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Yard care, financial streams help shelter fight homelessness

News Photo by Julie Riddle Darian Williams, employee of Sunrise Mission Lawn Care, cuts grass at MediLodge of Green View in Alpena on Thursday.

ALPENA — In Alpena, a neatly trimmed lawn could help a homeless person find a home.

For several years, workers employed by the Sunrise Mission in Alpena have cut, sprayed, whacked, and tidied local lawns, their work contributing needed income to the area’s only homeless shelter.

Some employees of the mission’s lawn care service also live at the shelter. Others live elsewhere in the community, and all of them stay busy making local homes and several corporate employers look good, said Barbara Mathern, the mission’s director.

Business profits, after employee pay and other expenses, go right back into the shelter, Mathern said.

With utility bills to pay and residents to keep warm and safe, the lawn care business and other recent efforts to increase the shelter’s funding help the shelter reduce the number of people living in tents or sleeping in their cars, the director said.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Kyle Smith, employee of Sunrise Mission Lawn Care, cuts grass at MediLodge of Green View in Alpena on Thursday.

The Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency reports more than 100 people currently experiencing homeless in the agency’s 11-county service area.

An affordable housing shortage means even those able to pay rent may not have a place to stay — and, with cold weather rapidly approaching, every effort to get people into some kind of shelter is crucial, she said, explaining the mission’s urgency in staying financially strong.

“We’ve got our finger in the dam,” Mathern said of the shelter. “And we’re just praying we can do something to help.”

The mission’s lawn care program gained steam locally since starting in 2019.

“Our summer was slammed,” Mathern said — and the winter ahead should be busy, as well, with customers showing interest in snow removal services.

After it made up for startup expenses the first few years of operation, Mathern expects the lawn care business to provide a good income stream, helped by lawn care contracts with Alpena Public Schools and other businesses.

With the help of a recently hired fundraising assistant, the mission recently got an eBay store up and running, currently offering new coats and soon to offer vintage toys, funky kitchenware, and other desirable donated items, Mathern said.

A harvest festival at AJ’s Berry Farm on Friday, featuring live music, bratwurst, and an auction, will serve as a fundraiser for the mission, following on the heels of a flea market this summer in Alpena.

The mission owns several Alpena buildings where six apartments house renters. Mathern said she would like to renovate more buildings into apartments, but construction costs keep that out of reach for now.

Costs run high for maintaining the mission, on Chisholm Street, as well, she said.

“We have 100-year-old plumbing systems. Hundred-year-old infrastructure,” Mathern said, detailing the rising utility costs and extra insurance coverage that make operating the building a financial challenge.

Housing many families, including adults and children, in its 30-some beds, the mission needs exponentially more household supplies than an ordinary home.

“We don’t use two rolls of paper towels a week,” Mathern said. “We use 25.”

The community supports the mission with donations when called upon, but more is always needed, she said.

When new residents arrive, Mathern tells them the mission is not like other homeless shelters they may have encountered.

The residents don’t have to leave during the day, but Mathern expects them to look for a home and, if they’re able to work, for a job during the 90 days they’re allowed to stay.

“I tell them, ‘I’m not going to work harder than you do,'” she said. “‘But I’m going to walk alongside you.'”

The mission’s goal is to not just to provide beds but to help people make lasting changes that will benefit not only the resident but also the community, Mathern said.

Space limitations, financial resources, and state laws keep the shelter from accepting some people who ask for housing, but even those she can’t house can get a blanket or a hot bowl of soup and help finding other options, though few exist, she said.

Her wish list for Alpena includes the creation of an emergency shelter, where anyone, with no restrictions, could get a hot supper and a cot overnight.

Only a handful of people would truly need such a shelter, Mathern thinks, but, “when you need it, you need it,” she said.

“We’re just a little house in a little town,” Mathern said, acknowledging the mission’s limits but wishing it could do more. “If I had my way, as a mama bear, I’d take care of everyone in need.”

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