The St. Vincent de Paul Society of Delaware St. Mary Church wants to meet an urgent need in Delaware County by providing transitional housing for Delaware County men who are re-entering society after spending time in jail, prison or a treatment center.
A fundraising dinner for the project, titled New Beginnings, will take place Saturday, May 3 at Sunbury St. John Neumann Church, 9633 State Route 37 East.
The event will include talks by Delaware County Sheriff Jeffrey Balzer on the problems of men returning to society and by Kenneth Craycraft, a professor of moral theology at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati and author of the book “Citizens Yet Strangers: Living Authentically Catholic in a Divided America.” Dinner will be catered by Carfagna’s Italian Market, with music by the Jan Eshelman Trio. There also will be a silent auction.
The cost is $60 per person. For more information, go to the New Beginnings website, www.stvincentnewbeginnings.org or call Liz Curtis at (614) 989-4838.
“The project got its start a few months ago when representatives from the Delaware County Jail Ministry got in touch with the St. Vincent de Paul Society to ask for help,” said Curtis, New Beginnings board chairman.
“They told us that their biggest unmet concern involved what happened to men after they had finished their navigation meetings while imprisoned or in rehab and were ready to go back to society.
“They were anxious to turn their lives around, but in Delaware County their options are very limited if they don’t have someone to take them in. On release, they immediately must do things like finding a job, getting clothing and maybe a driver’s license, and just getting accustomed to life in general again and any changes that may have happened while they were in an isolated situation.
“The people in the jail ministry tried to continue their relations with these men, but in many cases the men ended up living in their cars, a hotel or the woods, and often they just sort of faded from sight.
“When such men have no place to go, it’s easy for them to go back to what got them into trouble in the first place. Having transitional housing for them is important because it’s been proven that the recidivism rate (the percentage of prisoners incarcerated again after release) is much lower for men provided with transitional housing than for those who don’t have that choice.”
Curtis said returning to productive lives after a setback is much more of a problem for men than for women in Delaware County. “In that regard, women are much more fortunate because the county has shelters for women and their families who are homeless or need to flee abusive relationships and for women returning from incarceration or rehab,” she said. “People have responded to their needs. Now they need to do the same for men.”
Curtis said a site for the proposed men’s transitional housing hasn’t been found, but the New Beginnings committee is looking for a house near downtown Delaware to rent and is eager to hear from anyone aware of the availability of such a property.
She said the building would be staffed at all times every day through partnerships set up with more than 20 government, social service, faith-based and other organizations, including the Delaware County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, Delaware Public Health District, Goodwill, and the United Way of Delaware County.
A mixture of paid staff and volunteers is anticipated. Curtis said no interviews for possible staff members have been conducted yet. She anticipates the site will have an operating budget of around $250,000 a year.
“We at St. Vincent de Paul reached out to local agencies right away to help because we didn’t want to duplicate what someone else was doing,” Curtis said. “We want to let the professionals do what they do best while we and others in the community provide food and other items and the support which residents of transitional housing will need.
“We hope to start with five beds, with a goal of ultimately building a larger facility for as many as 16 men, as well as including a warming center providing temporary winter housing for homeless men.
“The St. Vincent de Paul organization in the diocese and nationwide has adopted the goal of not just meeting immediate needs but being an agent for systemic change, addressing the root causes of poverty,” she said. “The opportunity to provide transitional housing in Delaware is our way of responding to that initiative by giving men a safe environment in which to rebuild their lives.”