While Ypsilanti has hosted daytime warming centers for several years, this is the first winter the city will provide daytime and overnight shelter for homeless residents all week long. The Ypsilanti Freighthouse in Depot Town will offer daytime shelter services, while a rotating roster of churches (currently St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Ypsilanti) will provide overnight shelter. Advocates for those experiencing housing insecurity say that's a good first step, but there's a need for a more permanent shelter on the east side of Washtenaw County.

The city of Ypsilanti allocated $50,000 for services this winter, but local officials say a longer-term solution will take a great deal more money and the cooperation of multiple municipal governments in the county.

"The task at hand is so big"

Washtenaw County's only full-time year-round shelter is the Robert J. Delonis Center in Ann Arbor, which has over 70 beds. Washtenaw County also has a coalition of nonprofits called Barrier Busters, which works to prevent housing insecurity with rental and utility assistance and other services. Barrier Busters typically serves about 600 people over the course of a year.

Pamela Smith, human services program administrator for Washtenaw County, cautions that an entire "continuum of care" is needed, and there is no one solution to the problem of housing insecurity. The county and the Washtenaw Housing Alliance developed a Blueprint to End Homelessness that calls for a "whole system of care."

"It brings nonprofits, public health agencies, and everybody together to try to make sure we're providing the most comprehensive services we can afford with the finite resources available," Smith says.

However, in the midst of a presidential administration transition, Smith says nonprofits and government officials are all "feeling very cautious" about what that might mean for funding these types of projects.
Doug CoombeSaprina Morris' children having lunch at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse daytime warming center.
The situation is particularly dire on the east side of the county. Pastor Anna Taylor-McCants has been providing meals and other services like showers and laundry facilities to unhoused people through her FedUp and WashUp ministries. Taylor-McCants has been operating out of a trailer parked on the site of the outdoor Growing Hope Farmers MarketPlace at 16 S. Washington St. in downtown Ypsi.

She says she feels unfairly targeted by resident complaints that her services have been drawing people experiencing homelessness to the surrounding block of South Washington. There have been several incidents near the spot that required a public safety response.

Taylor-McCants says critics of her programs have the timeline wrong. Homeless people were camping out at that spot for years before her ministry arrived on the scene, she says. Taylor-McCants inquired with community members about where local homeless people spent their time, and that's how she ended up at the South Washington location.

Taylor-McCants says she's previously provided these services at Liberty Square in Ann Arbor and near the Ypsilanti Transit Center with no incident, and the Ann Arbor Police Department asked her to provide meals at Liberty Square.
Doug CoombeFedUp Executive Director Anna Taylor-McCants.
McCants says her job is to minister to people, and not to police them. While she will tell a troublemaker they have to leave for the day, she has no way to prevent illegal behavior. Taylor-McCants believes the easy availability of alcohol is far more of a problem than her meals or shower program. She heard from several clients that nearby liquor stores will let patrons run a tab.

"My jaw about dropped on the floor," she says. "Now I understand how you could sleep outside but have a brand new bottle of liquor every day."

Local churches like St. Luke's and several in Ann Arbor also provide a network of temporary shelters. But Lindsay Calka, editor of Groundcover News, the county's newspaper by and for unhoused people, says it's dicey to rely on these ad hoc arrangements.

"My personal view is that the state has failed in offering this service, and nonprofits and churches have picked up the slack for a while," Calka says. "But we're past the point of these entities being able to do that because the task at hand is so big."

Multi-faceted solutions

Advocates for people experiencing homeless caution that while the network of churches filling gaps in service is nice, it's not an ideal solution for all. Taylor-McCants says that some people experiencing homelessness may have religious or other personal objections to staying overnight in a church. There are practical considerations as well.

"When churches host a warming center, you need to budget at least one call to a plumber," she says. "Our churches are often old and falling apart, and they were not meant for 80 people to sleep and eat three meals a day there."

Smith says one of the best strategies is prevention, and Barrier Busters and the county's financial empowerment center try to be innovative in addressing people's needs. For example, someone living with a relative or neighbor might risk losing their housing if there's a fight over who is eating the food in the shared refrigerator.

"If you gave that family a gift card to help cover food, would the housing situation be more tenable?" Smith says. "We try to get creative and do whatever it takes to keep a family housed."
Doug CoombeSaprina Morris with her children Lizzianna, Deanna, Dontae, and Destiny at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse daytime warming center.
However, the people most affected — those living on the streets — have been attending city council and county commission meetings, asking for a permanent shelter, for years.

Advocate Jim Clark and an ad hoc group calling itself Shelter Now published a list of demands and potential solutions in Groundcover News. Their top request was a temporary but "dignified" shelter, followed by a request for a permanent solution, with housing-insecure communities having decision-making power, and even veto power, over the establishment of a permanent shelter.

Clark experienced homelessness himself in 2019 and is glad to see movement on one of Shelter Now's demands, to open the Freighthouse to serve the needs of the unhoused. However, the group's demand to end police "sweeps" of homeless encampments hasn't gotten any traction.
Doug CoombeTodd Crowley, Kieren Berres, and Maddy Tong of FedUp Ministries serving food at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse daytime warming center.
To expand on the demand for people most affected to have the biggest voice in solutions, Shelter Now is exploring funding and backing for a permanent location on the county's east side, possibly in Ypsilanti Township, Clark says. He feels current models run with county money are too restrictive in terms of operating hours, police presence, and harm reduction practices for substance use.

"Not to mention, the people we'd be helping, they know the most about what they need," Clark says. "It only makes sense for them to have the loudest voice in saying what should or should not happen there."

Clark says he supports the "hospitality house" model, which includes a residential home where unhoused people can meet, network, and get a meal. The most vulnerable can stay in a room overnight. 

"One thing we could use more of is those hospitality houses," he says. "If we had five to 10 more of them, I could see us achieving functional zero homelessness in Washtenaw County."
Doug CoombeLindsay Calka.
Calka says her mind boggles to think that, instead of having a coordinated governmental response to the issue of homelessness, she's seen volunteers posting on Instagram trying to hustle up warehouse space for the winter.

"There are buildings that could be used. We proved in COVID that the county can mobilize to provide spaces," Calka says. "There are lots of empty buildings that just sit there, but we don't have space for a shelter. Let's liberate those spaces."

Calka also notes that funding, especially during a national presidential transition, is going to be a sticking point. She's heard from the county and from individual municipalities that they're powerless because all political entities have to be on board, and that they can't do it alone.

"And then they'll also tell us they don't want to make big investments because 'We know it's a housing issue,' which is hilarious, because there's also no movement on affordable housing, either," Calka says. "All the community can do is build power and create pressure to make these things happen. I'd like to get some answers and really hear people in positions of power forced to answer why these things are not happening."

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

All photos by Doug Coombe.