Diocese announces purchase of building to house resource center for homeless

GREEN BAY — The Diocese of Green Bay announced Aug. 27 the purchase of a building that will house a daytime shelter and resource center for the homeless. The new facility, known as the Micah Center, will be part of St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter ministry and will open its doors in October.

A view of the building located on 700 East Walnut St., future home of the Micah Center, which will provide the homeless with daytime shelter and resources for job training. (Sam Lucero | The Compass)

A press conference and tour of the new facility, located at 700 East Walnut St., seven blocks from St. John’s homeless shelter, was held Wednesday morning. In an interview before the press conference, Deacon Timothy Reilly, president of the shelter’s board of directors, said the Micah Center will not only offer a place for homeless men and women to seek shelter during the day, it will also provide assistance in finding jobs.

“This is to really address the need for what people call a day shelter,” said Deacon Reilly, “but I wouldn’t call this a day shelter … because the purpose is not just to have a place for people to go in for shelter. It’s a ministry to help people toward self-sufficiency.”

Unlike St. John’s, a nightly emergency shelter that operates from November through April, the Micah Center will be open year-round, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Deacon Reilly explained that the Micah Center will be part of St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter Corporation, but will serve all homeless people seeking job training.

“Our ministry is not confined to people who stay at St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter. It’s a complementary, but separate ministry,” he said. “Anybody who walks through the door is going to be welcome and, if they are in need of help toward self-sufficiency and not able to get that from other agencies in the community, we want to be there or we want to help direct them to the right agencies.”

He stressed that the center does not want to duplicate the services of other local agencies.

According to Deacon Reilly, the shelter has received gifts from supporters exceeding 50 percent of the building’s cost. “So we are grateful for that support and hoping that there might be some more gifts that might be coming our way,” he said.

The Micah Center will be operated by the St. John staff. “Alexia Wood will be executive director of both programs and will have a staff that will assist her at both locations.”

Deacon Reilly said he anticipates one new full-time and two part-time employees hired to help operate the Micah Center. He explained that some of the programs now operating out of St. John’s “after 5 p.m. but before 8:30 or 9 p.m.,” will move to the Micah Center, making it more conducive for employees’ schedules and productivity.

He is not sure how many people will take advantage of the program. “That’s in the hands of God in terms of the number of people who will come through the door.” A push for new volunteers — “especially for those who want to help in the homeless effort but are not good at doing overnight or evening work” — will also be underway.

Plans for a daytime shelter date back nearly two years, when a homeless task force was formed by the city in December 2012. On two occasions, September 2013 and March 2014, the task force (Homelessness Obligates Planning Efforts, HOPE) announced sites for a daytime shelter, but both times the agreements fell through.

Last May, Deacon Reilly, Mike Westenberg, chair of the St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter board of trustees, and Tony Pichler, a member of the board of trustees, began discussing the idea of a daytime shelter.

“We were of the same opinion and the thought occurred to us that we should go out and buy a place and (the shelter) would be guaranteed of a lease,” said Deacon Reilly.

They found the Walnut Street property and believed it suited the shelter’s needs. “We talked to the other board members, directors and Bishop (David) Ricken and everybody agreed that we should go ahead and purchase this building.”

Announcement of the Micah Center was not made public until after the property purchase was complete. Deacon Reilly noted that the center is a ministry of the Catholic Church and “no permission is needed to undertake this ministry.”

Half of the 8,000-square-foot building currently houses the offices of two dentists. “We will be meeting with them and hopefully continue that association,” Deacon Reilly said.

He explained that the center’s name fits in perfectly with its mission.

“We chose the name Micah Center because of what we read in chapter 6, verse 8: ‘To act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God,’” said Deacon Reilly.

“We see the face of God on the people coming through the door,” he said. “So that’s walking humbly with God. We are loving tenderly by providing a shelter, where they can relax or feel safe and secure. We are acting justly because our intent — and the challenge we have for the folks who will come and visit and be part of the Micah Center — is that while you are there, you need to be productive.”

To assure productivity, the center will provide job training. “We will have an area where people can work on getting a job, doing the things necessary to put themselves in a position to get a job,” said Deacon Reilly. “We will also have a reading room, a room for group meetings and offices for case management. We want to make sure that we are helping them move towards self-sufficiency.”

The center will also feature a lounge and recreation room.

“It’s really a life-giving project for the church. It’s life giving to have this qualified, capable group of people who have been working with their homeless brothers and sisters for a period of time,” said Deacon Reilly.

He said the time is right for the daytime shelter.

“If you would have asked me three, four, five years ago if we had the resources, I would have said no and I always resisted that,” he said. “We weren’t far enough along in terms of maturity as an organization, as an emergency temporary shelter, to also be taking on a second program. But now we are far enough along that I’m very comfortable we’ll be able to move ahead and do both of the ministries.

“We can now move it to the next step that’s really needed and we can do it well and professionally and we have the financial resources to do it,” added Deacon Reilly. “People have seen the need for the support of the homeless shelter and they’ve contributed to make sure we would have a balanced budget every year. We feel confident that we can move ahead and continue to have a balanced budget.”

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