Shelter requires homeless to study

Salvation Army begins self-improvement classes for visitors

It was a start, albeit a small one.

About half a dozen men showed up Wednesday for the first of a series of classes planned at the Salvation Army.

About the same number signed up and then didn’t show.

The turnout was disappointing, said Vivian Baars, a case manager at the Salvation Army.

But she said the classes, which starting this week are required for those who stay at the Salvation Army’s homeless shelter, would catch on.

“The ones who were there were very excited and glad,” she said.

Wednesday’s introductory computer class was the start of an effort by the Salvation Army to help the city’s homeless help themselves. Topics such as resume writing, personal hygiene and stress management also will be covered in the one-hour sessions that begin at 1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And despite complaints from some, those who seek shelter at 946 N.H. are required to attend at least nine classes each month — or find somewhere else to sleep.

The idea took shape several months ago when the Salvation Army found that nearly 30 people had been making the temporary shelter their permanent home for nearly three years, said administrator Rich Forney. Another 10 people had been there year-round since 1999.

“The stats about people staying here who have not gotten a job is just staggering,” he said. “We are slowly but surely moving to a 90-day stay.”

The Salvation Army is doing that by recruiting help from the community. Representatives from different organizations are teaching the classes, and individuals have donated a limited number of computers. Forney said more volunteers and ideas were welcomed.

The idea seems like a good one, said the Rev. Barry Feaker, director of the Topeka Rescue Mission, a much larger shelter that offers long-term stays and programs to get people back on track.

There are two goals to helping the homeless, said Feaker, who recently spoke to the Lawrence Coalition on Homeless Concerns.

One is to give them what potentially can be life-saving shelter. The other is to “help them be more successful than just surviving.”

Yet the one-size-fits-all classes are alienating — even insulting — for some.

“I think it’s a bit stiff,” said Rex Wright, who Wednesday afternoon stood outside the Community Drop-In Center, 214 W. 10th St. Wright was one of several who signed up for the class but didn’t attend.

“We don’t have a choice; if we want to stay, we have to take them,” he said.

Wright said he thought that the classes were well-intentioned, but that they were too narrowly focused.

With experience in construction work and welding, he said, he wasn’t interested in classes emphasizing secretarial skills.

Hoping to be on his own in 30 days, Wright said he wouldn’t sign up for another class.

Such an attitude is not foreign to Feaker, who said he also saw reluctance to classes in Topeka.

Sometimes people want to avoid structure, he said, and sometimes a class is just irrelevant.

“I’ve had folks with Ph.D.s here,” he said. “And they probably are not going to need a basic budgeting class.”

The trick is walking the line between helping people do what they want and helping them do what is best.

“This whole thing of helping folks is very complicated,” Feaker said.

For whatever reason, the Salvation Army’s plan seems to be having an impact.

Forney said seven people had found full-time jobs since he announced the new requirement three weeks ago.

“We are finding that people suddenly have relatives or have places where they can go and stay,” he said.

Whether they truly have an alternative or whether they just don’t want to be told what to do is hard to tell.

Whether it matters also is a difficult question.

If people don’t attend class, they have chosen not to help themselves, Forney said.

“And I don’t think our society is here to provide free housing for years for these people,” he added. “We cannot afford it, and the community can certainly not afford it.”


6News reporter Sharita Hutton contributed to this report.