Shelter is helping county's homeless men get back on track

Jimmie Robbins, one of the first homeless men to move into the men’s homeless shelter after it opened in December 2007, came to the home after being released from a 28-month stint in the Carroll County Jail.

“Made a left turn when I shoulda went right,” Robbins said, of how he ended up in jail and then homeless.

A painter now, he once had a home and family, but he started taking drugs and his life went into a downward spiral.

“I owned a house,” Robbins said. “I had a pool out back, cars, truck, boat and everything. Then I got messed up in all that stuff and everything disappeared.”

When he was sent to jail, he hit rock bottom and that’s where he found his way back, Robbins said. He had to turn somewhere and he turned to his Christian roots.

Robbins turned to God for help, and when he was released from jail, he was ready to change his life.

“When I got out, I walked across the street to the Marathon and got a job painting,” Robbins said. “I came here and told these folks, ‘If y’all let me have a place to lay my head down for about a month, I’ll be fine.”

He stayed from January to March while he got on his feet and then he started volunteering as the resident manager, which means he is furnished a small apartment on the premises.

“I enjoy it and if I can help one of these guys to straighten (themselves) up, we done good,” Robbins said.

The men’s homeless shelter at 415 Newnan Road in Carrollton has been open nearly a year and has become an invaluable resource, said Sandra Morris, executive director of the Carrollton Housing Authority.

The Housing Authority does an annual count of homeless and in January 2008 found 526 homeless people in the county, of those 419 were children.

The shelter, which has served about 100 men over the year, means that homeless, single men can be helped in the community.

Before the shelter, called 415 Hope, was opened the men would have to be taken to Atlanta or LaGrange to find shelter, said Kathy Parsons, president of Impact International Inc., which partnered with the Housing Authority to bring the shelter to Carrollton.

Up to 12 men can find shelter at the house, which was donated by the city of Carrollton and refurbished by volunteers, and the beds are rarely empty for more than a couple of days, Parsons said.

The men find more than shelter there. Besides three meals a day, clothing, hygiene products and a safe place to sleep, the men receive all the help they need to become self sufficient.

“We don’t want men to come in who just want a place to spend the night. They have to want to get out of homelessness,” she said. “We want to try to be a developmental program.”

The program is a 90-day plan to help the men become productive in their communities. The average stay has been about 60 days, but with the downturn in the economy, it is beginning to take a little longer for the men to find employment, Parsons said.

Parsons works with the Georgia Department of Labor to help them find a job.

Through the department they can learn how to build a resume, how to interview and their information is put in the system for matching with prospective jobs. If the men are disabled, Parsons can help them apply for disability benefits.

415 Hope participates in the Adopt-a-Smile program, which provides dental care for needy patients and also provides minor medical care if the men need it. And now, thanks to donations from the community, the men receive bikes to get to and from their appointments or jobs, she said.

Last year, the shelter had a 70-percent success rate in getting its residents into a job and a permanent home within 90 days.

“We’re not 100 percent successful,” Parsons said. “That’s our goal, and that’s what we want to do, but we’ve had some losses. We’ve had some wonderful, wonderful victories, too.”

The majority of men who enter the shelter are in their late 30s or early 40s, but the shelter has had some residents who require different treatment.

Just last week, an 18-year-old high-school student was dropped off at the shelter by his parents, Parsons said.

“He turned 18 on Sunday,” Parsons said. “His stepmother dropped him off on Monday.”

Even though the student is 18 and eligible to be in the shelter, the fact that he is still in high school meant the shelter had to tailor its program to him. For instance, he will be eligible to stay longer then 90 days, and his job will be to finish high school, Parsons said.

The student was caught shoplifting and sentenced to community service - he has issues, she said.

There are often problems between the homeless men and their families, Morris said. All the homeless men have issues or they wouldn’t be there, and often those issues cause problems in their personal relationships, she said.

The home has no paid staff and is run completely with volunteers. Interns from the University of West Georgia handle administrative tasks. Volunteers cook the meals and spend evenings in the shelter with the men.

Robbins, who stays on the premises all night, is also a volunteer.

This year the shelter had a budget of $100,000, all from donations and grants, and with careful planning has spent just about $80,000 so far, Parsons said.

This is a labor of love for Parson’s. Approaching this from a spiritual standpoint as well as practical, she makes sure the men have a chance to attend church each week.

“They’re not there long before they realize that we care about them as people,”

Parsons said. “We try to help them regain their integrity and their dignity because it’s hard for a man to be homeless. ... It’s a very degrading, very hurtful thing for them to have lost everything.”

Robbins said that caring atmosphere allowed him to bond with everyone in the shelter and learn to care for others again.

“I believe in the good in everybody,” Robbins said. “They showed me that good that I knew was out there.”