an average of 10 chronic or vulnerable people, or 3 percent, a month to housing.  Since  2005, the inception of Denver’s Road Home, the DSOC has housed a total of 1,992 people; 438 of those individuals have been housed over the past 2 ½ years, since forming a partnership with the 100,000 Homes Campaign.

The DSOC identifies a chronic or vulnerable homeless person for housing by using the Vulnerability Index, a tool for identifying and prioritizing the street homeless population for housing, according to the fragility of their health and the length of time on the streets. 

Exceeding the 2.5 percent mark is a difficult and noteworthy accomplishment that proves that Denver is not just talking about ending homelessness, but actually doing it, [according to Denver's Road Home]. Chronic and vulnerable homeless people are often the most difficult to house as well as the most at risk for dying on the streets. Their homelessness also costs public systems far more than the straightforward cost of permanent supportive housing.

Denver’s Road Home and its partners are helping to end chronic and vulnerable homelessness by finding housing for those who currently meet the definition of chronic and/or vulnerable homelessness, as well as those who are projected to enter the ranks of chronic and vulnerable homelessness through 2015.

Through its participation in the 100,000 Homes Campaign, Denver’s Road Home is teaching and learning from the best performing communities in the country so that each community can all end homelessness together. All participating communities work to identify each of their homeless neighbors by name and prioritize the most chronic and vulnerable among them for rapid, permanent housing.

“Housing at least 2.5 percent of your chronic and vulnerable homeless neighbors every month is the difference between talking about ending homelessness and actually doing it. The communities hitting this mark are some of the best in the country, and we are relying on their leadership and expertise to help more communities get on track to end homelessness,” said Becky Kanis, Director of the 100,000 Homes Campaign. 

The national list of communities on track to end chronic/vulnerable homelessness includes:

• Arlington County, VA
• Bellflower, CA
• Bergen County, NJ
• Charlotte, NC
• Chattanooga, TN
• Denver, CO
• North Hollywood/Sun Valley, CA
• Omaha, NE
• Philadelphia, PA
• Portland, OR
• Richmond, VA
• Shreveport/Bossier, LA
• Silverlake, CA
• Tulsa, OK
• Whittier, CA

###

About 100,000 Homes Campaign

The 100,000 Campaign, a national initiative of Community Solutions, is a movement of over 140 communities working together to find permanent housing for 100,000 chronic and vulnerable homeless individuals and families by July of 2014. To date, participating communities have housed over 19,000 people nationwide. Learn more at www.100khomes.org!

About Denver’s Road Home

Denver’s Road Home is a collaborative effort to end homelessness throughout Denver that began in 2005.  To learn more, visitwww.DenversRoadHome.org.

“Love God. Love people,” Pastor Jerry Herships says. It’s the closest thing that After Hours church would have to a mission statement.

It’s a statement that may not be that revolutionary for most churches. But holding church during happy hour at a bar probably is.

After Hours church holds a bi-monthly service at either Blake Street Tavern or The Irish Snug on Monday nights. Attendees are invited to eat, get a drink and talk as well as bring however many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (or the ingredients!) they want.

But not for themselves. It would be weird to bring your own peanut butter and jelly sandwich to a bar.

As an act of service, during worship time, several people head to the back of the room where an assembly line is formed. They make and pack up the sandwiches with bags of chips, a piece of fruit and crackers or a cookie into brown paper lunch bags. The next day, a crew will head out to Civic Center Park at noon to distribute the lunches to the homeless along with water, clothes, hygiene items or anything else a homeless person might need. They also offer prayers and communion for those who wish to take it.

Originally starting as a ministry branch of St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, After Hours started about three years ago. But the church didn’t have the resources to keep it going. Shortly after discontinuing After Hours, the bishop appointed Herships to take it on as a full-time church in downtown Denver, not necessarily associated with St. Andrew’s.

