DETROIT --
If you see a funky looking yellow-and-white Chevy Cobalt
around a city park, its trunk open with one guy typing on a
laptop and another talking to a homeless person, it's just
John Azoni and Nick Monterosso doing some good.
They are United Way 2-1-1 On the Go, an innovative pilot
project funded by $186,000 from Detroit-based corporations
that aims to help guide some of the city's estimated 18,000
homeless off the streets and into permanent housing and
full-time employment.
"We're filling a void," says Monterosso, 24, an Oakland
University political science grad. Which is this: Funding
for many of Detroit's social service agencies, swamped with
clients, often is tied to tight requirements detailing whom
they can help and how. But not 2-1-1.
It's all about bridging the gaps, about listening to the
issues facing each client and then steering them to the
right point in the bureaucratic maze of government offices
and non-profit agencies where they can get the help they
need.
'If I can get a job ...'
Take Norman Kingston, 41. He wandered up to Azoni at Cass
Park and started telling his story: Got out of prison in
January. Best friend was killed. Had a drug problem but has
been clean for 46 days. Has three kids, 14, 12 and 10 "but
I'm not doing anything," he tells Azoni as Monterosso types
his answers into the military-grade laptop.
"I had no place to stay. The Michigan Department of
Corrections placed me somewhere. Basically I'm homeless. I
want to go back to school," Kingston says, in "peer
counseling. If I can get a job, I know the rest."
They give him a referral, an appointment to meet, at 9:30
a.m. last Friday, with Goodwill Industries of Greater
Detroit. Last year, Goodwill placed 1,500 Detroiters in
full-time jobs at an average wage of $10.48 an hour, an
estimated $30 million stimulus to the local economy.
Kingston didn't show up, according to the agency, but others
have.
"So far, so good," Goodwill President Lorna Utley says of
the 2-1-1 pilot program. "It's not huge numbers. We're
certainly glad to be part of the process" -- monumental as
it can be in Detroit, the poorest major city in America with
the nation's lowest high school graduation rate.
The newest need: Lockers
To be homeless, the 2-1-1 crew explains, is to be stuck.
Without a permanent address, you can't apply for food
stamps, can't apply for most jobs. The United Way-backed
effort helps folks get IDs; gives them a physical mailbox
donated by UPS and installed at the Detroit Rescue Mission;
offers calling cards donated by AT&T; and, when possible,
provides bus passes so folks can get to work.
Their newest need: Lockable lockers that can be assigned to
people in the 2-1-1 On the Go program so they can secure
"anything that can be sold," Azoni says. That includes
clothes, a tent, a cook-stove or the debit-style food-stamp
cards that frequently disappear in homeless shelters.
"The focus is to remove barriers and put people back to
work," says Cindy Pasky, CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions
Inc. and a driving force behind the 2-1-1 On the Go
initiative. "The guys were telling me that in the last
couple of weeks they put nine people in jobs -- and those
are people they say can't be put in jobs."
That's better than the alternative. Monterosso and Azoni are
employees doing jobs far removed from their academic
pursuits of poli-sci and, for Azoni, the painting he pursued
at the College for Creative Studies. "It's different from
day to day," Azoni says. "I talked to a guy recently who has
his masters' degree and he's homeless. We've had some
clients who have never been in this situation before."
Daniel Howes' column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at (313) 222-2106,
dchowes@detnews.com
or detnews.com/howes.
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