Journey to Housing program helps families find second chance at a home

Detroit — Homelessness in Detroit’s suburbs is real, even if it’s hard to see.

Unlike its urban counterpart, many suburban homeless live in hotel rooms and abandoned houses, spending nights on friends’ and family members’ couches or bundling up in a car during a cold winter night in an empty parking lot.

The situation is grim for the homeless everywhere, including in the suburbs, where people move around location to location, with nowhere to call home.

“People who are homeless hide, they sleep on benches, in abandoned houses or in cars, doing anything not to be seen,” said Rosanne Ziebroski, who didn’t have a place of her own for 10 years. “I stayed in three abandoned houses — two of which burned down. You feel like nobody sees you; I was a ghost.”

Bringing the “ghosts” into the light and giving people the dignity of a home and a community that embraces them is the goal of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Journey to Housing program, an initiative that embraces the “Housing First” philosophy when it comes to dealing with homelessness.

The program started in 2014 when a local Vincentian, Loraine Zaksek, was surprised how many people were homeless in western Wayne County.

“I was a relatively new member of St. Vincent de Paul, in the process of helping those with financial needs,” Zaksek said. “I surprised with getting a significant number of calls from people who were homeless in the suburbs. We had all the presidents of (local) St. Vincent de Paul societies meet to talk about the problem at our monthly meeting, and we asked what we can do about it.”

The result was the Journey to Housing program, in which homeless families would work with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to find a house or apartment. The society would pay for move-in costs and 50 percent of the rent until the family became more financially stable and able to take on a greater share of the rent.

“The key aspect of this program is the St. Vincent de Paul name behind these families,” said Zaksek, who is on the board of directors for Journey to Housing. “Without the support of St. Vincent de Paul, the likelihood of people renting to them is slim. These people have poor credit histories, but when landlords know they are part of this program, and the society is standing behind them, they’re more willing to rent.”

Journey to Housing has established a network of landlords who have bought into the program, seeking to give people a second chance and the dignity of having a place to call home once again.

To date, two families have successfully exited the program and a third was recently pre-approved for a mortgage, while 10 others are on the road to self-sustainability. Two other families are on the waiting list.

“When I lost my job, it led to a series of tough circumstances, and I found myself in a situation where me and my family were homeless,” said Jamel Barker, a Journey to Housing participant who spoke at the Journey to Housing annual fundraising dinner at the St. Mary’s Cultural Center in Livonia on Nov. 6.

“I never thought I would be in this situation,” Barker said. “But when we got word we’re moving out of the hotel and into a home, it was a blessing.”

In addition to giving participants a place to live and financial assistance, the Journey to Housing program assigned participants with mentors to teach life skills such as budgeting, personal skills required for a job and how to save money by buying healthy food.

Ziebroski described her mentor, Joan, as “our guardian angel.”

“These people are the first ones to have complete faith in us, and we’re so fortunate to find the people who had the heart to help us,” she said.

Even more than the coaching skills, the Journey to Housing program gives participants something that’s priceless — self-worth.

Before entering the program, Ziebroski and her husband were moving from location to location, with her two daughters living with her mother while she and her husband tried to find a place to stay for the night and a meal.

“We were the first family that didn’t have custody of their kids, but they took a chance on us,” Ziebroski said. “I’ve had a job for two years now, because they believed in us. At the end of the day, I have a roof over my head, and I feel OK about myself. I love God; in my heart I that’s what gotten me through this. The Lord carried us through these struggles, and brought the St. Vincent de Paul Society to us.”

 

Journey to Housing

To learn more about St. Vincent de Paul’s Journey to Housing program or make a donation, visit svdpdet.org/donate/journey-to-housing or call (313)393-2930.