The Talbot Interfaith Shelter (TIS) was formed in 2008 with a mission to give local families and individuals the resources and tools they need to rebuild their lives. They are supported by donations and partnerships with local government leaders and businesses to help fight homelessness in our community.
EEDC: How long have you been with TIS?
Julie Lowe (JL): I’ve been with TIS since the beginning, first on the steering committee and then on the board. I came on as part-time executive director in 2013. When we realized we would have a full-time shelter, I started full-time in October of this year because now we have two houses, and there are a lot more balls in the air.
EEDC: Tell us about these shelters.
JL: The first one we bought was a bed and breakfast, known as Easton’s Promise. We kept the name because we thought it was a perfect name for a homeless shelter. And then the second house we bought this past January is called Evelyn’s Place, named after our founder, who really started the conversations about homelessness back in 2008.
EEDC: How was it different before TIS purchased the shelters?
JL: We started as a rotating cold weather overnight shelter in churches. It was the easiest way to start since we were on a shoestring budget and didn’t need any special permits. However, our focus has always been on families, and there are restrictions in the churches. For instance, if they didn’t have a fire suppression sprinkler system, we could only have five unrelated people in the space overnight. So that was a huge challenge right from the get-go.
We almost immediately started looking for a central location. And it took until 2014 to find Easton’s Promise, which turned out to be turnkey, as far as how it was set up with the ensuite bathrooms with each bedroom.
Our challenge then was trying to get the community to understand how we were going to work and that it wouldn’t be a detriment to their property values. Eventually, the community was very supportive because they’d seen what we had done in keeping things safe and quiet. We want everyone to realize these are just people that have fallen on bad times. We’re not working with the chronically homeless people; we’re working with people who have had something that has caused them not to be able to put a roof over their family’s heads.
EEDC: How many people can each shelter hold?
JL: We have five bedrooms in Easton’s Promise, where we can house five families at a time, and the most we’ve had in there at a time is about 13. It all depends on the ratio of kids to adults, but about 13 is our limit there. Evelyn’s Place will house around ten singles, and this will be for five men and five women.
EEDC: How long do people typically stay?
JL: We don’t have a set limit. As long as folks are doing their chores, getting along, following the rules, and working on their plan, they can stay as long as they need to. We’ve had people stay up to two years, but that’s usually a situation with a single mom who has an infant who can’t get childcare. Many childcare places won’t take kids who aren’t at least two years old and potty trained. And to get social services assistance for childcare, the parent has to be working, so if you’re a single mom with an infant, how do you get a job?
EEDC: The pandemic must have put a whole spin on how you did business. How did you adapt, and what was most challenging about it?
JL: Like everyone else last year, the most challenging thing was fear of people possibly being infected with the virus and spreading it. However, we decided not to shut down or change what we do except to make sure that everybody was vaccinated once vaccinations were available. We were, of course, scrubbing the whole place down with alcohol, wearing masks, and doing all of the procedures that you can do to protect yourself from getting the virus.
We applied for PPP and other grants that the state and the federal government were offering, which were very helpful. And honestly, the community was so generous, thoughtful, and helpful, and we received more donations than usual. They also understood that we wanted to open a new house and expand our service area. So monetarily, it was a really good year for us, even though it was very challenging. But it shows me that the community we live in is thoughtful, generous, and just wants to help people.
EEDC: People talk about the homeless….
JL: We try not to use the term ‘the homeless’ since it engenders that stigma. Homelessness is not a condition; it’s a situation. We use the word ‘homeless’ or ‘homelessness,’ but not the homeless. Meaning that a person can be without a home, or they can be a homeless person, but they are still a person.
EEDC: Thanks for making us aware of that; it is so true. This brings up the next question and the point that people tend to define those who experience homelessness by their circumstances and the rough parts of their lives. So how does TIS work to bring dimension to this issue and the complex people that live with it?
JL: So we realize that each person’s situation is unique and different, and each person needs different things. The first thing everybody who comes to our door needs is shelter. That’s a given. But how they got to the point where they are and what they need to get out of this pit of poverty that they’ve ended up in is also important. Every situation is different. Some are health-related; for others, it’s income or budgeting-related. Some have lost their jobs. So first, we bring people in for an interview and see the family dynamics and try to understand what put them in the situation that they’re in. We then let them know the exact steps in the proper order that they need to do to access the services and entitlements that they can, first, and then to eventually wean themselves off of those things.
We look at not just the income, but their emotional stability, physical stability, how they’re working together with their children, the school, etc. Once we feel they’re stabilized and back to a point where they can function independently, if we have one available, we invite them into one of our ten transitional housing apartments.
EEDC: You want to talk about some of your partnerships?
JL: We have a very exciting new partnership we’ve been pursuing for many years with Habitat Choptank. They reached out to us because they had a house on Port Street that they could not sell in their program. And so we’re leasing that from them as one of our transitional houses. We have a pretty special family living there that we feel can achieve well enough to get into the Habitat program and eventually become homeowners.
We work and share resources with all the other shelters in the five-county region, and if we don’t have a room, we reach out to them. We work very closely with the CoC (Continuum of Care) Roundtable on Homelessness. We have business partners in the community that support us, and we have businesses that prioritize the folks that we help find jobs for. We’re always looking for more landlords that have apartments for our transitional housing programs. That’s such a win/win program since we pay the landlord, so they are guaranteed their rent. We have vetted the tenants and can recommend them, and we work with them the whole time they’re in the apartment so that if anything is going a little awry, we can nip it in the bud. We always need apartments, and somewhere down the road, I can see an offshoot of Talbot Interfaith Shelter building an apartment building. It’s one of my lofty goals.
EEDC: How has this experience, working with homelessness, changed you?
JL: I’ve always felt like I’ve been a compassionate person, but my compassion has certainly developed. It’s also trained me to be more communicative and a little bit more questioning. Sometimes that feels kind of invasive, to be that involved, but we tell them from the beginning, ‘look, we are here to help you. You’ve got to let us help.’ That’s hard because typically, I’m not a person who gets into people’s business. But sometimes, you just have to sort of see things coming down the pike and preempt a crisis.
EEDC: How can people help?
JL: Well, I mean, there’s always the money thing since we’re constantly expanding our services. As soon as we see a need, we try to address the need, and that always takes more staff or just takes more money. People can also help by advocating for Talbot interfaith shelter. Advocacy is a very important piece.
Then we’re always looking for volunteers to help us during the day to be house-centered sitters. Before the pandemic, we had 400 volunteers on 31 teams, and those teams would each take a date of the month every month, and they’d answer the door, receive donations, answer the phone, and just help out with a meal. Before the pandemic, we also had those volunteers sitting down to dinner with our guests to get to know them and understand their challenges. We had to close that program during the pandemic, and we’re trying to build it back up. We have about half of those teams for one house, and now we’re about to open another house. Volunteers would be greatly appreciated.
One last thing, I wanted to thank EEDC for their support of our Home for the Holidays event and all the businesses who are participating in our Christmas Decorating Contest.
If people want to know more, they can contact me at 410-310-2316 or go to our website at https://talbotinterfaithshelter.org.
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