Amanda is one of our guests that we have been helping for nearly 10 years. She has been through many struggles with her four children but she has been able to persevere with your support. “The Open Shelter has helped me in many different ways. Help with Christmas, clothing, food; anything I have ever needed.”
Amanda (3rd from left), with her son Jeremiah, Open Shelter Director Sheli Mathias, and daughter Annie
In April of this year, Amanda and her four children were evicted from their home and faced having to go to the Van Buren shelter. Unfortunately, upon arriving at Van Buren, she was taken aback by what she saw, “The facility was horrible, they put all of the autistic kids in a big open room. My son, Jeremiah, when he gets angry, he hits. If your kid hits someone’s baby, that’s an automatic fight. That’s not safe for either party.”
“When we got there, it was so disgusting. The facility was very dirty. Our county jail is cleaner. I would rather have, in that moment, taken my kids to Jackson Pike and been on lockdown than been there with kids.” She saw feces on the bathroom floor, the cafeteria was filthy, and toilet paper and food littered the floors, which is where her children had to sleep for their first five nights there.
Amanda’s children, ages 7, 9, 13 and 18, all slept on small cots on the floor meant for toddlers to use at day care. She said she slept on plastic furniture for nearly a week before the family was moved into a room. Knowing something had to be done, she relied on the trust she had built with Open Shelter Director Sheli Mathias and Director of Guest Services, Sarah Hatchard. “Sheli and Sarah emailed their contacts to take care of the situation there.”
Sheli and Sarah passed on their concerns to the Community Shelter Board, which owns the Van Buren shelter and the City of Columbus homeless advocacy liasion. “When you first get to Van Buren, if you need something, you’re supposed to ask a staff member. There’s no way you are going to remember to ask. The only thing you are worried about in that moment is how you got there.”, Amanda shared. “My goal is to find housing and to get my kids our of Van Buren. But I also feel bad for the people I am leaving behind.”
Amanda wrote a letter with 25 items she believes should and could be addressed at the shelter, most with possible solutions that would make living conditions there better for the families forced to stay, she said.
Sheli shared about how The Open Shelter has helped Amanda with her current situation. “What The Open Shelter has provided for Amanda is advocacy, service, and support. The Open Shelter has heard, over the course of three years, how inhumane the conditions are at Van Buren. Amanda kind of blew us away when she came in and told us about her experiences at Van Buren. She was so solutions oriented. She wasn’t trying to pinpoint people or get people fired. She knew that there is a need for the family shelter and people need to be able to go in there and be treated like human beings. I think they can do it. We asked Amanda, ‘how can we support you?’, and that is what we have done.”
“I have known Amanda for the full 10 years I have been here. She has a servant’s heart. We have often said, if she doesn’t work in the service provider field, that would be a crime. It doesn’t surprise me that she went into the situation at Van Buren and saw there are possible solutions. She is very much thinking of other people and not herself. She knows what she can manage, she knows what she can handle. She has four amazing children that she has single handedly taken care of well. They are good, well-rounded kids.”
— Open Shelter Director Sheli Mathias
Sheli summed it up with this– “The Open Shelter’s funding is grassroots. So, we feel extra empowered to speak up when we see something that isn’t the best. We have guests that come in and share their unpleasant experiences at Van Buren specifically, and we have tried to have those conversations with people at Van Buren or the Community Shelter Board, and no ones seems particularly interested or receptive. When you hear the same complaints over three years, you think to yourself, ‘we have to do better’.”
YOUR SUPPORT ALLOWS US TO AID GUESTS LIKE AMANDA. CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Thanks to Danae King & Courtney Hergesheimer for allowing us to use pieces and images from their Dispatch article about Amanda.