SOUTHERN INDIANA — From her apartment on the 12th floor of Claysburg II Towers, Nicholette Matelyan has a breathtaking view of the Louisville skyline.
It’s not a mansion, but Matelyan has a place to lay her head each night. It may sound like a simple blessing, but it’s one Matelyan doesn’t take for granted.
For three months she slept in her car which she parked in Charlestown just to wake up and drive to work in Salem. After her expired tags drew the attention of law enforcement, Matelyan was left without transportation and her home.
She was referred to the Williams Emergency Shelter in Jeffersonville, and she was homeless for two years before qualifying for residency in Jeffersonville public housing.
Without income, she didn’t qualify for public housing, and Matelyan was convinced she’d never have a permanent home again.
“I really just felt so lost, I didn’t think it would happen,” Matelyan said.
She moved to the area from California about 20 years ago, as Matelyan said she fell in love with Southern Indiana. A mother of three, Matelyan’s husband died in 2003, and her life began spiraling in a troubling direction.
Her daughter attempted suicide, and Matelyan herself struggled with depression and anxiety. Her late husband’s Social Security checks were cut off, and Matelyan conceded she lost control of her finances.
The staff at the Williams Emergency Shelter helped turn her life around, she said. She was able to get the mental treatment she needed at Phoenix Health Care Center for the Homeless in Louisville, and eventually qualified for disability payments.
She now volunteers at the shelter, as Matelyan said finding housing when you’re struggling can often seem impossible.
Public housing
As of Jan. 1, there were 190 families on the waiting list for one of the 1,082 units in New Albany public housing.
New Albany Housing Authority Executive Director Bob Lane interacts with homeless people seeking a place to live basically every day.
In 2013, New Albany Housing Authority, or NAHA, housed 186 people who were homeless.
“The names are different, and their circumstances are usually different, but we have a tremendous amount of people, almost daily, who are trying to get in,” Lane said.
The NAHA and Jeffersonville Housing Authority, or JHA, prioritize homeless or at-risk homeless applicants, but there’s only so much space to offer.
The JHA typically has a two-month wait for residency for its 369 units and 410 federal housing vouchers. Kirk Mann, executive director of the Jeffersonville Housing Authority, said the organization regularly works with homeless people looking for a place to live.
Charlestown also has its own housing authority.
There are plenty of people who slip through the cracks in the system according to Brian Brown, chair of the Southern Indiana Housing Initiative and Transitional Housing Director for The Salvation Army in New Albany.
Section 8 vouchers are becoming harder to obtain, and not everyone qualifies for public housing for a variety of reasons, he said.
The Williams Emergency Shelter is the only emergency homeless housing facility in 14 contiguous counties in Southern Indiana, as Brown said temporary options for those in need are also scarce in the area.
“If you don’t have shelters, or you have very limited shelters, and you’re losing your transitional housing programs, where do all these people go when they don’t fit into these other models,” he said.
In New Albany, The Salvation Army operates 16 apartment units for homeless or at-risk homeless residents. Once they are housed, they can stay in the program for up to two years.
Residents are required to attend at least 30 life skills workshops a year, and they are charged a rent based on their income. Since launching the program in 1999, The Salvation Army has housed about 140 families from Southern Indiana.
But federal funding for the program was reduced by $40,000 last year. The money lost, according to Brown, went directly to supportive services such as providing clothing and childcare for residents.
For the first time, the New Albany City Council helped fund the program, as the body voted last year to provide $25,000 to The Salvation Army.
Temporary options
Acknowledging that the Williams Emergency Shelter houses the homeless from Floyd County too, the New Albany City Council has approved funding for the organization for several years. Jeffersonville hasn’t done the same.
At some point, Councilman John Gonder believes New Albany has to do more.
The city already has assets it could redevelop into transitional housing or a temporary homeless shelter, he said.
The former New Albany Street Department building at Culbertson Avenue and Fourth Street is an example of a city-owned facility that could be used for temporary housing, Gonder continued.
“We could fix that up and make it habitable, and lease it out to Volunteers of America or somebody like that,” he said.
The council also allotted $25,000 to St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities last year for transitional housing for new mothers in need of housing.
Addressing stereotypes
Matelyan met her boyfriend, Eric Cullen, 49, at the Williams Emergency Shelter. He continues to live there and is also a member of the shelter’s staff.
Without batting an eye, the couple profoundly disputed a common stereotype of the homeless.
“They think everybody does drugs,” Matelyan said. “I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, and I don’t smoke.”
Mental issues, sudden death of a spouse or broken relationships with family members are common reasons people find themselves without a home, Lane said.
Stereotyping homeless people won’t get at the root of the problem, he continued.
“It is something that needs to be addressed every day,” Lane said. “I feel that there will always be homeless people, but the key for us as a society is how do we try to house as many people as we possibly can, and what kind of job can we do with quality housing.”
Cullen and Matelyan said they were frustrated when Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore’s administration ordered sweeps of homeless camps near Exit 0. Cullen said most people have no idea what it’s like to lose everything and literally have no place to go except the streets.
“There’s not enough understanding,” Cullen said. “They feel like it’s out of sight, out of mind.”
Many of the residents of the Williams Emergency Shelter would like to work, but lack of education and troubled pasts handcuff their ability to find employment, he said.
Breaking the cycle
Wages offered at jobs in New Albany that homeless and at-risk homeless people could work don’t match the cost-of-living requirements in Floyd County, Brown said.
According to the Indiana Institute for Working Families, a single adult raising two children in Floyd County needs to earn about $33,000 a year to be self-sufficient. That budget takes into account housing, childcare and transportation expenses.
But many lower-income residents, including those in public housing in New Albany, don’t earn one-third of what experts believe is needed to live without assistance.
The average annual family income for the city’s largest public housing site, Parkview Terrace, is $9,321.
“If we’re going to expect people to not have to rely on some sort of public assistance on a long-term basis, then there’s going to have to be some sort of job that pays a living wage,” Brown said.
When a person is set to leave The Salvation Army’s transitional program, Brown said they often can’t afford to even consider housing in New Albany that isn’t subsidized.
Public housing agencies are focusing on skills training as a means to break the poverty cycle.
The New Albany Home Ownership Program has garnered national attention by helping 29 families move out of public housing into their own houses. So far, there hasn’t been a default, as the NAHA requires the homeowners complete rigorous self-sufficiency classes after entering the program.
Employment and skills training are crucial to improving the lives of those who are on public assistance or facing homelessness, Mann said. The Jeffersonville Housing Authority will be embarking on a program this year with Indiana WorkOne to provide job training for high school dropouts ages 16 to 21.
“We try to refer them to different agencies that may be able to help them out as far as jobs,” he said.
Housing is certainly an important component of any regional economy said Uric Dufrene, professor of finance at Indiana University Southeast.
“An expanding workforce is key to growing and sustaining an economy, and affordable housing is a key factor,” he said.
But skills training and education are also crucial for the economic vibrancy of regions, he continued.
In order to bring better paying jobs to Southern Indiana, higher education attainment levels are needed, Dufrene said.
“Education attainment impacts wage levels, and Southern Indiana ranks among the lowest across Indiana metro areas,” he said. “This is somewhat offset by opportunities in Louisville.”