Joshua's House

Christian Charity Looks Forward to Homeless Shelter
By: Richard Creaser

IRASBURG – The people behind Joshua’s House have toiled since 1994 to provide help and hope to the needy. This year the group has applied for federal nonprofit status in a move the group’s co-founder, Casey Boyle-Eldridge, hopes will mark the start of a new era for the Christian charity.
                “Joshua’s House is a homeless shelter that doesn’t have a home,” Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. “Right now our mission is to help prevent people from becoming homeless. Building a homeless shelter is something we are working toward doing.”
                Without, nonprofit status the organization has been limited to gathering $5,000 a year. When Ms. Boyle-Eldridge and co-founder Tom Fey first developed the concept for Joshua’s House, the idea was to dedicate a portion of revenues to immediate aid and setting aside a portion toward construction of the actual shelter.
                “We look at the need and we look at what we have,” said Ken Johnson, president of the Joshua’s House board.  “Right now the need is greater than our resources.”
                “When we look at our bank account and see how little we have left, we figure it’s better to just give it to someone who needs it now,” Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. “We just save enough in account to keep it open.”
                Ms. Boyle-Eldridge is quick to point out that Joshua’s House is not your average charity. The organization does not seek to duplicate services already available through state agencies or other organizations. Joshua’s House is, in effect, a resort of last hope for many of its recipients.
                For example, many of the services people receive are limited to a number of users per year, Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. Once those uses are exhausted, the agency is unable to provide further support to that client. The agency then contact’s Joshua’s House to  see if there is anything that group can do for the client.
                “We don’t deal with the person directly,” Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. “We get a referral from another agency and they explain what the need is and how we might be able to help.”
                If the issue is that a person needs a place to stay for a few days, Joshua’s House will pay to put them up at an area motel for a few days. Sometimes the request is for money to pay down an outstanding electric bill to prevent services disconnection. Other times it is to provide clothing or household items to the victims of a fire.
                There are really four distinct classes of homeless or near homeless people in the community, Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. There are displaced teens, single parents, the elderly on bare-subsistence budgets, and the situational homeless such as victims of fires, sudden job loss or mounting medical bills.
                “You could almost form a group and focus on any one of these things individually,” she said. “But we’re still looking at the big picture.”
                “There are people that are homeless right here,” Mr. Johnson said. “They may not be sleeping in door fronts on Main Street in Newport. They are sleeping where nobody sees them.”
                The board is well aware that in some cases poor decision-making has contributed to a person’s homelessness. That alone does not disqualify them from receiving service from Joshua’s house.  Joshua’s House seeks to not only provide immediate support, but also to help people find the resources and tools necessary to avoid repeating those mistakes.
                “We know enough people that can tell us if we’re making a bad investment,” Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. “It’s a funny, weird message we’re sending. I would like to believe that the majority of people turning to us for help really need it. But I also need to be careful, because I am giving away someone else’s money to help them.”
                At this point Joshua’s House is looking for help of its own. The organization has lived hand to mouth since its inception. For a brief period the group had a paid administrator to oversee the books and manage its affairs.
                “It got to the point where we had to make a decision,” Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. “It was either keep this person or use what we had left to help people. We chose to help more people.”
                Joshua’s house has prided itself on keeping its operating expenses low to nonexistent. That has allowed the group to give out one dollar for every dollar it has taken in. As the charity grows, however, it may become necessary to hire paid staff to manage the finances and oversee operations, particularly if a shelter is built, Mr. Johnson said.
                “We are all just regular people with regular full-time jobs,” he said. “We do what we can, but we know that eventually this will be more than we can handle by ourselves.”
                In particular, the construction of a shelter would require staff to monitor and manage it. Joshua’s House would like to not merely offer a place to sleep, but also provide its residents with some of the educational resources they will need to break free from the cycle of poverty.
                “Some people think that they deserve what they got because they created their own situation, “ Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. “Some of these people just never caught enough of a break to get out of it. Some of them are working minimum-wage jobs, busting butt, and they just can’t get ahead.”
                The location of any shelter will be largely dependent on the generosity of donors and the community. The board is hoping that someone will be able to donate a parcel of land, ideally located a little outside a town or village center. A slightly isolated location would help residents avoid destructive temptations, Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. It is also more likely to find a larger parcel in a more rural setting, she added.
                Placing the shelter in an out-of-the-way location poses its own problems, she concedes. That’s why Joshua’s House would either work with Rural Community Transportation or buy its own small van to help get residents to and from the shelter and community resources.
                “A lot of the people that need our help don’t have homes, and most don’t have cars either,” she said. “We will find a way to get them to mental health, drug or alcohol counseling, go to job interviews. We will do whatever we can to help them break the cycle of homelessness. “
                Ms. Boyle-Eldridge stresses that Joshua’s House will never actively enable destructive behavior. That is why the group reimburses clients for legitimate expenses, pays the utility company directly, purchases grocery gift certificates or rents motel rooms directly.
                “If someone tells us they need a bed we get them a bed,” Mr. Johnson said. “We don’t just hand over the money and hope they spend it on a bed.”
                Helping Joshua’s House attain its goal is not so far-fetched as it might seem, Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said. If every family in Orleans County donated a single dollar a week that would bring $2,000 into the coffers, she said.
                “If everyone who played the lottery in Vermont donated one extra dollar to a charity, not just Joshua’s House, that would bring in $20-million,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’re not asking anyone to stop playing the lottery, because money for education is important too. We’re just asking everyone to play an extra dollar for charity.”
                Joshua’s House is looking for interested community members willing to donate their time and energy to helping realize its goals. The group is also looking  for individuals or groups willing to make  consistent donations to help fund its ongoing mission.
                The first-grade class at St. Paul’s School in Barton, for example, held a benefit auction for Joshua’s house that contributed $91 to the organization. Any contribution, big or small, is always greatly appreciated, Ms. Boyle-Eldridge said, “If people want to pick up 20 cans and mail us the money, that’s great,” she said. “Send us your pennies. We’ll roll your pennies. “

You can donate to Joshua House by mailing your contribution to Joshua’s House P O Box 186 Irasburg, VT 05845 OR by credit card through our PayPal account at our website. www.joshuahousevt.org  Click the “Urgent Need” button and when that link opens please, click the “Make A Donation” Button and follow the instructions.

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