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City homeless shelter will soon lose its home
YSU plans to take ownership of the church and parking lot in mid-May.
YOUNGSTOWN — An agency that helps the homeless will soon find itself homeless.
The Greater Youngstown Point is being asked to leave its home in the basement of a Wick Avenue church no later than next month.
The Point is among the last places in Youngstown to provide daytime assistance and shelter for the homeless.
The agency relocated in 2004 to the basement of the 87-year-old Pilgrim Collegiate Church, 233 Wick Ave.
Faith Community Church owns the building and leases it to New Beginnings Outreach Ministries.
New Beginnings subleases the basement to the Point. The Point had been at two other locations, not in the downtown area, between 1992 and 2004.
Because of expensive gas bills at the church, as high as $4,000 a month, New Beginnings asked the Point to move out some time in May.
The Point pays $1,500 a month in rent.
The lease of the homeless daytime shelter expired in December.
New Beginnings wanted to buy the church, said Melvin Trent, its pastor, but couldn’t because “I’ve been spending all my money on gas.”
Michael A. James, the Point’s executive director, said he’s told Trent that the gas doesn’t need to be on often.
“It’s boiling down here,” he said. “This basement holds heat for a week if the gas is on just a few hours two days a week. I’ve told him to just turn the boiler off.”
If it does get cold, James said his agency uses space heaters.
Youngstown State University is buying the church and its parking lot for $315,000 and plans to spend $500,000 to improve the property.
The purchase is subject to approval by the state Controlling Board. That could come as early as April 21, said Ron Cole, a YSU spokesman.
If that happens, YSU would take ownership of the property by mid-May, he said.
New Beginnings uses the church sanctuary twice a week and likely will remain a tenant.
But that’s not the case for the Point. Trent wants the agency out of the church sometime next month.
“I’ve been very patient,” he said.
Trent said the Point is close to finding a new location.
James said that’s not correct.
Though the agency has looked at other locations and desperately wants to remain in the downtown area, a move isn’t imminent, James said.
“There hasn’t been much success” in finding a new home, he said. “We’d love to stay here. It’s ideal for what we do, and the location is great.”
The possibility exists that the facility could disappear.
“It’s vital to the homeless community,” James said. “What will happen to those people? Where are they going to go?”
The agency provides services to about 400 people annually with about 25 to 35 at the center a day.
The facility provides a wide range of services to the homeless including shelter, clothing, food, case management, employment and housing assistance, and outreach to former prison inmates trying to get back on their feet.
Bryant Battle was released from prison about a year ago after spending six years there for an aggravated-robbery conviction.
James visited Battle before he was released and urged him to come to the Point for help when he got out.
“I thought it was a joke,” Battle said. “I thought he couldn’t help me, but he backed it up. A lot of people say they’ll help you and a lot of them only help themselves. I thought, ‘This dude can’t do nothing for me.’ But he did.”
Battle needed a place to stay, so James helped find him temporary housing. James also helped Battle get a job. Battle currently remodels houses and is working toward opening a neighborhood convenience store.
“I don’t know what I would have done” without help from the Point, Battle said. “I might have backslid and gone back to what I used to do.”
Battle visits the Point from time to time because “you don’t forget when people do good for you.”
skolnick@vindy.com