After Hours has been operating on its own for a year now and is thriving. About one third of the 50-60 people that come are from the original St. Andrew’s group, and the rest are from the downtown area, largely drawn in by the marketing coasters that After Hours leaves around the bars.

With a church that small, making the lunches for the homeless six days a week would be an impossible task. But after hearing about what After Hours is doing, seven other churches, two businesses and an apartment complex have approached After Hours wanting to partner with their cause. It’s with their help that people can regularly get lunch at Civic Center Park six days a week.

“You may come here, and you may meet some people you like and you might not. You might learn something about the character of God, and you might not. You might love it, and you may not. But at the end of the day, we made lunch for a lot of homeless people tomorrow,” Herships says during his leading of the sermon/discussion time. 

Any individual in the nation can be vulnerable to homelessness especially with the shaken economy, but how do you define who is more vulnerable then others?

A lot of agencies across the country would love a solid answer to this question, but how? Colorado Counts, a statewide initiative, is working to define this vulnerability in our state.

Colorado Counts, in collaboration with Community Solutions and 100,000 Homes Campaign, will seek vulnerable individuals in Colorado to identify his/her housing and health care needs. This statewide initiative is designed to work with local county governments and the Office of Governor Hickenlooper.

Think of it as a detailed, one-on-one Point-in-Time, which 100,000 Homes Campaign claims isn’t enough to determine a community's real need and help agencies address that need.

Volunteers will interview and photograph individuals living on the street (only those that give consent) to measure each person’s the Vulnerability Index — or how volunerable and therefore in need each individual is. Some have already been conducted. 

Variables that will be measured by Colorado Counts include: 

1) Life threatening health issues

2) Behaviors or circumstances which jeopardize health, life and/or housing ·

3) At‐risk for system involvement

4) Frequent user of emergency services

The model is taken from the 100,000 Homes Campaign strategy, which builds community teams to work person-to-person to help the at-risk individual find secure housing or permanent employment. Each volunteer in their designated community area will take a photograph of the individual, whom they have interviewed, and clarify their needs to regain a better life.

So far, 150 communities have participated in the campaign and the number of persons housed through this model is constantly updated.

The Colorado effort is currently seeking volunteers; visit them online or email them info@coloradocounts.org.

On a warm Tuesday morning last week, the Denver VOICE vendor office hosted its regular meeting. This meeting is more like a learning experience, titled “Growth Class.” The session focuses on opening up vendors who are ready to be motivated and influenced in the most sincere way.

After a circle of 15-plus people introduced themselves, I was asked to introduce myself—I was right outside the circle taking notes and observing. I quickly became a part of the group once I told them my name Senaye and an intern for the VOICE. They smiled and said thank you for volunteering and helping us.

The speaker was Ruth Kanatser, SAP Director from Harm Reduction Action Center. Ruth brought up some important issues. She used a few phrases that stuck out to me after explaining how she used to be homeless and clearly was now becoming more self-sufficient daily. The main content was circled around health. Healthiness equals Happiness, is what she explained. Homelessness is a recovery process, a stressful lifestyle. Too often our thoughts are negative—90% of the time when it comes to our humanistic affirmations. She gave the example of a man by the name of ‘LA’ who was the last to introduce himself. The speaker asked, who are you? He replied nobody and giggled. That right there is a strong example of a negative affirmation. Too often our affirmations are false and negative. The key to beating this burden is to equip ourselves with the right weaponry, which happens to be positive affirmations.

She said when someone says the word “try,” they use a word halfway to failure because it’s so easy to back out. She explained, if something doesn’t work out it’s not all your fault. Be constructively positive, say something great about yourself and mean it! Say it with emotion. She did a writing workshop with everyone to strengthen her message.

My first experience from the VOICE's regular growth class was incredible. It makes me humble, appreciative and warmer towards certain individuals as they learn to love themselves and their lives, with or without money. We all need to give thanks for the positives in life. I will always count my blessings and I will always try and spread that message to each individual I meet. 

Denver Post story.