MAN ON A MISSION
He helps homeless people restart their lives in Washington, Pa.
The City Mission in Washington, Pa., doesn’t look like a mission, with its handsome dark-red building-strimmed in white. Across the street, inmates from the Washington County Jail hang out on a fenced-in balcony and look down at the hub of activity. Some of those inmates will make their way to the mission after their release.
The Christian-based homeless shelter bustles with men, women and families — temporary residents — working through therapy, on educational certifications, job searches, spiritual journeys, recovery from addiction and mental health issues.
Almost 70% of the homeless people who stay there 90 days or more find employment, housing, or secure disability status, said Dean Gartland, the mission’s recently retired president/CEO and now president emeritus.
Those staying less than 90 days have a 51% success rate of independence.
“I wish we had a 100% success rate,” Gartland said.
The Canonsburg resident has spent his career moving the needle: The mission’s success rate 15 years ago for people who stayed 90 days or more was about 36%. For stays less than 90days, it was 20%, he said. There are hard realities. Not everybody is employable. Some have severe mental health issues and they need help in securing disability benefits, Gartland said. The mission assists them with securing those benefits.
Light of Gartland’s life
Everything changed in Gartland’s life when he moved to Pittsburgh from his hometown of Johnstown and became a truck driver. He volunteered in the soup kitchen of the Light of Life Rescue Mission on Pittsburgh’s North Side and decided to follow Christ.
He worked various jobs, including truck driving, at Light of Life, where his brother was executive director.
“I ended up staying because I felt it was a calling in my life to serve the homeless and the poor,” Gartland said.
He quit his truck driving to take a job at Light of Life, checking in on residents at night.
He met his wife, Susan, at a baptism at the YMCA in 1975 that was sponsored by a church affiliated with the rescue.
“When I saw her there, her eyes sparkled,” he said.
His wife remembered the moment. “It was probably from the chlorine,” she said
When the couple married in the Light of Life’s chapel, some of the residents attended.
He was inspired to go to college to advance his work.
“Many of the homeless problems are deep-seated and chronic,” he said.
“We weren’t helping them to the best of our ability. I had to do something to educate myself to help people and better address their problems.”
He noted that many homeless people suffer from trauma.
“When you experience pain, you want to withdraw and many deal with trauma from abuse,” Gartland said. “They drink, use drugs, and get involvedin other things to change
theway they feel, which leads themdown a dark path.”
To do more, he needed academic credentials.
Gartland started college at 30 to earn an associate degree in social work from Community College of Allegheny County, then attended night classes at Geneva College to earn a bachelor’s degree in human resources.
He advanced from truck driver to case manager to program manager to director of programs for Light of Life, spending28 years there.
‘Where I needed to be’
He left after his brother Duane, then executive director of Light of Life, died in 2008. There was no prospect for him to move up to the executive director position.
Gartland was tapped by the City Mission as their director of programs.
“I got here and just knew this is where I needed to be,” he said. “I felt assurance and confidence inside.”
In 2009, he was promoted to vice president and director of programs and worked as an interim CEO. He served as CEO and president from 2010 to March 1, 2024.
But before he made his final career move, a Mission official told him he needed a master’s degree to move up.
To school he went, again, and at the age of 55, Gartland completed his master’s degree in organizational studies at Robert Morris University in 2010.
Gartland’s dream was to run mission services for the homeless. When he first arrived at the City Mission, it was with measured results.
“Access to the buildings was like Swiss cheese,” he said.
People were coming and going and the men’s shelter was crowded. He told the Mission’s board he wanted to start a capital campaign to raise money for more and better shelter facilities.
“I was told Washington County was not a wealthy county and that it would be hard,” he said.
Nevertheless, Gartland launched the mission’s capital campaign in 2012 to expand the men’s shelter and serve homeless veterans.
“We had been tracking vetsand found we really were not effective with them,” he said. “They stayed and then packedup and left.”
In 2015, a fire destroyed the men’s shelter building, which housed the kitchen, dining room, medical clinic, men’s dorms,and other facilities.
