Shelter offers social services, respect
The new Faith Mission homeless shelter held an open house Tuesday, giving the public a look inside the freshly renovated building that soon will fill with dozens of the city’s neediest residents. Its location next to the agency’s health center and soup kitchen create something of a shelter-and-social-service campus along North Grant Avenue.
“Hopefully, this makes it easier for clients,” said Faith Mission Executive Director Sue Villilo.
Downtown residents and businesses are welcoming of the mission footprint, she said. “They’ve been lovely. And we know we can be a labor to love.”
Completion of the 178-bed shelter pulls together operations that began shifting about five years ago with an unusual property swap.
Faith traded its longtime headquarters, a historic church at 315 E. Long Street, to the Edwards Cos. developers in exchange for a nearby warehouse at 245 N. Grant Ave. that had more space for the community kitchen, offices and clinics.
Initial plans called for keeping the men’s shelter on North 6th Street and the women’s shelter at 325 E. Long St. But apartment developers’ continued interest in the area, combined with the availability of a former printing business at 217 N. Grant Ave., led Faith to move the shelters there under one roof, next to the kitchen and health-center building.
The new space and amenities were designed to convey respect and to help homeless men and women maintain their dignity, said Jennifer Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Lutheran Social Services’ Network of Hope. Faith Mission is a part of the network.
“Everyone has a little bit of privacy,” Hamilton said of the new dormitories. “Everybody’s cube has an electrical outlet, a place to plug in their phone.”
There are dorms for homeless veterans, day rooms for social activities and an employment-resources center with 20 computers. Job and health services are open to non-shelter residents, as is the soup kitchen.
“It’s bigger, it’s cleaner. It’s just much nicer,” said Michelle Hilyard, who recently moved from the old women’s shelter to the new building. Men are scheduled to move into their separate shelter next week.
Hilyard, 44, said she’s been at Faith for a little more than a month. The kindness shown has all but overwhelmed her.
“I didn’t think I deserved it,” she said.
Hilyard spent five years in prison after she and her husband were convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting two of their 10 children. By the time the charges were filed in southeastern Ohio’s Vinton County, where the Columbus couple had briefly lived, Hilyard also had endured years of physical and sexual abuse by family members. She had untreated mental illness, disabilities and was just 7 years old the first time she tried to take her own life.
“When I came here, I had no clothes, nothing,” Hilyard said of the shelter. “I’m blessed.”
She now has support from a local church, works a few days a week and is trying to find an apartment. She said her husband, James Hilyard, died after he was released from prison. All 12 of her children have been adopted by other families.
Many of the men and women who come to Faith Mission have histories that make it hard for them to find acceptance, Villilo said.
“The reality is that we serve a very diverse population here,” Villilo said. “And we believe that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, and to get the resources they need to rebuild their lives.”
The University of Toledo is offering about 500 eligible employees a chance to leave their jobs with a buyout in an effort to save money by shrinking the work force.
The University of Toledo is set to offer a buyout to some employees in an effort to reduce long-term costs.
UT announced the “voluntary separation program” Tuesday to faculty and staff, who have until May 30 to submit an application.
Of the university’s 6,662 employees, about 230 faculty and 250 staff members are eligible for the program based on their years of service and age. It would require employees to quit their jobs June 30 in exchange for a payment equal to half their annual base salary.
The total cost of the incentives or the number of employees who might be given a buyout is unknown because there are so many variables, said Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Kelley.
“We don’t have a specific target that we have to hit,” he said.
Officials will review applications and make a decision about who and how many employees will leave the university under the program. UT doesn’t intend to hire people to fill the vacant positions, thus leading to long-term savings.
UT has been looking for ways to trim costs as it anticipates a tight 2018 fiscal budget, which must be approved by the end of June.
The governor’s state budget proposal calls for a 1 percent increase next year in state support to the university, but
An 8-yearold EAST PALESTINE — boy, with his 4-year-old sister riding along, took his parents’ van to a nearby McDonald’s after getting a craving for a cheeseburger, reports say.
Most remarkable, the boy used videos on YouTube to learn how to drive the vehicle and obeyed all traffic laws during his half-mile trip on Sunday, East Palestine police tell the Morning Journal.
Witnesses tell police the boy stopped at red lights, obeyed the speed limit and waited for traffic to pass before making a left turn into the McDonald’s, arriving at about 8 p.m., WFMJ. com reports.
Workers at the restaurant would freeze tuition for two years. A proposal to require universities to pay for textbooks in the state budget’s second year would cost the university more than $13.5 million annually.
Kelley said the university anticipates some enrollment growth next fall and said it was too early to estimate the amount of a potential budget shortfall.
Bob Hull, president of Communication Workers of America Local 4319, said 158 of the union’s roughly 600 university members qualify for the program. The union’s members work in custodial, secretarial, maintenance, and skilled trade areas, and their average hourly wage is $22 an hour, he said.
An early count estimates that 80 to 90 members are interested in the offer, he said.
Hall said the union, which is negotiating a contract to follow one that expired at the end of last year, questioned how UT will pay for the buyouts.
He said university officials have expressed concern and uncertainty about the state budget and have been “crying that they are poor.”
He’s also worried about how it will affect the workloads of those who stay, since the university doesn’t plan to replace employees who quit.
Kelley said UT will consider teaching demands first when deciding who will be given the incentive.
University leaders told the Faculty Senate that “providing the appropriate faculty resources is a priority,” said the group’s president Mary Humphrys.
That’s a key concern to faculty, who don’t want to see any particular academic area or department be decimated by departures.
Humphrys said faculty expect to be involved in such decisions. thought they were victims of a prank when the boy placed his order at the drive-thru, according to the Morning Journal.
“The workers thought that the parents were in the back, but obviously they weren’t,” East Palestine patrolman Jacob Koehler said. The parents of the children were asleep at their home, reports say.
Koehler tells the Morning Journal he was impressed by the boy’s driving ability, saying he feared getting reports of damaged mailboxes or other problems.
The kids were able to get a cheeseburger, chicken nuggets and fries at McDonald’s as they waited for their grandparents to pick them up and take them to the police station. The parents then retrieved their kids from the station.
No charges were filed in the incident.