Shalom center may face budget cuts

Perry Township Trustee Dan Combs is recommending that the Township discontinue $5,000 of funding to Shelter, Inc., currently allocated for the Shalom Center.\nThe Shalom Center is a center located in the basement of First United Methodist Church, 219 East Fourth St. in Bloomington, for day services for homeless people in the area. It provides such services as mail drop and pickup, phones, a place for 18 social service agencies to meet with clients, hot lunches and job counseling, said Donna Jaques, director of the Center.\n"There's no doubt this community needs it," Combs said. "But it's not our target for tax money."\nPerry Township trusteeship is an organization dedicated to poor relief issues and serving those who cannot provide for themselves, Combs said. The primary operation of Shelter, Inc. is the homeless shelter, and the Shalom Center is one of its support services.\n"People aren't allowed in the shelter from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.," Shalom Center volunteer Mark Reuter said. "The Shalom Center is the only place to go for these people other than the street. It's their contact to the outside world."\nCombs said in 1998, the Catholic Tri-Parish Committee for Social Justice approached Bloomington Township and Perry Township about funding for a day center for homeless individuals not in a shelter. Originally the center was to be staffed by the Tri-Parish committee and would allow people to take showers, get mail and use the phone. It was only to be used by those not using the shelter. Shelter Inc. would receive some office space at the center, so there would be a paid professional presence, but the center would be staffed by Tri-Parish volunteers.\nIn early 2000, four organizations were involved in the creation of the Shalom Center: Shelter, Inc., the Catholic Tri-Parish Committee, Bloomington Township and Perry Township. Shelter, Inc. and First United Methodist Church took over day-to-day operations of the project, and Bloomington and Perry Township were left out except to oversee finding the location for the center, Combs said.\nShelter, Inc., then announced that the first clients at Shalom would be those already using the Shelter at night. They requested $5,000 from Perry Township for a paid administrative position, which the township agreed to.\n"The mission statement had changed from serving the homeless not already served, to a center for the economically disenfranchised," Combs said.\nIn March, Shelter, Inc. announced a budget crisis due to a loss of funding from a variety of sources and said they were going to have to cut caseworker positions from the homeless shelter. \n"All sources of funding have been reduced for a lot of agencies," said Susan Dabkowski, Single Adult Program Manager at Shelter, Inc. "It's the general trend. A lot of agencies are struggling with increased need and decreased funding."\nCombs said the lack of funding left the group with some difficult decisions that had to be made. \n"We are faced with a choice between serving clientele who aren't served and those who already are," Combs said. "We were looking at lay-offs of homeless shelter staff, and you cannot have an unsupervised shelter."\nShirley St. John, chair of the Shalom Team; the group of individuals from different organizations who perform the daily management of the Shalom Center, explained the funding of the center. Daily operations come out of a mission offering by First United Methodist Church. Salaries are paid by Shelter, Inc., and the facilities are provided by the church.\n"A non-profit finds money wherever a non-profit can," St. John said.\nJennifer Lloyd, a board member of Shelter Inc., said Shelter, Inc. has been having discussions with United Methodist Church about alternative sources of funding for Shalom, but said she was not in a position to talk about them now.\n"Shalom fills an important role in the community and fills it well," Lloyd said. "There are no plans to close the Shalom Center."\nInstead of closing the Center, Combs has other suggestions that will make sure the group can still serve the community. \n"We are recommending that (Shalom) become (its) own agency," Combs said. "They can then approach anyone for money. It's a good, needed program, and it is capable of getting it's own funding.\n"The Shalom Center will survive"