The destruction gave Gartland a blank canvas to build new facilities.
“It turned into a blessing,” he said. “We were able to design and create an educational space, which we didn’t have before and expand the kitchen and dining room three to four times its previous size.”
Gartland’s ambitious rebuilding program was like a phoenix rising from the ashes, said Michael Crabtree, professor of psychology at Washington & Jefferson College, vice-chairman of the Mission’s board.
The fire displaced 56 homeless men, and the following year in 2016, the newly expanded men’s shelter increased available beds from 59 to 96.
Gartland secured federal funding, foundation grants and donations to pay for the men’sand veterans’ shelters.
The vet’s facility opened in 2018. Then the women and children’s shelter needed renovation.
“They came in whatever rooms we had and they had to share a bathroom. That was rough for women and kids,” Gartland said.
So he secured federal grants for 11 new women and children’s suites with bathroomsand small kitchens.
Space for homeless single women, the last piece of expansion at the mission, is another issue. With only 14 beds, the mission regularly turns away 40-60 single women a month, Gartland said.
The mission has raised more than $5 million for a new $6.4 million building to better house them. The groundbreaking is scheduled for May.
Changemaker
Gartland’s success is attributable to his analytical abilities and passion to do more for the homeless than offer “three hots (meals) and a cot,” Crabtree said.
“He rehabilitates them. This isn’t just about housing people. It’s about changing lives.”
To that end, the mission addresses and measures a homeless person’s ability to navigate housing, employment, income, recovery and spirituality.
Defining itself as a “rehabilitative shelter,” the City Mission today is a complex of seven buildings offering temporary housing, a small medical clinic, group counseling rooms, a gym, a large industrial kitchen and educational and career training and assistance in securing birth certificates and driver’s licenses and other services.
Gartland developed a system to measure recoveries from drug and alcohol addiction as well as mental health, medical and legal issues.
Small problems accrue and snowball for the homeless, he said. “We have some people with 60 or so unpaid parking tickets with warrants out for their arrest.”
Homeless people are no different from anybody else, Gartland insisted. But they have problems and lost their support systems.
“Most of the homeless who walk through our doors have tried to figure things out on their own and that usually doesn’t work,” Gartland said.
When staff counselors and case managers provide guidance, residents don’t trust them at first.
“One of the first things we have to do is build trust so they will listen,” Gartland said.
New arrivals receive a medical exam. The mission helps them find medical insurance, schedule doctor visits, manage medications and even assists with transportation to medical appointments.
Word has gotten around among the homeless community in Pittsburgh, who make up about 20% of intakes, Gartland said. They find their way there, most times by walking.
Patrick’s story
A homeless Crafton native walked an estimated 70 miles fromAliquippa to a Washington County drug treatment center and the City Mission severalyears ago.
Patrick, 42, a veteran who declined to provide his last name, said, “I didn’t really follow the program. I hurried up and got a job and an apartment.”
He stayed sober for 11 months and stopped going to support meetings.
He admitted he has had addiction issues since he was young and has been mostly homeless for the last several years.
“I thought I could do life on my own,” Patrick said. But it didn’t work out.
After he ended up at the Washington County Jail for violating a protection from abuse order last year, he saw Brad Nelson, the mission’s manager of veteran services visiting the jail.
“I was so happy to see Brad and was hoping they would welcome me back,” Patrick said. “He gave me a hug and all I had to do was cross the street.”
This time, he promised he would stay sober, get a sponsor and work with the 12step, self-help group.
“Brad and Dean saw me doing the right thing for four months,” he said.
One day, Gartland gave him the key to the CrabtreeKovacicek Veterans House at the mission.
“It was the best day of my life,” Patrick said. “It’s really nice there and I have my own bedroom. When you do the right things, you do get good results.”
Besides aiding in addiction recovery, Mission staff also helped Patrick secure his birth certificate, his social security card and his driver’s license renewal. They also helped him find employment.
He now holds a full-time job in a warehouse and continues to stay at the veteran house.
“Down the road,” he said. “I want to get housing one day and save up to get a car.”