Stewart Nelson

I toured the Robert J. Delonis Center today and walked away amazed at what 300 motivated volunteers and a passionate and committed staff can accomplish.  I have always been struck by the phrase “a mind is a terrible thing to waste”.  You can take that one step further at our shelter and say “a life is a terrible thing to waste”.   Ellen Schulmeister the Executive Director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County understands that concept better than almost anyone else in the county.  The Delonis Center assists almost 1100 homeless residents of the County each year.   Ellen is the “spark plug” that keeps the engine running at the Center on a minimal budget.  Ellen’s creativity and resourcefulness has restored order from the  chaos that dominated the old center.  Ellen and her staff and volunteers provide medical attention, addiction counseling, job assistance, and other necessary services to help support some of the almost 3000 people a year that become homeless in Washtenaw County annually.

I was stunned to learn that almost 50 people have to sleep in plastic chairs each night because there are not enough beds in the spaces that the shelter can provide.  While less than perfect, it does provide warmth and shelter for additional homeless on our cold winter nights.  They also provide them with food, showers and a free laundromat to wash their clothes.   There is even a safe temporary storage locker for people to store meager possessions that used to be hidden in stairwells and alleys.

My take away from the shelter is that these types of facilities can be integrated into our downtown areas with minimal impact on the surrounding community.  It is a first step that clearly demonstrates the business case that preventing and mitigating the effects of homelessness is the most humane and also the least expensive way for us as a community to deal with this difficult social problem.   Not every homeless person is a candidate for the Center but for those that want to try to resume a productive life we need to reach out and offer them a way out of the hopelessness.