H.E.L.P. is on the way

COEUR d'ALENE - Week after week, Jeff Conroy hears the same story from a man or woman who walks inside the doors of St. Vincent de Paul's H.E.L.P Center.

They lost their job, their spouse lost their job months ago, they're running out of money and they don't know what to do.

"We're seeing the middle class starting to come in more and more," said Conroy, St. Vincent's executive director. "It's the middle class, it's the voting public that's being affected."

The nonprofit in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday issued its annual report for 2009 that highlighted its successes and the challenges it's facing.

What jumps out in the nine-page report, Conroy said, are the statistics.

"I'm surprised by the sheer numbers," he said.

He recalled that before St. Vincent's opened its Helping Empower Local People Center in July, he was asked how many he thought they would see there.

About 100 a week, he answered.

Wrong.

"We're seeing three times that amount," Conroy said.

According to the report, St. Vincent's served 1,584 families in 2009, an increase of 570 percent over 2008.

"That's shocking," he said.

Last year, St. Vincent's helped 2,306 adults, up 65 percent, and 652 children, a 261 percent increase. The H.E.L.P Center serviced 1,155 in May, far higher than the 788 it saw in August. St. Vincent's rental assistance program kept 140 families in their homes.

Budget cutbacks at Health and Welfare have sent more people to the center at 201 E. Harrison.

"We're seeing a lot more chronically homeless with mental illness," Conroy said.

People turn to St. Vincent's for a multitude of reasons - joblessness, mounting debt, legal advice, no food, no clothes, no money, nowhere to go.

"It's never about one thing," Conroy said.

Two problems to overcome in North Idaho are "too many minimum wage jobs and not enough affordable hosing."

"Those are the two big things," he said. "It's a vicious circle."

Conroy has been visiting other Idaho cities, Boise, Nampa, Idaho Falls, and outlining what the H.E.L.P Center is about and how to start one.

It has brought together about 20 agencies under one roof "to streamline services to be more effective and efficient so many will get off the street fast or never even hit the street."

The Dirne Health Center, TESH, Project Safe Place, Legal Link and Child Care food Program are there.

Establishing such a center is not easy.

"Someone has to take point," Conroy said. "Someone has to step up and do it."

There are success stories, such as one outlined in a recent a letter.

Charles and Joyce, whose last name was not available, sent a letter, along with $25, to Conroy. The note recounted the loss of their construction business and then the loss of their home.

"On the brink of total homelessness, we discovered the H.E.L.P center," they wrote. "Albeit, feeling humiliated and desperate, less than human, the staff at the H.E.L.P center was kind, courteous and helpful, not treating one as if they are less than."

The letter said they "still struggle against the tide of this economy," but believe they will rebound.

"People helping people is at the heart of America and it is, with that spirit, that we all shall extinguish this epidemic, giving all families a chance at the American dream," the letter read.