This Monday morning, August 5, at 10 a.m., after 25 long years of searching for a new location, Light of Life Rescue Mission will finally hold a “ground-blessing.”
It will be a groundbreaking, really — with shovels and the usual public officials — but the homeless ministry’s leaders call it a ground-blessing “because this is God’s work, and we wanted to emphasize that.”
That explanation came from Light of Life’s new executive director, Jerrel Gilliam. His words prompt me to confess that one reason the new homeless facility can finally go forward is because my neighbors and I decided to get the hell out of God’s way.
Our community group didn’t put it quite like that during our many, uh, “spirited discussions” of the matter, but that’s the essential truth: Five or six years ago, when Light of Life started zeroing in on Deutschtown, people here decided to embrace it rather than fight it.
Ten years ago, we would have fought tooth and nail. We had just as bad a case of NIMBY as those in more affluent neighborhoods did.
Added to this was a keen awareness, from the empty lots all around us, that our community had sacrificed more to “progress” than any other in Pittsburgh. Deutschtown’s heart was ripped out for I-279. Widespread abandonment followed. So we’re already down and they want to kick us a bit more with a homeless shelter?
But the devastation, as regrettable as it was, created a big opening in which to reimagine the space we all share.
The very specific space near the Veterans Bridge has sat mostly empty for decades. Development pressure from the booming Strip District is just starting to cross the Allegheny River to this huge barren stretch. Instead of worrying about what developments a homeless shelter might prevent, why not organize development around this very necessary public service?
The opioid crisis has increased homelessness and powerfully altered what it looks like. The average age has fallen, Mr. Gilliam said, and people are coming from all social strata.
They’re also more wary of any source of help, “so we go to where the guys and women are. If we build relationships and trust, we can get them into programs and reduce the number of days they are on the streets.”
Once potential clients enter the new facility they will find something vastly different from the current, woefully inadequate North Avenue location.
On a roughly half-acre site (bounded by Voeghtly and Lacock streets and Madison Avenue), guests will first encounter a pavilion and lawn — an attractive, contained waiting area. The three-story, 24,000-square-foot building will provide 50 beds on two floors, one for men, the other for women and children, with separate entrances and 24/7 security.
This is not the old feed-and-release approach. “By engaging [the homeless] in community and creating a welcoming family environment,” Mr. Gilliam said, “people begin to respond in a different way.
“The neuroscience shows this. When they’re treated with dignity and respect, new places in their brains begin to fire that haven’t fired for years.”
Long-term homeless people “have a negative, shame-based view of themselves, so they don’t have hope. They don’t think of the future, they don’t take care of themselves. And they live in a society that reinforces that message. After years of this, they give up.
“We believe we can build a model here for them not just to survive but to have hope.”
The Voeghtly (“Vet-lee”) facility is an exciting fusion of form and function — and, it must be said, faith.
“It’s been long and drawn out to get to this point,” said Craig Schweiger, who moved from executive director to CEO recently to focus on fundraising for this great work.
Tomorrow a very diverse group of clergy will be blessing the new Deutschtown site. Those of us not there to witness it should bless them from afar, because these tireless warriors are blessing our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
ruthanndailey@hotmail.com
First Published: August 4, 2019, 11:30 a.m.
